What's your biggest bonehead move sailing?

[chucklesR]

Okay, not me, but bone - headed scareboater in the BVI (almost as funny as reality t.v.) --
Monohull moored off 100 yards from us, the Cap'n (a real screamer when mooring but that's another story) comes up, enjoys his morning coffee and that certain 'master of universe' feeling that comes when enjoying sunrise at Saba Rock in Virgin Gorda Sound..his wife joins him just about the time the coffee kicks and in and he has to go below.
His wife is relaxing away when she suddenly sticks her head up, looks down in the companion way and then walks back fiddles at the pedestal for a minute and then finally starts the engine (obviously, the Cap'n decided to charge batteries while on the throne).
She then disapears below, no doubt to refresh paper supplies or something..

Meanwhile the boat - being as it was in forward gear slowly begins to circle the mooring ball. About the third time around (slowly accelerating) the keel hooks the mooring line and begins to wrap, the boat suddenly heels over, develops a nice twist and stops, 20 degrees off vertical, motor still chugging away.
Cap'n Screamer comes up doing his best job of pulling up pants and yelling, rips the keys out of the ignition and throws them below (then shuts off the fuel). Then has to go below and get the keys because gosh, he's not, in his mind, going to untwist the boat any other way.
After a half hour of watching him try to get his boat off the ball and wrap it even more we decided to take pity on the dude's wife and save them.
My daughter jumped in our dinghy, came up along side and pushed his stern around and off the ball (didn't ask, just did it - moreoften getting forgiveness is easier than permission) - something he could have done in 5 minutes as his dinghy was sitting there astern the whole time.
ScareBoater, Bareboater no question in my mind.
ChucklesR

[MIKEMCKEE]

I was on a nice weekend sail up to Urbana, VA, The trip up and the over night was great. Every time I go to get underway even if I've just had the motor running good the previous day I always check the fluids. I checked them but I forgot to have my reading glasses on when I was looking at the dip stick and It looked to me that my motor oil was low. I preceded to add the oil and start to get underway. Well If you have too much oil in there the thing won't start. I did the old KISS way of trouble shooting and I came to the conclusion that the motor worked good prior to adding the oil, but didn't now, and guess what......
I didn't have a oil pump on board, so I did the very next best thing. I put a log plastic tube down the oil dip stick tube and SUCKED the excess oil out with my mouth. Oh you can surly guess it was a mess, and I don't ever go out again without my Oil pump on board.

[CharlieCobra]

Originally Posted by chucklesR

Grabbing a mooring ball in the BVI.
Had my wife doing the driving on our chartered 42 ft catamaran; my first time on the bow.
I leaned over with the boat hook firmly in hand, picked up that line on the first fish, and the rubber handgrip neatly parted from the boathook - the weight of the line did a nice job of shooting the boathook down into the water.
Would have been funny, but it was our only boathook - and we'd just raced forward to grab the last mooring ball in the field (no anchoring permitted in the area).

Ahh, don't sweat it. That's gear failure, not boneheadedness.

[sailingdog]

Originally Posted by CharlieCobra

Ahh, don't sweat it. That's gear failure, not boneheadedness.

But not checking the condition of the gear prior to using it might be considered boneheaded... Especially on a charter boat that gets the living crap beaten out of its gear.

[chucklesR]

Oh, I checked the gear, slid that rubber grib on the hook myself while going forward, hence the bone head factor. I knew it was loose.
Fortunately the water is clean, clear and not too deep. A quick drive recovered it.

[sailingdog]

LOL... yup... you qualify... should have put that in your original post though...

Originally Posted by chucklesR

Oh, I checked the gear, slid that rubber grib on the hook myself while going forward, hence the bone head factor. I knew it was loose.
Fortunately the water is clean, clear and not too deep. A quick drive recovered it.

[jorgenl]

One thing I reflected upon when chartering a boat in the BVI is that it only had one boat hook on board. Seemed to me that the boat hook is an important device when mooring every day....

[hertfordnc]

I've never posted on this forum. I'm too ignorant, all i can do is lurk and learn, but this thread finally gives me something to contribute.

This story is filled with dumb things, you pick...

Out for a quick sail in New York Harbor with a boatload of clueless guests (more clueless than I) I had too much sail up when it started gusting. The guests responsible for the genoa sheets had let them go and all that sail was flapping loudly when there was an even louder noise from the top of the mast.

By the time I figured out what it was, the mast had become a bowsprit and the genoa was now a giant sea drogue in the current where the Hudson meets the East River.

Time to start the engine. Not sure what happened at this point but the engine shifted on its mount to about 45 degrees with the prop well out of the water and ---- here's the dumb part-- I did not have the key to the padlock and no way to loosen the bolts and set the engine back down.

We drifted onto the rocks in one of Brooklyn less than safe neighborhoods.

Once I got all the screaming woman off the boat it was a simple matter of swimming to a piling with a line and winching the boat off. no damage. The wife never sailed with me again and we were divorced a few years later.

[Yugi]

How did I get here?
As we approached Orient Point sailing east to Block island on the night of the lunar eclipse, there was a 24 foot power boat calling us for help. We pulled the dink on a short line and powered over to them. We ran out of gas and have no battery power, they said. OK we can radio the coast Guard for you. We did. We got underway again and realized the dink is missing. Not tied up correctly?? We searched back and forth until we found it. Total eclipes setts in. Skipper: Whats the course the valiant rock? Navigator: 091* Quick green flash. Skipper: Never mind I see it. Heading towark the quick green flashing "Bell" we realize we are approaching it at at an alarming rate. Skipper: How much current do we have whith us? Navigator: 4.5 knots. Skipper: Hey, that "bell" I was heading for happens to be the New London Coastguard we called for that stranded power boat. Now where are we?

[Yugi]

Originally Posted by CharlieCobra

Tell me yours and I'll tell ya mine

I made a rescue ones. As I pulled the tired swimmer from the water a Police boat gave me a summons for not having a lifejacket for everyone onboard. The cop didn't seem to care that my registration was expired. The judge told me to just pay the fine. I could have had him step down for that advice, I later found out.
Keep extra lifejackets in your dink.