A 48-hour voyage in 7 chapters. 43 questions. 8 personality types. One uncomfortable truth.
7 chapters43 questions~12 minutes
Before you begin
This is a research survey by Galvanic Works S.L. studying how recreational sailors behave on passage. Your anonymous answers feed into peer-reviewed research (latest preprint: DOI 10.20944/preprints202603.1014.v1). We also build and sell maritime safety products — you may later opt in to hear about them.
Legal basis: legitimate interest (research) for anonymous data; consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR) for any email you provide. Retention: 24 months. Privacy Policy.
By continuing, you confirm you are 18 or older.
Chapter 1
Friday Evening — The Preparation
You're leaving tomorrow morning. The boat is on the pontoon. The crew arrives tonight. You have twelve hours to prepare a vessel, provision for a weekend, brief a crew, and become a systems engineer. Your day job is in accounting.
Question 1
First things first: who planned this trip?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 2
The crew is arriving. How many people is the right number for a weekend passage?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 3
You're provisioning. Your contribution to the boat is:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 4
While loading the boat, someone asks where the fire extinguishers are. You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 5
The passage plan. Yours consists of:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 6
Last check before bed: the fuel gauge reads a quarter full. Somewhere in the NMEA network, your engine knows exactly how much fuel you've burned — to the millilitre. That number is three menus deep on a screen you've never opened. The gauge, meanwhile, is a float on a stick. A 1930s float on a stick.
You trust it:
Please select an answer to continue.
Chapter 2
Saturday 0700 — Leaving the Berth
The morning is cool. The harbour is quiet. Something beeps. Nobody looks up. It beeps again. Everyone assumes someone else is dealing with it. It stops. It was probably nothing. It was the depth transition alarm. You'll find out later. Or you won't.
Question 7
You're leaving the berth. The wind is pushing you onto the pontoon. Who's at the helm?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 8
We're clear of the marina. The fenders are still hanging. You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 9
The sails are up. The engine is off. The boat heels to 20 degrees. You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 10
Your boat's electronics include:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 11
A ferry crosses your bow at 2 miles. Your AIS saw it fifteen minutes ago, but the plotter was on the chart page, not the AIS overlay, and the CPA alarm was set to 0.5nm by the previous owner. Nobody changed it. Nobody looked. The data was there. The data is always there. You had right of way. Didn't you?
Please select an answer to continue.
Chapter 3
Saturday Afternoon — The Passage
You're offshore now. The coast is a thin line astern. Forty miles to the anchorage. The rhythm settles in. Somewhere in the wiring, your boat is having a very detailed conversation with itself — engine temperature, battery voltage, bilge level, fuel flow, wind angle, depth, heading — fifty data points a second, broadcast to nobody. Your engine coolant is up 0.3 degrees on the hour. Your bilge pump just cycled for the fourth time today. You don't know either of these things. The boat knows. The boat isn't telling.
Question 12
Fifty data points a second. Depth, wind, engine temperature, battery voltage, heading, speed, rudder angle, bilge level, fuel flow — all of it streaming through the NMEA backbone, all of it available, all of it ignored. Your boat is essentially screaming into a pillow.
How many of these are you actually watching?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 13
The autopilot is on. Your relationship with it is:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 14
You're doing 5 knots. A fishing boat does 12. A ferry does 20. A container ship does 15. You are slower than virtually everything afloat. Threats can come from any direction. The dodger blocks the view astern. The genoa blocks port. You haven't turned around in — how long, actually?
How much of the horizon can you genuinely see from where you're sitting right now?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 15
Six hours in. The published boat polars say 7.2 knots. You're doing 5.4. You think:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 16
Lunch emerges from below. A hot meal, in this sea state. The cook has:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 17
Mid-afternoon. The chartplotter shows your position. But many of the depth soundings on this chart predate 1940. Less than a quarter of the world's seabed has been surveyed to modern standards. Does that concern you?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 18
Your phone has Starlink reception. Mid-passage, you use it to:
Please select an answer to continue.
Chapter 4
Saturday Night — The Watch
The sun went down an hour ago. Stars everywhere. The off-watch crew is asleep below. Something beeps. Same beep. Same pitch. Same rhythm. Was that the depth? The AIS? The autopilot? You stare at the screen for two minutes, see nothing, go back to scanning the horizon. That beep was your AIS telling you about a cargo ship doing 18 knots, 6 miles out, on a closing bearing. It sounded identical to the depth transition alert from this afternoon, so your brain filed it under "already dealt with." It wasn't. Or maybe you're the one asleep below. Be honest.
Question 19
It's 3AM. Navigation lights off the port bow. Red and white. Or is that green? Your eyes have spent three hours adjusting between the dark horizon and the glowing plotter, so your night vision is essentially decorative. The AIS has the vessel's name, speed, and CPA — but to read it, you need to cross the cockpit, unlock the screen, find the AIS page, and squint at a label the size of a postage stamp. By the time you've done that, you've lost sight of the lights entirely.
You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 20
Seventeen hours awake. Science says you're now cognitively equivalent to someone over the drink-drive limit. You missed a light on the horizon five minutes ago because you were staring at the compass without actually reading it. Rule 5 requires "a proper lookout at all times." The law demands continuous vigilance. Biology says no. They can't both be right.
