What's your biggest bonehead move sailing?

[CharlieCobra]

Originally Posted by 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.

Dang! I'm surprised you kept sailing. Ah, ya didn't need her anyway right?

[CharlieCobra]

Originally Posted by Yugi

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.

Hokay! I'm glad we don't have many (if any) watercops like that around here. Around here, ya don't get somebody outta the water quick, they DIE!

[Sabreman]

You guys are pitiful. Am I the only incompetent one here? Or are you hiding your REALLY good ones?

Ok, here we go again........

I went to Villanova (Class of '79) and raced on the sailing team. Once we were near Albany, NY racing RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). It was late fall, the Hudson was frigid, and there was no wind. We were using Lasers and the race was called for lack of wind. A kid in another boat stood up, slid around to the bow, grabbed the mast and proceeded to rock the boat from side to side, sculling into shore. Ever full of testosterone and not to be out done ("He sucks. If HE can do that, I can do it better"), I stood up, grabbed the mast, rocked to port ...... and fell into the Hudson taking the whole boat with me.

You know, sound really does carry over water.... like the sound of 5 teams rolling on their backs in tears from laughter.

I think that I'm the only one who can flip a boat in a dead calm.

[Sabreman]

Or the time that we were racing Temple on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. This time, the race was called on account of too MUCH wind. It was gusting to something like 25kts, but they told us that we could take boats out if we wanted.

I took out a 420 with another guy and were flying downwind, hiked out, with a boat too full of water. We didn't have a bailer or were too lazy to bail, I can't remember. A really big gust hit us the entire boat flexed from all the weight, and the mast blew right off the boat. Since we were hiked out so far to windward, the boat flipped over backward and went turtle (with what was left of the mast). Again, laughter from the beach drifted toward us (a recurring theme in my life) and a committee boat towed us back to shore.

Temple wasn't very happy with what we'd done to their boat. But who cares? It's a state school (and my wife's alma mater).

[sailingdog]

Sabreman-

It is just we can't compete with you in the arena of incompetence.

Originally Posted by Sabreman

You guys are pitiful. Am I the only incompetent one here? Or are you hiding your REALLY good ones?

Ok, here we go again........

I went to Villanova (Class of '79) and raced on the sailing team. Once we were near Albany, NY racing RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). It was late fall, the Hudson was frigid, and there was no wind. We were using Lasers and the race was called for lack of wind. A kid in another boat stood up, slid around to the bow, grabbed the mast and proceeded to rock the boat from side to side, sculling into shore. Ever full of testosterone and not to be out done ("He sucks. If HE can do that, I can do it better"), I stood up, grabbed the mast, rocked to port ...... and fell into the Hudson taking the whole boat with me.

You know, sound really does carry over water.... like the sound of 5 teams rolling on their backs in tears from laughter.

I think that I'm the only one who can flip a boat in a dead calm.

[Sabreman]

I call this one "True Love"

My wife and I had just become engaged and were taking a night sail on the Great Egg Harbor Bay. We left Somers Point, NJ in my father's Catalina 30 and headed east to Ocean City. We turned south, opened the 9th Street Bridge, and continued in romantic bliss toward the man-made coves at 24th street. It was about 2300 when I turned toward my intended and boasted that not many people would enter this particular cove at night under full sail. She asked why and the words weren't 3 inches from her mouth when we grounded. Hard.

Since we were going about 5 kts, we both ended up in a heap on the cockpit floor. We started the wimpy Yanmar motor and proceed to wake up the neighbors with the repeated revving of the engine. One lady turned on her lights and called out asking if we needed help. After a while, we became unstuck and turned north back toward the marina.

At that time, the channel between O.C. and Somers Point only had a single unlit mark half way between the two shores. It's hard to spot with all the light pollution from the waterfront bars, a hospital, and roads. Since the whole bay empties through the O.C. Inlet a half mile away, there can be a cross current. We were sailing along minding our business, back in the romantic groove, when there was a massive CRASH and a rumble-rumble-rumble (you now where this story is headed). I jumped up thinking that we'd hit a boat, but there was nothing .... until the massive Red #2 Nun Buoy rolled by on the starboard side. They're REALLY BIG up close.

