NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Correlation between age, gender, nobleness, and leadership ability (was On incompetence and women)
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2006 Jul 21, 10:50 -0500
Renee Mattie wrote.
| I generally find George Huxtable's contributions to this list
| well-thought-out and logical. As I have been busy with other
things, I
| might have missed his recent posting on the subject of the Gipsy
Moth IV,
| had I this unusual and inflammatory subject line not surprised me.
Thank you for those kind words, Renee, even if that particular posting
raised your hackles.
However, that "unusual and inflammatory subject line", which I take to
be a reference to the strapline "On incompetence and women", was
coined, not by me, by by a later commentator. My original posting was
headed simply "gipsy moth IV".
This is what I wrote, as its last paragraph, in response to the
skipper's claim that the voyage's organisers had let her down by
failing to support her-
| It would be interesting to learn more, and no doubt it will all
emerge
| in the end, but to my mind it is only right that the skipper should
| carry the can. It reinforces my prejudice, that such
responsibilities
| should be given to grizzled old salts, and not to young ladies, no
| matter how many certificates they have collected; incorrect though
it
| may be to say so or even to think so.
That was written with the intention to tease and provoke, but of
course with the membership of our list being mainly male and
(presumably) non-young, this isn't the ideal readership for eliciting
dissent. I didn't claim to have based those opinions on reason or
statistical evidence, but admitted that it was simple prejudice. Most
of us have some such prejudices, even if they are seldom admitted to.
It's pleasing that others have defended the female sex and the young.
As Renee points out, it doesn't really help to point out anedotal
examples of presumed incompetence or the reverse, by age and sex.
Renee appears to think that the skipper in question, besides being
young and female, was a member of the British aristocracy. Not sure
what she has based that on, but not on anything I have written. If
true, that would have raised even more extreme prejudices, on my part.
Actually Nicholson is a well-known and respected surname in the
British yachting scene, Ian Nicholson being a well-known author and
designer of many fine craft, and Camper & Nicholson a famous
boatbuilding firm., to which (if I remember right) Gipsy Moth's refit
was entrusted. Whether Antonia Nicholson has any family-name
connection with those, I just don't know.
A smidgeon of additinal information was added by the (female) editor
of Practical Boat Owner, who writes "... a source close to Gipsy Moth
IV tells me that they had motored out of the lagoon inside the
80km-long Rangiroa reef, and were running parallel to the reef. Before
the disastrous grounding, the skipper (who has logged 50,000 miles and
is a Yachtmaster Instructor) and mate went below leaving only novice
children and their 'helper' on deck...." Do I really need to comment
further?
Maybe I am not quite the sexist bigot that I have portrayed myself to
be, however. Let me retell an experience from several years ago.
Apologies to those that have heard it before. It's another of those
anecdotes.
My wife Joan and I were sailing Westward, down the English Channel, a
few miles off the Westcountry coast. I had drawn a line on the chart
at the previous headland and given a course to steer. She has a
famously sharp eye (two, indeed) and detected a marker buoy, a bit off
the port bow. The following dialogue took place.
J. "What's that?",
Me. "Don't know, but there are no hazards for us out here."
She got out the ocular.
J. "It's an isolated danger mark, a cardinal keep-south-of-me."
Me. "Well, it'll be for big vessels, nothing to concern us."
Time passed. She went below and came up with the chart. There was a
rock marked right on my pencil line.
Me. "Oh, Udder Rock. Yes, I hadn't noticed that. It was exactly on the
fold-line of the chart. But don't worry, with our four-foot draught
it's no problem, except at dead low water."
She went below again, and returned with the tide tables. The cardinal
mark was closer by now.
J. "Is is dead low water. Springs"
At that point, a hasty change of course occurred.
It's not the only such event in our sailing career.
George.
contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com
To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2006 Jul 21, 10:50 -0500
Renee Mattie wrote.
| I generally find George Huxtable's contributions to this list
| well-thought-out and logical. As I have been busy with other
things, I
| might have missed his recent posting on the subject of the Gipsy
Moth IV,
| had I this unusual and inflammatory subject line not surprised me.
Thank you for those kind words, Renee, even if that particular posting
raised your hackles.
However, that "unusual and inflammatory subject line", which I take to
be a reference to the strapline "On incompetence and women", was
coined, not by me, by by a later commentator. My original posting was
headed simply "gipsy moth IV".
This is what I wrote, as its last paragraph, in response to the
skipper's claim that the voyage's organisers had let her down by
failing to support her-
| It would be interesting to learn more, and no doubt it will all
emerge
| in the end, but to my mind it is only right that the skipper should
| carry the can. It reinforces my prejudice, that such
responsibilities
| should be given to grizzled old salts, and not to young ladies, no
| matter how many certificates they have collected; incorrect though
it
| may be to say so or even to think so.
That was written with the intention to tease and provoke, but of
course with the membership of our list being mainly male and
(presumably) non-young, this isn't the ideal readership for eliciting
dissent. I didn't claim to have based those opinions on reason or
statistical evidence, but admitted that it was simple prejudice. Most
of us have some such prejudices, even if they are seldom admitted to.
It's pleasing that others have defended the female sex and the young.
As Renee points out, it doesn't really help to point out anedotal
examples of presumed incompetence or the reverse, by age and sex.
Renee appears to think that the skipper in question, besides being
young and female, was a member of the British aristocracy. Not sure
what she has based that on, but not on anything I have written. If
true, that would have raised even more extreme prejudices, on my part.
Actually Nicholson is a well-known and respected surname in the
British yachting scene, Ian Nicholson being a well-known author and
designer of many fine craft, and Camper & Nicholson a famous
boatbuilding firm., to which (if I remember right) Gipsy Moth's refit
was entrusted. Whether Antonia Nicholson has any family-name
connection with those, I just don't know.
A smidgeon of additinal information was added by the (female) editor
of Practical Boat Owner, who writes "... a source close to Gipsy Moth
IV tells me that they had motored out of the lagoon inside the
80km-long Rangiroa reef, and were running parallel to the reef. Before
the disastrous grounding, the skipper (who has logged 50,000 miles and
is a Yachtmaster Instructor) and mate went below leaving only novice
children and their 'helper' on deck...." Do I really need to comment
further?
Maybe I am not quite the sexist bigot that I have portrayed myself to
be, however. Let me retell an experience from several years ago.
Apologies to those that have heard it before. It's another of those
anecdotes.
My wife Joan and I were sailing Westward, down the English Channel, a
few miles off the Westcountry coast. I had drawn a line on the chart
at the previous headland and given a course to steer. She has a
famously sharp eye (two, indeed) and detected a marker buoy, a bit off
the port bow. The following dialogue took place.
J. "What's that?",
Me. "Don't know, but there are no hazards for us out here."
She got out the ocular.
J. "It's an isolated danger mark, a cardinal keep-south-of-me."
Me. "Well, it'll be for big vessels, nothing to concern us."
Time passed. She went below and came up with the chart. There was a
rock marked right on my pencil line.
Me. "Oh, Udder Rock. Yes, I hadn't noticed that. It was exactly on the
fold-line of the chart. But don't worry, with our four-foot draught
it's no problem, except at dead low water."
She went below again, and returned with the tide tables. The cardinal
mark was closer by now.
J. "Is is dead low water. Springs"
At that point, a hasty change of course occurred.
It's not the only such event in our sailing career.
George.
contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com
To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
