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First time singlehanding, bad things happen, the sound of breaking fiberglass, etc

8K views 39 replies 27 participants last post by  bollaert2@gmail.com 
#1 ·
Alternate title: The big ship wharf to leeward is not your friend

Conditions:
True wind speed: 15 knots
In the channel, minimal tidal current
Approximately 8-9 PM, evening to dusk to night
Clear, 60°F

Outcome:
Minor damage and scuffing of port rubrail, port topsides
Serious bend to bow pulpit

I've been sailing my Ericson 27 for almost three years before, but never alone, for one reason or another. I'm planning a longer sail alone to take the boat to the boatyard for miscellaneous maintenance, and I wanted to do a brief sail to go through all of the motions to make sure there were no major problems.

Well, for most of the voyage, everything went fine, surprisingly easy.

The hardest part was dealing with the tether, which I've never seriously used before; it was constantly getting caught on things, tripping me, preventing me from going where I wanted to, or worst, getting caught up in other lines. I can see a tether working well for a fully-crewed boat, where everyone has a job/station, but I can't figure out how its supposed to work for a singlehander, when you need to go all over the place and do many things, frequently when things are in the middle of going wrong somewhere on the boat--and usually, about to get a lot worse if not resolved within N seconds.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but my simple West Marine tether also seems to require two hands to unclip at the far end, due to this safety bracket thing. I think I could figure out how to do it with one hand, but it's basically a huge pain, and probably puts me at more risk of falling overhead than if I didn't have a tether at all.

One of the most valuable functions that crew serves is preventing me from doing things that seem like a really bad idea. I don't do the authoritarian captain absolute chain of command thing; if I can't convince my girlfriend, crew, or other guests that it's a reasonable thing to do, we don't do it. (Among friends in emergencies, trust seems to work just as well as the chain of command does in the navy and merchant marine.)

So I've been trying to figure out how to calibrate my wind transducer, or at least, verify that it's reasonably accurate. There's this weather station with real-time wind reporting, and it seemed like it would be a great idea to pull up right next to it, and compare readings. It's on a wharf on the leeward side of the channel. The wharf is one of those big ship things, constructed from concrete and steel pilings and beams with a bunch of (mostly broken) pieces of wood over it. Basically, really nasty looking; I have no idea why I ever thought that would be a good place to tie up. (The best I can find is a photo of the backside of the structure; the front is the same construction, with the metal and wood nasty stuff hanging off the front.)

My thinking is that I'd just barely kiss it, sit there for a few minutes taking my readings, then be off. I found a "nice" part of the wharf that had the most wood and the least nasty-looking things poking out of it, and just sort of edged up to it. At first, everything worked, and although I found it hard to get the fenders into an effective position, everything was mostly OK.

The problem was leaving. When I tried to push off, I realized the wind was much to strong; I just ended up where I started from. There was pretty much no way to make headway or sternway without rubbing up against a million terrible things, and without headway, I couldn't turn. If I had a helper, I could have had them help push off while I gunned the motor, and it would have been totally OK.

(I've since learned that one of the proper ways to leave such a dock is a fender on the bow stem and a spring line, but this still would have required crew I think, and I'm not even sure it would have worked on the wharf, since it isn't actually a solid surface, just a bunch of pilings and beams.)

What I ended up doing was reversing and going forward in succession, running back and forth between the cockpit (where the outboard motor controls and tiller are, and the side, fending off. Terrible scraping things happened, but it sort of worked.

Somehow in the process of getting free, one of the pilings pulled off one of my fenders, and I made the really dumb decision to try to get it. The fender sucked, and was old and nasty and I was going to get rid of it eventually anyway. I don't know why I went back for it, but I basically ended up back on the wharf, but in an even worse place.

In the process of trying to get free again, because things were basically getting much worse rapidly, I motored forward into one of the pilings, which caught my bow pulpit. It wasn't fast, but, well, the boat weighs a few tons. Rending fiberglass is a terrible noise, and when you hear it on your boat, you'll feel it like it's corporal damage to your own body.

But the pulpit's sacrifice is basically what helped position the boat to get free again, and then everything was OK. The rest of the voyage was completed without incident.

I'm pretty bummed now about the damage, and not feeling very good about singlehandling. My understanding is that pulpits are not especially repairable, and this one isn't replaceable being out-of-production. I'd actually much rather just gotten holed or something, since that would be a straightforward fiberglass repair.

Early on in the Golden Globes race, Bernard Moitessier bent his bowsprit (3" steel pipe) in a collision with a freighter, and it was so emotionally crushing to him that he almost dropped out of the race. It was less about the loss of functionality, and more about the aesthetics. Fortunately, in his case, he has able to bend it back using his winches, so that you could hardly tell. I'm not a match of Moitessier, and I don't think I'll be able to bend this one back, even at land.
 

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#30 ·
You're right about the loneliness, but most of the time singlehanders welcome it. It can become a problem on difficult, prolonged solo sails, when there's nobody to help keep up your morale. That's really the most difficult part of solo sailing. You can learn techniques to handle the problems that arise by yourself, but you never really learn how to substitute for the morale boost that comes from having someone else nearby to laugh or commiserate with.
That's only a problem on the longer trips, though, and it doesn't sound like you're goal is to become a long distance solo sailor.
 
#31 ·
I have a question for the OP.

