What's your biggest bonehead move sailing?

[JohnBoelte]

When I was 15 or 16, my brother and a friend of mine sailed across Lake Pontchartrain from NOYC to Mandeville (26 miles). We were on our Flying Scot. We had wonderful winds and were sailing along the Causeway Bridge. We were having a lot fun (might have been drinking a little beer). I lost situational awareness during our good times. I happened to look up the main and saw the bridge a couple feet from the top of the mast! Today I can laugh as I picture what the drivers going across the bridge saw (the top of the mast bobbing a few feet from the bridge)! Luckily we weren't near one of the pilings and I was able to come about before we hit.

Later on we were motoring into the harbor (5 HP British Seagull) and hit "something" with the prop. Luckily there's a spring between the prop and the shaft, and we sheared the spring and killed the engine. We made it in ok. I took a metal tent stake and and made a new spring (still on the engine 20+ years later).

We camped over night and had a great time. The next morning was still and we were groggy. We raised sails and motored out. I noticed after about a 1/2 hour that the leeward side of the sail was COVERED in mosquitos! For whatever reason they weren't interested in our blood, only going into our noses and eyes when they were disturbed. They had also taken up residence on the transom. This was only an issue when the engine needed to be refueled. The wind didn't pick up until we were about 2 miles from the New Orleans Marina. Unfortunately, we ran out of gas about 10 miles from the Marina. We spent quite a bit of time looking at the flat dirty water. We did try swimming at one point, but at the time, Lake Pontchartrain wasn't a great lake to be swimming in. So we felt pretty nasty and slimy for the remainder of the trip. At one point a sailboat motored past us, they had this really great slingshot attached to thier boat and shot a water balloon at us. It hit the main sail and really pissed off the mosquitos. Fortunately, the wind picked up and we sailed into the harbor. We tied up to the NOYC yard and started unloading as the rain rolled in. I remember looking at the deck as I was walking away; the rain was washing away the mosquito bodies we had killed. Every square inch of deck had a mosquito on it. We came back the following morning and hauled the boat out of the water.

Today, I can't imagine letting my teenage children sail across Lake Pontchartrain.

[cnc33voodoo]

this past february i got married in aruba.me and a freind decided to rent a 18 foot hobie cat for 8 hours that could be used throughout our time there.
i have only sailed on cats a handfull of times and we had been drinking nonstop for two days but the constant sun gave us the illusion we were sober.we went out once for a couple of hours and were content that we only flipped it once and otherwise ripped it like it was stolen.
later that afternoon after revisiting the bar for a couple of hours, the day before i got married, we decided to take it out for another couple hours.
the lady at the rental house didnt want to let us take the boat due to incresing winds but i assured her i had been sailing on hobies forever.lies.lies she believed.
we got about 1/2 mile off shore and the winds got real nasty(anyone who has sailed in aruba will know exactly what im talking about).
we were hiking the cat to the point where one pontoon was two feet out of the water for quite a while when we got hit with a gust which buried the nose of the pontoon in the water which caused it to flip nose first.
i knew we were going in so i bailed making sure the whole time i stayed with the boat.
my freind however wasnt so bright and fell into the head sail and started swimming away in a panic.
i righted the boat and looked around to find him 20 meters away and was yelling for him to get back to the boat when he yelled "dude, im swimming on top of a massive tortoise, this is crazy you have to see it, just come back for me, i want to swim with it for a bit".
so i started to try getting enough speed to come about.stupid.no matter what i tried the boat wouldnt have it.
as i got further out the winds increased and i flipped the cat again, just this time i was so exhausted i couldnt right it no matter how hard i tried.so there i was about 300 meters away from him when the rescue boat came for me.
as if i wasnt embarrased enough,a 20 year old austrailian girl jumps on the boat with me and schooled me on sailing catamarans.we sailed for a bit, got closer to shore, came about, grabbed my idiot freind who was still swimming near the turtle.
as nasty as it could have become we were both floored with how fast we had this cat going and my freind with his turtle bonding.when we got back to shore i found my whole family standing on the point with a thick look of disapointment.
my brother was the first to speak "you idiot,everyone was watching you the whole time, your such a jackass, your getting married tomorrow, whats wrong with you.
arubas best-balashi beer,thats what.

