I agree with you, it's not a black and white situation. I have respect for
the sea but too often,
questions about seaworthiness reflects a fear of the unknown.
I lost a few friends at sea, one very close and after that loss, for while,
I had a real but irrational fear of making any passage longer than 50 NM.
It's gone know but respect for the sea is still there.
My attitude is more of a "Inch'Allah" type: I do all what I can to have a
good boat and be well prepared, to a point and after that, I'll handle it as
it comes.
Your words: "quasi-mystical insight into the awesome power of the sea" are
exactly how I feel.

Respect for the sea doesn't mean that passive safety should be an
overwhelming priority in choosing a boat or a design, that's what I wanted
to say.

--
Jacques
http://www.bateau.com


"Peter Ward" wrote in message
...
Just to finish the story - the above-mentioned experience gave me a
quasi-mystical insight into the awesome power of the sea. For anyone
who's never heard the obscene shrieking of triple screws unsheathed
from the brine at full power for minutes at a time as a gargantuan
vessel pitches, rolls & yaws simultaneously to the extremes of the
envelope; followed by the thunderous explosion of a flat-face bow
smashing into a bottomless trough at thousands of tonnes mass ...then
loop the sequence for hours on end; it's probably difficult to conjure
just what horrors the sea can deliver I now understand why
coconuts-in-husk are probably the only *_truly seaworthy_* design.

However the 'takeaway' from all of the exceptionally good advice on
offer in this thread appears to be that 'seaworthiness is a
multi-dimensional challenge' & preparing for the worst involves
garnering a wide range of skills & resources ...including a first rate
liferaft & epirb.

If "fear of the sea" inspires one to take every precaution possible
right from the getgo, in order that others will not have to put their
lives at risk in order to extract one from what would otherwise be
one's watery grave; then surely its not such a bad thing?