Skill or Luck?

[Trink]

http://boingboing.net/2010/11/08/dainish-sailors-make.html

A sailboat entering a harbor on an island in the Baltic during a serious storm. I've watched the video a dozen times and I'm still not sure if it was skill or luck. It does look like the skipper was positioning the boat so that the waves wouldn't push it into the breakwater.

[Charles]

Which ever it was, I bet they all needed new foulies!

[Grind4Beer]

Well ...

... If he'd run out of options other than surfing through that gap, I'd have to give him about 9.5 for technical merit and at least 11.2 for lucky bastard. It did sort of look like charging a hole in the J24 stbd-layline parade during heavy weather, except that the concrete very rarely tries to avoid collisions.

... It looks like a section of breakwater on the left side extends out a couple of boatlengths beyond and left of the gap, but its top is several feet lower. (It's exposed in some of the waves.) He barely misses that, and it looks like the eddy behind it slings him into the harbor. The wave preceding his entry had a surge just like the one he rode: over and around that outer limb of the breakwater then sloshing into the marina ...

... Either he scoped that out, and plowed it well enough, or he was damned lucky ...

G4B

[Big John]

Pure skill
Luck is what happens to the prepared.  Like one of the posters on the clip, I look at the reaction on board.  The person on the bow was nonchalantly rigging for tying up at the dock and there was no celebration on board.  Just another day at the pond.  And after all, he was under power... for all the good it would have done.  Magnificent.
J

[BJSailor]

It certainly is fun to watch.  For those of us who don't live in a location with a narrow breakwater opening or with weather like that, it sure looks like a wild ride.

I'm with John though.  Nobody on board is the least bit worked up - the guy stays on the bow for the duration and the crew is idly rigging for the tie-up once they shoot the gap.  Neither is the bloke standing on the breakwater to screen right the slightest concerned.  Probably not their first rodeo in these conditions at this location.  Besides, I'll bet that they had a bailout plan ready to execute - hard to port and bail with a following wave before the wall and then go back for another go at it (or something like that).  Sure, that boat caught a nice surf on the 4' rollers and probably had a few good surfs during their sail that day, but this boat has done this before (and in much worse conditions too, I'd guess).

Still, it looked like a hell of a ride though:-)

[Grind4Beer]

Yeah, based on the crew's poise, they were either old-hats or clueless about that entry ...

... The first time I saw the video, that low-lying bulkhead inside the entry (he leaves it to stbd) was a surprise, obviously he knew it was there. And just before he clears the outer structure, the boat wallows a hard roll to port in a wave. That looked like the chanciest bit, but once he'd gotten into the eddy with a wave behind him, as long as he had enough thrust and steerage to anticipate the surge, it was all his to make a go of it ...

... Heck of a ride though. I wonder how much room he had to go-around ...

...