Have you tried getting back aboard your boat from the water. If you can not then consider weather it is worth being tethered to the boat in a situation where you can go overboard. The jacklines that came with my boat ran alongside the toe rail, useless as I can not get back aboard from the water when amidships.

The second thing to consider is assuming you go overboard while sailing at say 4 knots, can you get back onboard, in fact can you even prevent yourself from drowning. This issue is well documented and thereare unfortunate cases where people have died while teathered alongside and being towed along. Can you release your teather under load? Most can not and the only way some people survived was by somehow slipping out of their harness or jacket with incorporated harness.

I single hand a fair bit and there are two rules to survival

Rule 1 Don't go overboard.

Rule 2 See rule 1

I do use a harness but keep myself teathered to things that would prevent me from going overboard. Now mine is 44 ft and it is easier to do this on a big boat than but it is still possible. A single jack line on the centre line of the boat works for me. Also eyes on the mast waist high are good.

Re docking problems. I am assuming you have a wind or current pinning you against the dock.

Learn to use a doubled spring line to get the bow of the boat away from the dock. This goes from the stern round a cleat on the dock that is forward on the stern and back to the stern. With the engine at tickover and in reverse gear release all the other lines. Now increase the engine revs. The bow will move away from the dock. Let the boat move back a little if you need forward space. Now release and recover the spring line. If you need to move the stern away from the dock a burst of power ahead with the rudder on full lock works for me. Should be easy for you if the OB steers. It is now when it may pay to be bold and get the boat moving quickly so as to have steerage way.

All of this comes with the standard disclaimer as sh*t happens especially in tight marinas.
 
#33 ·
Have you tried getting back aboard your boat from the water. If you can not then consider weather it is worth being tethered to the boat in a situation where you can go overboard. The jacklines that came with my boat ran alongside the toe rail, useless as I can not get back aboard from the water when amidships.

The second thing to consider is assuming you go overboard while sailing at say 4 knots, can you get back onboard, in fact can you even prevent yourself from drowning. This issue is well documented and thereare unfortunate cases where people have died while teathered alongside and being towed along. Can you release your teather under load? Most can not and the only way some people survived was by somehow slipping out of their harness or jacket with incorporated harness.
No, I haven't tried, primarily because the water is pretty cold, and I'd be afraid that something could even go wrong in the test run to cause a serious incident. But I probably have to get past that. I could try it with a wetsuit, for instance, to give myself a little additional buffer the first time.

My tether has a quick-release on my end, so I'm pretty confident that I can get the thing off fast if I need to.

I expect that the freeboard will be a pretty serious problem. I do sport climbing recreationally, so if I can get ahold of anything at all, I should be able to pull myself back on board some sort of way; but realistically, if I fall off on the high side, under autopilot, I could see this being seriously difficult.

So far, I've actually rigged the jacklines all the way fore and aft. I understand this is not recommended; however, it lets me get to the stern, where there is a swim ladder.

There's another threat back there, under power, which is the outboard; I probably should be clipping in to the outboard kill switch as well. (However, the risk of falling out under power is much reduced, since I generally don't motor in bigger seas, and there's also less heal or need to go forward.)

When in the cockpit, I attach directly to one of two padeyes in the cockpit, and I'm pretty confident (although I have not tested) that I'd be able to get back into the cockpit if I was attached to either one, because of their positions.

Yeah, when you put it that way, it seems like reversing against a bow line actually would have worked really well. I wish I had thought of that on the spot; that would have worked really well, and probably avoided damage.
 
#32 ·
Good point about getting on the boat. It has been discussed many times here but is relevant to the OP. I installed a telescoping ladder on my transom that can be pulled down from the water. If there's no one to turn the boat around and pick you up, at least you need to cling to the boat like a barnacle and have a plan to get back aboard.
 
#35 ·
The specific situation of docking against pilings is always difficult to assess. Many of the non-floating piers/docks will have spanning boards for boats to lie against. With no boards, all kinds of bad things can happen. It's questionable to even attempt it singlehanded even in good conditions. One thing to think about is keeping everything (solar panels, etc.) inside the gunwale so there is nothing to catch while rubbing up against high docks. Some boats have so much paraphernalia hanging off them that getting anywhere close to a dock can be a disaster. Bow rails overhang and as such are vulnerable. I came close to bending mine a couple of years ago in exactly the same situation, trying to get into a fuel dock.
 
#37 ·
Thank you Denise that is what I was trying to describe.

To the OP it sounds like you have a good chance of getting back on board, I could mantleshelf at 16 but now at 66 and with a damaged shoulder there is no way I can, that is why I installed a set of steps and a pull down extending ladder on the stern. .

Re the release of your clip please do not take this for granted. Most clips supplied on sailing harnesses do not allow release under tension. You have to get some slack before you can disconnect. This may not be possible if you are being towed alongside.
 
#38 ·
Thanks to the OP for sharing his challenging day and to the many who provided great advice. I cant tell you how much I learn from discussions like this and am able to avoid similar problems or at least have potential options for when they do arise.
I started using springlines more this year even in conditions that didnt warrant their use just to practice. They can be very helpful.
The most important single handed lesson I have learned is always think/plan well ahead and have your bail outs/exit considered
 
#39 ·
I've used a line looped around and back to the boat rather then tied to a dock cleat. Then after the boat swings I'd just let it slip off and haul it in. Using spring lines is or can be a fun learning curve.--Denise, that's brilliant! I'll have to try that. That would alleviate needing some to throw you the line when you cast off.

Elan
 
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