What is your worst saling experience that you lived to tell about?

[aquabay]

What was your worst sailing or boating experience that you lived to tell about?

Thought this would be fun to read.








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[jr438234606]

Ran aground in a spoil area, in a major heavily-traversed shipping channel in the Mississippi Sound, at night, in 30 knot winds and 5 ft. seas, with all the sails out. Took about 30 minutes to get out of it. In hindsight, it was probably more like drama than an actual life-or-death situation, but it was certainly the worst experience so far.

[FrankLanger]

I was sailing in a brisk wind and waves, a bit close to shore, getting ready to tack away when an especially large wave raised the stern enough to pop the rudder out of it's double pintle/gudgeon fitting--leaving me holding the tiller with the rudder now splayed flat on the water. The boat, without steerage did two 360 degree turns, blowing closer to shore, while I tried to reinsert the pintles into the gudgeons despite waves and boat going nuts. But I succeeded, did not run aground, regained control of the boat and sailed home.

Since then, I drilled a small hole at the bottom of the pintle to accept a wire ring below the gudgeon, which holds the rudder in place, so that won't happen again.

Amazing how quickly a lovely challenging sail can become really challenging!

Frank.

[TrueBlue]

Originally Posted by aquabay

What was your worst sailing or boating experience that you lived to tell about?

I came about too tightly in heavy weather, tacked into a strong gust heeling the boat over close to the spreaders. My wife was thrown across deck and afterwards almost killed me, but I lived to tell you about it.

Come on you guys, can't you see this guy's a spammer?

[sailingforever]

probably when I almost got run down by a motor boat pulling a parasailor ignoring the speed limits around the islands and then gybing for the first time ever in my little snark and almost capsizing, and getting hit on the head by the boom. not that it weighs very much, but it was still painful...

[captnnero]

Lived to tell about it ? Well that narrows it down some now doesn't it ?

[TrueBlue]

I thought the same thing.

Now, let me think of all those sailing experiences that I didn't live to tell about . . .

[paulk]

Returning from Bermuda I was kneeling down at the headstay changing jibs on a 40' sloop when we dove into a wave that covered the foredeck -and me - up to and over my back. I've been more prone to wear lifejackets and harnesses since then.

[Pamlicotraveler]

I ran out of liquor one night after anchoring in Phang Nga Bay in Thailand in 1975. Almost killed me...

[Sasha_V]

Winched my fiancee to the top fo the mast in the bosun's chair in order to fix the anchor light...then dropped the winch handle overboard while she was up there.....