Help us shorten our learning curve... What was the dumbest/worst mistake you've made?

[sailhog]

A few years back I took a thermos of coffee and a bag of bran muffins onto a friends boat without asking if the head was operational.
Sailhog

[Freesail99]

Originally Posted by sailhog

A few years back I took a thermos of coffee and a bag of bran muffins onto a friends boat without asking if the head was operational.
Sailhog

Somethings are just funny .......

[donrr1]

I don't have any worst mistakes, just mistakes. I file all of em but I don't take the time to dwell on them to make them 'worst mistakes'.

Don

[Giulietta]

My biggest mistake was one day...I stopped at a place in Southern Europe to get Diesel, one of those really nice marinas with extra large stinkpots...and inflated fortunes....

I had put diesel and was in the process of departing, when I saw a stinkpot towing a tender with its engine up....

I decided to leave, but last minute...I decided to stay where I was and keep the boat against the diesel pier....so he could pass, and go after he did... BIG MISTAKE.....

The stinkpot decided to turn around right besides us, and as he did, he realized the channel was too small to turn, so half way into the turn he reverses....into me....with the tender menacingly being pushed by his stern platform...

He forgot he was towing his tender, and the engine in the tender hit us, scratching a big scar in my pristine boat...

I got pissed off, and because there was a lot of people there, I yeld for him to stop, which he did, too late ....I looked down and saw the scratch...I decided not to say a word, didn't seem that deep....he didn't even appologise from the 2345 feet high in his fly bridge....

later that day, we moored at an island, I got on the dinghy to beach, and as I passed the boat, my gonads came raised to my mouth...his tender proppeler scared my hull that and I could see the black from underneath the paint....

I had to have it repaired..nothing serious, but could have been...next time...screw the stinkpots...I'll go first...

[PBzeer]

JodyKS - now that's it's started, you'll get replies, but if you want to look back, in the Learning to Sail forum - Mistakes I've Made

[rtbates]

Sailing dead down wind for hours without looking back over my shoulder. When I did finally turn to head back up wind the entire sky was nothing but huge black clouds from horizon to horizon.

[cockeyedbob]

Haw! Wimps, all of you!
Wife's Capri (her boat, she da capt'n)
Last day of season, wind from west, 20 gusts to 30.
Lake at 7500' a bit low.
Sails furled, Honda putting, sun shining.
Capt having her usual good time at the tiller.
No worries mate! Just explorin' sez she ...
Rock, clunk, snap, shear pin kaput ...
100 or so yards downwind big rocks and bigger bridge ... Honeeeeeeeey!!!!
Over goes anchor, over goes Bob, chest deep, freezing water, change pin ...
Bob heaves back on board seperating rib in process ... was too cold to hurt.
So ...
Spring just around the corner.
Bob all healed and private parts descended once more to their rightful place.
Yesterday she sez, Honeeeeeeeey, put the boat in the water for me, will ya?
Wimps, alla yous guys!

[PBzeer]

Hey, at least you're well trained

[cockeyedbob]

JodyKS,

Yeah, cockeyed story funny now, but at the time?

I let the crew and the boat down. My job when playing the You be the captain and I'll be the crew game is to follow her orders except when safety of the crew or boat was a concern.

It was a beautiful day and we had been there many times before but familiarity bred overconfidence that quickly led to what could have been a disaster. My fault entirely, sailing is not a game, so don't get careless.

Cool, the anchor held! Probably just dumb luck but at least it was on deck and ready just in case.

Sail out? Wind on the nose. Could parallel bridge but what about the anchor? That bridge is mighty close!

Slip the rode, buoy with a fender, and come back for it later? Well, why throw a necessary tool over the side? It might come in handy.

Wait until evening when the wind usually dies, sail the anchor out and go home? Cool, but what is that Danforth hanging on to anyway? What's the bottom like? If it breaks free it's hello bridge.

Hoist the Honda inboard, replace pin, and hoist outboard? Oh my aching back, and suppose I drop Mama's Honda? What then? Always sail with tools and parts, ya never know.

Naw, Bob had to go for a swim, and he never would have sprung the rib gettin' aboard if he had bothered to get into better shape!

This was just a weekend sail on a mountain lake, what could go wrong? The point I'm trying to make is that overconfidence and laziness led to injury and a very real possibility of loss of crew and boat. Jody, it happened very quickly. We know the lake and we know the boat and her equipment yet it still happened.

It's said Teachers come in many disguises. Well, we got our lee shore, equipment failure, crew injury lesson in about 30 minutes. But you know, it could have happened to any of us. Cape Cod, Great Lakes, Pacific Northwest, Baja ... ya get careless and then the unexpected happens.

Then there was the time I put the mast through the house ...

[sailingdog]

When I was a teen, my twin and I got a Cape Cod Mercury stuck under a bridge. The mast was just a bit taller than the clearance. The only way to sail under the bridge was to have the boat heeled a good deal. Going upstream, it worked just fine... however, going back, the wind died just as we got under the bridge... and the boat popped upright and bang... hit the underside of the bridge.