[camaraderie]

This one isn't mine (see earlier in the thread)....but this weekend at the docks we had an older couple coming into a slip bow in to a 20 knot breeze. He was powered up pretty good to make headway and got a good line on the slip and headed in while the wife through me the bowline. He left the helm to put a line on the rear pilings...but he forgot to take the boat out of gear or throttle down! I yelled and half the marina came running as he scrambled to get back to the helm. Fortunately I got the bow line with a turn on the finger pier piling without getting my hand in the way and the boat snubbed up just about a foot short of the dock and then slammed sideways into the finger pier. One second more and that boat would have been halfway through the dock.
Skipper was sheepish...I had to get on the boat to catch the stern pilings as he was unable. No thanks...no tip. Just like driving cars...some people need to stop driving boats when they just get to old to handle them safely.

[tommyt]

Cam.

Saw almost the same scenario yesterday. The guy was 30. Age has nothing to do with it! Stupid is stupid.

Of course, I am almost ready to get SS, so I may have an opinion on the age thing. Age is good, it means that we have survived so far. Last one standing inherits the world!

[tommyt]

Had not read this thread. Lots of good stuff.

My favorite was a solo day on the water. Through off ALL lines and attempted to back out of my slip. Boat always walks to port as I reverse, but this day must have been a strange wind or something and it went to starboard HARD. Decided I best get back into the slip and went back in beautifully. Regained my confidence after that great maneuver, and backed down again after checking the wind. No problem.

Damn thing got caught and went to starboard, HARD, again. Quickly, as a experienced seaman, put her back in the slip again. Checked the wind instruments and there should be no problem. Was about ready to give it one more try when I noticed that the starboard stern line was still over the piling. THAT may have something to do with my problem. Quickly looked around to see if anyone was watching, and laughing, released the line, and walked to port just fine.

I learned a lesson that day, and know that the next time she walks to starboard, I really should release the line. IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN, I can assure you.

[MIKEMCKEE]

One of the more memorable bone head moves we've done (I like to include my wife in these when ever I can) was during this last May's weeklong sailing vacation. We had started out fine, but as we were trying to tack back & forth to get to our objective we realized that this Boat (pig) wouldn't go there, so we turned around and anchored in a cove for the night. The next day the wind had turned our way and we had a real bouncy ride into the Chesapeake bay. As we approched our intended creek to anchor I went below to start the motor, but with all the moving about the junk in the fuel tank got sturred up and the ol' Perkins wouldn't start. So I put in new fuel filters all the while were going around in circles. We still couldn't get it started so I told my wife we'll sail up the creek and anchor. That went alright , and after she put the anchor over and I turned the boat to put out more line and to put a strain on the anchor to set it. I thought it had set and we were anchored. Glinda went below and took a much needed nap and I went below to go about trying to figure out why the motor wouldn't start. After a short time I popped my head out to take a break and I saw that we had draged anchor and were 3/4 the way across the creek heading towards a small dock on the other side. Needless to say I ran around like a chicken with it's head off. I lowered my CQR all chain anchor over to see if it would catch, It finely did about 3 feet from the dock across the creek, I was so tired I just let out some additional chain and tied the boat up to the dock (did I say it was blowing about 35kts at the time). When I finely got everything secured, Glinda finely came up on deck and looked around and said what happened and I told her the story, she asked why I didn't wake her up and I said I was too busy at the time, I couldn't belive she stayed asleep through the whole ordeal, chain banging on the side and deck, me running up and down the deck and all. All I know is, stay on deck long enough to verify your anchor's set before you go below to tackle another problem.