At first I was deeply embarrassed but ever the optimist, I realized the bigger picture. My navigation was SO good, I compensated for the current SO well, and my knowledge of the channel SO thorough, that I not only stayed in the channel, but hit the freakin' buoy. How much BETTER can navigation get? Heck, even GPS has an error budget! I don't think that my beau (now wife of 25 years) bought it.

The next day, I went back to the boat in daylight and my neighbor commented on the really nice red strip on the boat and wondered how it got there. Mumble, mumble, mumble, says I....... I got out the polishing compound before Dad found out. I'm not sure that I ever told him either.

[Hartley18]

Originally Posted by Sabreman

I call this one "True Love"

My wife and I had just become engaged and were taking a night sail on the Great Egg Harbor Bay. We left Somers Point, NJ in my father's Catalina 30 and headed east to Ocean City. We turned south, opened the 9th Street Bridge, and continued in romantic bliss toward the man-made coves at 24th street. It was about 2300 when I turned toward my intended and boasted that not many people would enter this particular cove at night under full sail. She asked why and the words weren't 3 inches from her mouth when we grounded. Hard.

Since we were going about 5 kts, we both ended up in a heap on the cockpit floor. We started the wimpy Yanmar motor and proceed to wake up the neighbors with the repeated revving of the engine. One lady turned on her lights and called out asking if we needed help. After a while, we became unstuck and turned north back toward the marina.

At that time, the channel between O.C. and Somers Point only had a single unlit mark half way between the two shores. It's hard to spot with all the light pollution from the waterfront bars, a hospital, and roads. Since the whole bay empties through the O.C. Inlet a half mile away, there can be a cross current. We were sailing along minding our business, back in the romantic groove, when there was a massive CRASH and a rumble-rumble-rumble (you now where this story is headed). I jumped up thinking that we'd hit a boat, but there was nothing .... until the massive Red #2 Nun Buoy rolled by on the starboard side. They're REALLY BIG up close.

At first I was deeply embarrassed but ever the optimist, I realized the bigger picture. My navigation was SO good, I compensated for the current SO well, and my knowledge of the channel SO thorough, that I not only stayed in the channel, but hit the freakin' buoy. How much BETTER can navigation get? Heck, even GPS has an error budget! I don't think that my beau (now wife of 25 years) bought it.

The next day, I went back to the boat in daylight and my neighbor commented on the really nice red strip on the boat and wondered how it got there. Mumble, mumble, mumble, says I....... I got out the polishing compound before Dad found out. I'm not sure that I ever told him either.

How on earth you are still alive is beyond me... Surely no-one can foul up as many times as you have and get away with it!.

You're freaking amazing!!

--Cameron

[ReverendMike]

Careful Cameron, Murphy is watching.....

I don't have much experience, so not too many 'lessons learned the hard way' yet, but....

Don't take a hard-bottomed dingy ashore on a rocky beach. Yeah, go ahead, laugh at how obvious it seems when stated like that. I swore I wouldn't post that one, but Sabreman's bragging made me do it.

[sailingdog]

Better than taking an inflatable ashore on same rocky beach...at least a hard-bottomed dinghy has a chance of surviving.

Originally Posted by ReverendMike

Careful Cameron, Murphy is watching.....

I don't have much experience, so not too many 'lessons learned the hard way' yet, but....

Don't take a hard-bottomed dingy ashore on a rocky beach. Yeah, go ahead, laugh at how obvious it seems when stated like that. I swore I wouldn't post that one, but Sabreman's bragging made me do it.

[jjrux]

I just bought my first boat (1981 O’Day Widgeon) a couple of weeks ago and I don’t much experience sailing but this thread is just too good to pass up.

My worst bonehead sailing maneuver occurred on my maiden voyage to a local lake. After carefully trailering, rigging, launching, and paddling out I was struggling with raising the jib and main when I began to rapidly drift back to the rocky shore. It occurred to me that I should make sure that the rudder was set correctly when I finally noticed that I had forgotten to bring it with me! In fact it was still sitting in my garage miles away. While packing up to leave a park ranger stopped to check my launch permit. Needless to say I didn’t have one (or even know I needed one). After hearing my story the ranger chuckled and let me go w/o buying the permit. So ended my maiden voyage. The following trips out have been much more successful, but I’m sure that further mishaps await.

I have a number of newbie questions primarily to do with getting underway, but I’ll save them for the “learning to sail’ forum.

John