"Roger Long" wrote in message
...

You didn't answer my question. Are you a pilot or just
spouting?

Come on, Roger. His arguments are valid whether he's a pilot or
not.

The consequences of error in aviation are so great that it is
vital to ensure that errors are very rare, and recoverable. That
means that all the people involved (not just the pilots) are well
trained, and flying is only conducted in conditions safe for the
particular aircraft, the particular pilot and the particular
airfield. For the system to work, every participant has to
understand sets of standard operating procedures, and sets of
emergency procedures. Hence licences.

Errors in sailing are much more frequent and have a much wider
variety of sources, many due to working with high forces and crude
machinery. But their consequences are relatively trivial. Yes,
cuts and bruises, maybe lost fingers. Yes, collisions, with other
craft and with the ground - but at such low energy levels that
catastophic outcomes are very rare. Yes, man overboard - but at
least that's only one of the crew gone, and with a good team, he's
recoverable.

In my opinion, most sailing risks arise from errors in operating
the machinery, rather than the sailing skills. Licencing isn't
likely to help this. First aid training might dig you out of the
hole afterwards.

Hey, flying on a nice day is a piece of cake.

But commercial flying doesn't always throw you a nice day.
Especially in northern latitudes.
--
JimB
http://www.jimbaerselman.f2s.com/
for opinions comparing Greek cruising areas