I not only teach, I learn too.

Being on a yacht with someone more experienced than you is always an education, yet I still find I learn something new every time I’m on a boat; no matter the background of those on board, their input is fascinating, and to listen, to allow people to speak up is to learn more yourself. That’s a wonderful thing about sailing, everyone wants to share, to help you know more, to better yourself.

It’s a rare environment where the mere fact that if everyone around knows and can do more than you, then you’re better too. There’s no information or knowledge hoarding on a yacht; you’re asked to step up, you’re required to listen, you’re given the opportunity to learn, you’re expected to share what you know. What they may not know about reefing, sail trim, or coiling, the engineer who just stepped on can teach you ingenious knacks or facts you’ll remember for a lifetime, and pass on to others in turn.

From my time in the City, and this wasn’t unique to me, I witnessed many different attitudes to learning; indeed there are those who never hire someone who professes to have experience in their area, because they may already be closed off to learning new ways of doing things.

The right way is itself a strange concept, and largely grounded in custom. In the City there was a clear BarCap way, a Lehmans way, a Goldman’s way, a BAML way….. At sea there are undoubtedly even more ways of achieving what you need from your yacht, especially since that changes at any given time, but really, truly it’s about finding the safest way.

I used to keep a spreadsheet, trying to learn something new and recording that fact every day, and sometimes I had to go out of my way to find something; step out of my routine, my safe world of apartment, cats and work, to force myself to learn. Although I did used to love it when my boss called me into his office for a meeting, purely because he’d learned a new fact he wanted to share, anyone looking in would assume we were discussing something super work critical…..

Now I think it’s safe to say I literally learn something new every day, that which I can use and share on too.

And it’s not just the difference between raisins and sultanas, or how many penguins a polar bear can eat in a single sitting.