I love to learn the hard way!!!

[Mavriikk]

I am a stubborn stubborn man. I consistently learn all my lessons the hard way. I wish i knew why? maybe it has to do with my ethnicity (French, Portuguese and English) or maybe just maybe it has everything to do with my up-bringing. Regardless I just know that i learn things the hard way and i even learned that the Hard WAY! lol

Here are some of the errors that i have made and have had to correct in the reconditioning of my beloved lady Acrewed Interest (Hunter 25.5). If you learn the hard way this will not help you so stop reading. If not, read on and you may skip a few of these issues/head aches in your endeavors.

Hard Way Lesson 1

Tensioned my rig year 2. Borrowed a loose gauge from my uncle. First time i had ever used one, seemed easy enough... Nope it turns out that my uncles Loose gauge was for a much heavier rig on his J30 and i way over tensioned the backstay and first good sail of the year the headstay snapped in the rollerfurler sending the boat and her crew into a panic. Two of my extremely brave crew jump into action and hold the mast forward with both sails still up. while i run around blowing halyards and taking out the shrouds to lower the deck stepped mast on to the deck.
Mistake 1 over tightening with the wrong tool for the job.
Mistake 2 not having the presence of mind in the emergency to simply run the spare halyard to the forward chain-plate and crank the hell out of it to hold the rig upl Lesson learned!
Mistake 3 drinking a half of a bottle of Sailor Jerry after everything was under control (Hang Over in the morning)

Hard Way Lesson 2

I am sure this one has happened to someone else besides me. I simply shredded a Gib that had came with the boat. The first time it happened it was a tropical storm and i had been away for a while and didn't think anything of take my head sail off of the roller. I said to myself It will be fine others have theirs on still. Wrong! it started flogging @ around 10pm and it might of lasted for 10 mins before it shredded its self. My neighbor ran up the street to my house and knocked on my door and was concerned to say the least. The concern was the boat was going to sail off the mooring and take out other boats. We jumped in his inflatable and tried to get out there to get the sail down once i got on the boat it was far to late and i just left it. The sail shredded nicely and wasn't causing it to sail to badly. Got pretty soaked in the 70knt blow in the little inflatable though.
Mistake 1 don't go by what others are doing... go with your gut every single time, take the sail off.
The second time this happened to me it was because of a bad design by what ever owner installed a clam cleat on the toe rail laying on its side for the roller furler line. Shook loose unfurled and flogged all night shredded in the am. I removed the clam cleat and installed a regular cleat.
Mistake 2 no matter what ALWAYAS wrap your furled sail with at least 1 sail tie and cleat the roller line. This is boating its all about backups.

Hard Way lesson 3

Outboard motor disaster. Got an outboard Evenrude Yachttwin 9.9 long leg on AI. Had some trouble getting it to piss for a while but its running great now. The previous year i had an old peice of plywood on the motor arm real badly rotted and nearly lost the motor because of it. The wing nut style screw clamps that held the motor on happen to be fully extended not tight. I look back one day and to my disbelief the leg is kind of floating up to the side. I look again and i see that the motor is only being held on by one of the clamps. Crisis! all hell breaks loose and i grab a halyard this time (BING! light bulb) attached it to the motor and then jumped in to fix the issue.
So the year goes on and i pull the boat and decide that motor incident is never going to happen again and make a super nice replacement for the wooden piece on the motor mount. I even went above and beyond and plated the mount on both sides of the hull for a super strong low flex mount. Feeling great about the motors performance and its new mount i splash the boat and begin the season. Here comes the Hard way. I was at an event trying to set hook in some chop, backing her down on the hook the motor started cavitating in reverse. On one of the cavitations it decided to turn so when it went back down into the water the prop was sidways thus spinning the entire leg up out of the water and leaving it hooked up only by one clamp again even with the brand new rig.
Mistake 1 Through bolt the damn motor!!!
Mistake 2 Also tighten the pivot point so the motor will not turn on its own. keep it tight but movable encase of a docking issue. It is nice to have stern thrust in either direction while in tight quarters.

well that is all for now. lets here your Hard Way stories...

O before i post two more.
shrink wrap house is not a good way to dry a boat out over the winter. The cover creates a micro climate. moisture evaporates and then just drips back down.

and when removing stickers on gelcoat with a heat gun be carefull not to pop the finish. getting the gelcoat to hot makes bubbles and they burst ruining the integrity and the finish of the gelcoat.

Sail Wicked Hard!

[smackdaddy]

Mav, dude, I'm right there with you brother. I'm convinced that the hard way is the only way. Your checklist looks like mine. So a toast to you.

But all that really counts is your last sentence. SN raise your glasses to "Sail wicked hard".

[erps]

I find I remember the lessons a lot better when I learn them the hard way. I kept previous boats on a mooring for about 15 years. I had our boat on the beach a couple of times and learned a new weak spot with the way I designed our mooring each time.

Lesson #1: I had a large nylon mooring line that went all the way down to a bouncer block with a float about six feet up to keep the line from wrapping up and chafing. In a blow, the bouncer block got tipped over. Now my mooring line is upside down and quickly chaffed through. So I added a length of chain later on.

Lesson #2. Don't mix stainless safety wire with galvanized fittings. The stainless wire caused the galvanized fittings to wear out prematurely because of galvanic action. Found boat on the beach again and then switched to plastic wire ties on all the underwater fittings.

Lots of other mistakes learned the hard way, but I must try and maintain the little bit of dignity I have left.