across people who are supposedly Yacht masters, and to be honest, have been about as much use on a boat as a fish on a bicycle! Their excuse was that they had forgotten most of it, as it was a few years ago since they did the courses, and quite a while since they had been sailing. Oh they could talk the talk, but when it came to walking it, they fell flat on their faces. As I see it, it's all fine and dandy to go off on a 35-40 foot boat, with a bunch of others, and an experienced skipper, but the problems start for newbies, when they have done their couple of courses or so, they then think that they and the missus are well capable of handling that size of boat. My experience would indicate that they aren't. They seem to have little understanding of the forces acting on the sails of a boat that size, when either of them is down below feeling sick as a dog in a blow, and the other one is effectively sailing single handed. Despite their training, they do get caught out, because of lack of experience. Experience takes years to accumulate, that can't be helped, which is why I think that starting out in a modest little boat and working ones way up is a far more sensible approach, than jumping in at the deep end with a bloody great lump of plastic fantastic. It's quite sad in a