Mike
s/v Blue Bayou

[SQwerl]

As others have done, this is my first post here.

Back in my early teens we had a small sailing dinghy, roughly 7 feet long, which we learned to sail on.

On one of the yearly trips with my dad, we took it out to Western Washington, to Pot Holes Resevoir. On our way back we traveled through the Columbia River Gorge and noticed that there was some wind out on the water. For some reason we didn't have much wind at Pot Holes (Rarity for there), and we wanted to do some real sailing.

We found a boat launch, unloaded the boat. This ramp was in a little cove protected from the waves coming in from the river, so it didn't look like it was too windy out. Well, after we had everything situated, we both got into the boat with lifejackets, sail up, etc. We moved about 10 feet before we capsized! Oh, it wasn't a big deal. We were quite used to it. But what we didn't know about was, the enormous amount of seaweed lurking just beneath the surface. We tried swimming, and it just grabbed our legs. It was not the kind of fun we were looking for!

So we decided that it was TOO windy out for our little boat. Once we were able to drag the boat to the ramp we promptly loaded up and got the hell out of there.

[SQwerl]

Here's another.

This time, it's in 2006 in a 30 foot Irwin. It is my Dads' boat.

We are in Ilwaco, Washington which is on the north side of the Columbia River, near the mouth of it.

We are coming back in from a day of sailing in the Ocean. I usually jump off and secure the mooring lines, while my dad mans the helm. He had way to much inertia built up as we entered the slip. I could tell we would hit the dock up at the bow, so as soon as I could I jumped off, ran up to the bow and tried to fend it off. We still hit, but not nearly as hard as we could have.

My dad had thrown it into reverse, hard. Unknowning to both of us, the stern mooring line had slipped off the boat and ended up in the water. So, after the boat bounced off the dock, it went backwards fairly quickly. Then the prop seized up. The line found the prop and wrapped itself around it! So, here I am. On the dock, the boat is moving backwards quite rapidly. There is no engine. On the plus side. I still had the bow line in my hand. After a bit of being on the losing end of a tug of war, trying to stop this beast, the boat made its way back out into the row between the slips, and I'm at the end of the finger up against the pilings. The boat is now turning as if it wanted to leave!

I manage to pull it back into the slip by man-handling it. We tie it off, and take a survey of what happened.

So, me being the youngest out of the two of us, had to get in the water and cut the hi-tech hard-as-hell to cut, mooring lines in the frigid water.

Good Times.

[charlesparmele]

Today , bounced of three boats and a dock. Got underway from slip at Brownsville Marina in the Puget sound. Had a bowman who decided that he did not need a boat hook. My Chrysler 22 tends to turn to starboard (outboard mount needs work) . Backed out from slip started going forward, bowman decided to head aft to adjust life line. Noticed that headed toward boat a slip down, no steerage way. I grabbed boat hook to get forward (left tiller Mistake) impacted boat Catalina 22 in stern (slight scrape of paint off outboard) I pushed off with boat then impacted pier knocked off wood latter, the scraped the end of tomcat (catamaran) left blue paint on starboard pontoon Then impacted 33 ft Buccaneer glancing blow traded paint ( the Buccaneer is owned by my insurance lady and her husband a Marina worker).
SO, Marina manager was very kind and The Buccanner's owner nice Insurance should cover things. Yet, I feel like a heel. First thought was sale the boat, was told by Port manager and others that I should not give it up and not to worry insurance would cover. (I hate having to use my insurance, but oh well).
I do not know if I can show my face there anytime soon embarrassed as all get out.
We did get to sail a bit. That was the bright point I felt good out there. Boat handles well undersail. Day cut short rain hit, wind came and went. Interesting Eddies at Rich Passage.


Charles Parmele

Miranda Grace
Chrysler 22

[CharlieCobra]

Days like that happen on occasion.