You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 21
When did you last turn on your radar?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 22
Something beeps. Your boat has twelve alarm sounds. Depth. AIS. Anchor. Engine. Battery. Bilge. Wind. Chart. MOB. Rudder. Autopilot. Smoke detector. Twelve systems, twelve beeps, one sound. The same beep for "you're about to run aground" as for "the waste tank is full."
Without looking at a screen, how many can you identify by ear?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 23
Fighter jets use a female voice for critical warnings because it cuts through engine noise better. On your boat, whose voice actually carries over the wind?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 24
You're below, trying to sleep. Something beeps in the cockpit. Just once. You lie there, heart going, staring at the cabin ceiling. Was that the depth? The AIS? The autopilot? You wait. Silence. You wait longer. Nothing. You get up, climb into the cockpit in your underwear, check every screen. Everything looks normal. You go back to bed. You don't fall asleep. Your watch starts in 40 minutes. The beep told you nothing. The silence told you less.
What do you do with those 40 minutes?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 25
It's 0400. The stars are out. The only sound is the bow cutting water. This moment is:
Please select an answer to continue.
Chapter 5
Sunday 0600 — The Anchorage
Dawn. The bay is calm. The hook is down. You set a phone anchor alarm before dinner. You also checked Instagram, replied to three WhatsApp messages, took a sunset photo, and let someone use it as a hotspot to call their mother. The phone is now at 11%. The anchor alarm needs GPS running all night. GPS needs battery. Battery needs not being used for Instagram. Do the maths. Everything should be fine. Should be.
Question 26
Anchoring in 5 metres. How much chain are you deploying?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 27
"We're safely anchored for the night." The wind is forecast to back 40 degrees by midnight — putting you on a lee shore. The tide drops a metre overnight — changing your scope ratio. The boat behind you is on a shorter rode at a different angle — your swing circles overlap at 3AM. You won't know any of this because you'll be asleep. "Safely" is doing extraordinary heavy lifting in that sentence.
It makes you feel:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 28
Your phone is your anchor alarm. It's also your camera, music player, Instagram, WhatsApp, weather app, and alarm clock. Android puts background apps to sleep after minutes of inactivity to save battery. Apple suppresses notifications it considers "non-essential" — and your anchor alarm doesn't qualify as essential. Neither operating system thinks your safety is as important as its battery.
At 3AM, your phone is most likely to be:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 29
2AM. A boat nearby is dragging anchor. You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Chapter 6
Sunday Morning — Anchorage Life
The sun is up. The water is turquoise. The crew is stirring. Someone asks how you slept. You say "fine." You woke up twice to check the anchor, once because of the mystery beep, and once because the wind changed and nobody noticed except you. Fine. Another boat has arrived in the bay. The day is young and full of potential — for relaxation, for argument, or for both.
Question 30
Hauling the anchor at... well, when exactly?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 31
A new boat enters the anchorage. Fenders still out, courtesy flag on the wrong spreader, tender dragging on a painter that's too long. You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 32
Your navigation app has been quietly uploading your sailing data to a corporate database. Every anchorage you've visited. You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 33
The heads are blocked. You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 34
Someone mentions that statistically, lawn mowing is more dangerous than sailing. You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 35
You slip on the side deck. Over the guardrail. Into the water. The boat sails on. The autopilot doesn't care. The crew is below — one asleep, one reading, one cooking. The VHF is in the cockpit. Your phone is in your pocket, which is now in the sea. The boat is doing 5 knots away from you. In sixty seconds you'll be 150 metres behind it and getting smaller. Nobody heard the splash.
How long before someone notices you're not aboard?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 36
Tethers: essential safety equipment, or potential drowning device at 7 knots?
Please select an answer to continue.
Chapter 7
Sunday Afternoon — The Return
The wind has shifted. The anchorage is emptying. Time to head home. You think about the trip. The beep you couldn't identify. The fuel gauge you didn't trust. The watch you couldn't sustain. The phone that nearly died. The anchor alarm you hoped was working. The tanker you didn't see until you could read the name on the hull. All of this happened. None of it was unusual. This is what sailing is. One more passage, one more docking, one last chance to find out who you really are on a boat.
Question 37
Your boat knows everything. Depth, wind, engine temperature, battery voltage, anchor position, fuel burn, bilge level, heading, AIS traffic for twenty miles in every direction. It knows all of it, every second. And it communicates this extraordinary intelligence to you with a beep. The same beep. For everything.
If your boat could actually speak to you — in words, in a voice, like a crew member who never sleeps — what would it say most often?
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 38
On the return passage, a tanker. 320,000 tonnes. Crash stop: three nautical miles. The bridge officer can't see you — his forward blind zone is 500 metres long. Your yacht has the radar cross-section of two seagulls rafting together. Your insurance company calls a collision "a total loss." The tanker's insurance company calls it "Tuesday."
You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 39
You're coming alongside. The wind is on the beam. The marina is watching. Who moors the boat? Be properly honest.
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 40
The lazy line at the stern is covered in slime and algae. You:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 41
You're tied up. Engine off. The trip is over. The single most important thing on a boat is:
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 42
"The best moment on a boat is..."
Please select an answer to continue.
Question 43
Your crew would describe you as:
Please select an answer to continue.
Your sailor personality is ready.
Helm Hog
Gadget Capt.
Foredeck
Galley Adm.
Sundeck
White Knuckle
Social Sec.
Purist
You can still see your personality type without submitting an email.