A 'good' sailor

I only watched the trailer, but one thing I noticed is that he makes his distress call as "this is an SOS call". Completely wrong.

Emergency calls use the phrase "Mayday Mayday Mayday" not "SOS". I guess this is just dumming it down for audiences but it makes the character seem stupid to any sailor.

Otherwise yeah solo sailors should always have a "grab bag" at ready in case they need to abandon ship. These days almost all single handers carry satellite phones in the grab bag in case they need to be rescued or a emergency beacon which emits a homing beacon if the boat sinks. Very few/none use sextant for navigation except as an emergency backup.

More important then a pfd (or life vest) is to be tethered to the boat, in case you fall overboard, but normally both are worn by single handers.

I was a deck seaman in the navy for 3 years, then a boatswains mate. It occurred to me theres a ton of problems small boats and solo pilots have to contend with out at sea which I dont even know about. Honestly I think I would have made many errors myself.

But this guy was supposed to be an experienced yachtsman, so yeah, its dramatic licence by people who probably knew better.

I don't really know how to sail, but my stepfather sailed single-handed across the Atlantic, and my wife knows how to sail, so I've picked up a thing or two about how things should be handled on a boat like that.

This guy did all right until the first storm, although it would be extremely foolish not to have some sort of emergency beacon or satellite phone that didn't rely on the boat's power system.

With the coming of the storm it was one bad decision after another. You get into your foul weather gear before the storm hits, because it isn't nearly as good to put it on after you've already been soaked through, and because you don't want to have to leave the deck to put it on after the storm has already caught up with you. Likewise, you're only going to change a sail during a heavy storm if it's a matter of life or death -- if he wanted a storm jib there was no reason not to have made the switch before the storm came upon him. And he should have had a flotation device on, and absolutely he should have been tethered to the boat at all times when on deck during a storm.

When he deploys the life raft during the storm there was no reason to have jumped into it empty handed. He should have put into it at that time all of the stuff he put in after the storm ended, especially food and water. And when he had a chance to go back there was no excuse for not taking a flotation device with him -- one was sitting there right on the stern rail.

When he was in the life raft sunburn would be one of the things he should have been protecting himself against, so he should have always been wearing that hat when he was not covered over by the canopy. And it's not good that he didn't bother to figure out in advance how to work the flares -- his life depends on someone seeing his signal, and there he is reading the directions on the flare while a ship sails on past.

Thanks for the thoughtful replies.

I would classify him as a technically proficient sailor, but a poor seaman. Definitely not a seasoned blue-water sailor by any stretch.

Even the best sailors can get themselves into trouble

I've sailed for decades and have quite a selection of qualifications. Apologies for the wall of text...

Re Sextant: I did learn to use one while doing my Yachtmaster Ocean qualification. Assuming he had an accurate timepiece, it should be possible to get both Lat/Long. Without a clock, Longitude is impossible to determine (but less important if you want to head directly East/West).

Stars (astronavigation) is trickier - getting a rough heading is fairly easy (locate Polaris/Crux+Centaurus for North/South hemisphere respectively and you know which direction the pole is) - but actually working out your precise location requires a fair bit of knowledge. I'd stick to using the Sun.

Haven't finished the film yet but I did a double-take when he started shaving while it was relatively calm and then went up and started trying to stow the sails in horrendous weather. It's a sail boat, the _first_ thing you think about when the wind picks up is reefing (reducing the size of) the sails, then dropping them completely and making sure they're secure. For really bad weather, you make sure everything is lashed down.

Radio call also irritated me. As mentioned by others, radio protocol was wrong and even if you don't get a response, that might just be because you've lost the ability to receive, not because you can't transmit. Assume someone is listening, repeat multiple times, give location, etc.

You should really always wear a lifejacket on deck. In pleasant conditions and when there's someone competent about, well... Fair enough, we've all skipped it, but if you're alone or in bad weather, it's not even up for debate. All it takes is a slip and a crack to the head for you to drown (as I type this, he's just hit his head below decks and been knocked out!).

Additionally, all semi-decent lifejackets have D-rings or similar to attach safety lines. If you're leaving the cockpit in bad weather, you should be clipped on to a secure fitting (again, in extreme conditions / when solo, use 2 lines so one is always attached).

I missed the first 2 minutes so this may have been explained but why doesn't he have at least one, if not two engines? When he tacks around to get back to the shipping container and half-floods the boat, he could've avoided heeling the boat over by using an engine. Even if the boat doesn't have a main one (questionable decision), it should have a small one for an inflatable dinghy. Hell, why not just drop the sails and take the dinghy in the first place? Sure, it a hassle, but less so than pumping out all that water (and the associated damage).

He's just launched a life raft, so I'll add:

You should always step _up_ into a lifeboat. You're leaving a lot of resources behind, a large white sailboat is very visible, and floating is floating. (Note: Doesn't apply to big vessels as a sinking ship drags a lot of water with it and can suck you down)

Minor annoyances
* Near the start of the film when it starts raining, it's clearly just a someone with a hosepipe as there's no raindrops hitting the sea. I found it quite distracting.

* He's writing on a chart in ink! (and guessing at his position instead of using a ruler).

Not sure I'll make it to the end of the film at the this rate.

All good sailors today have satellite phones and means of communication. The only deaths that occur at sea are complete destruction (caught in storms, etc.) or idiocy, which this sailor was clearly familiar with.