Check your boat.

The famous sailing author, Eric Hiscock, wrote an article in which he explained his theory about boat maintenance like this.

Each boat has as credit bank. Each time something goes wrong onboard, whether you realise it or not (there must be near misses that the crew are not aware of occasionally), credits are withdrawn from the credit bank. If you run out of credits, the boat sinks!

There is no way to open the credit bank to see how many you have left. The only way to earn credits it to carry out seamanlike tasks. This means that each time you see a rope that need whipping, you deal with it, a navigation light that is unreliable is repaired, the engine and other systems are regularly checked.

There are thousands of items, which can be checked or repaired on a boat, each of these jobs earns credits in the bank.

The only way to remain safe is to keep putting credits in the bank by looking for ways to care for the vessel, because you never know when you will run out!

 

 

 

 

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