From the forums…
Let me defend older skippers everywhere. I race a 38 foot updated IOR boat. I have been racing since 1970. I have mobility problems but can get to the helm but not run around the boat. I am willing to teach younger crew members to sail. I hear on the docks that I yell at them Lets examine that. As we get ready to leave the dock, I am back at the helm and the crew is all over the boat. I am teaching. I have to say things like, “do not run the genoa sheets under the life lines and inside of the shrouds”. of course I could shut up and let them do that but things get messy in a hurry. I similarly try to tell them not to run the spinnaker sheets through the bow pulpit. Nasty result that one.
This constant instruction (please wrap the lines clockwise around the winch, both port and starboard. Oh, port is over here and starboard is over there.)
I had one young lady who assumed that she knew and understood far more than she did. I recall two outstanding moves she made. The first time when were sailing in about 20 knots of breeze and I asked her to ease the main sheet and she blew the main halyard. One experienced racer who was on the foredeck with her during another race told her she was going to kill someone. Her crowning moment came after a sail as we were heading in to the harbor. She was curling up spare lines. Suddenly the main boom started swaying wildly side to side. She had disconnected the main sheet and was stuffing it in the sheet bag on the cabin side.
My point is, I do not yell at the crew. I issue commands and instructions. Since the person I am talking to is often 35 feet away, I speak loudly rather than whisper.
I think the problem is the modern generation resent being told what to do by anyone.
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