Captains Tursi and Mummert Answer Questions Posed By Participants
August 5, 2026 · 57 min · 156 views
What this video covers
Tom Tersey and Frank Bummer of the Maryland School of Sailing address a series of participant questions regarding boat ownership, seamanship, and offshore safety. For those purchasing a first sailboat, Tersey recommends starting with a used 25-foot vessel with an outboard motor to gain maintenance experience before moving to a 30-to-32-foot boat.1:17 He emphasizes that vessel size and maintenance requirements scale cubically, not linearly.3:23 Regarding seamanship, the instructors define it as constant preparedness and the ability to mitigate potential emergencies, such as engine failure or rig damage, through advanced planning.6:57 When navigating the high-traffic waters near Norfolk, Virginia, they advise calling the Virginia pilots on Channel 16 to coordinate transit through the busy naval and commercial channels.14:43 On the topic of man-overboard prevention, the pair stresses that tethering is mandatory for short-handed crews, as the probability of rescue is extremely low once a boat has sailed away from a victim.30:18 Finally, they suggest using composting heads to mitigate the challenges of limited holding tank capacity and unreliable pump-out infrastructure.51:46
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