Hard grounding on overnight trip.

[CalebD]

I was out on the Long Island Sound yesterday on a friends O'Day 27' that has a winged shoal keel. We planned to do an overnight and were cajoled by a local to try a more secluded but shallower anchoring spot.
We found the bottom of the next cove with the keel on an outgoing tide. We tried to back off with the engine while unloading crew as well as kedging with an anchor to no avail. We spent the next 5 hours watching the tide recede and come back in again while the hull remained upright and stood on the wings of the keel along with the rudder even after all the water was gone from around the boat. We were high and dry on land, truly grounded on the rocky but nearly level bottom.
Five hours later the tide re-floated us and we motored into Norwalk Harbor (CT) with no apparent damage except to the captains ego. I haven't heard about wing keel boats behaving in the manner of a Westerly before but this one did.
Any other stories of having to wait out the tide to get re-floated?

[jackdale]

That is the perfect opportunity to clean the bottom.

One of my colleagues told me that in the case of a grounding that will take a while from which to recover, the first thing you do is take the largest towel on board and cover the transom.

[tommays]

That was not a hard grounding



This was a HARD grounding

Bent the wheel we hit so hard

[CalebD]

Jackdale,
Yes, we could have cleaned the entire hull but there were no jack stands holding the 5000# boat up, just the keel and rudder. Besides, a beautiful sunset was unfolding that demanded our attention. We watched a small herd of deer (<10) move along the island from the cockpit.
What is the towel over the transom for? To cover her business end?

Tom,
Yes, we actually grounded quite gently behind Sheffield Island. I was mostly joking about this but we were entirely grounded and on the hard once the tide went out.

[SecondWindNC]

Originally Posted by CalebD

What is the towel over the transom for? To cover her business end?

I'm guessing that would be to cover the name so that nobody knows it's you sitting there high and dry!

[erps]

Originally Posted by jackdale

That is the perfect opportunity to clean the bottom.

One of my colleagues told me that in the case of a grounding that will take a while from which to recover, the first thing you do is take the largest towel on board and cover the transom.

+1

Reminds of a story I read in Readers Digest years ago about a female caught naked in a co-ed hallway at college with a towel too small to cover herself. Thinking quickly, she covered her face and walked to her room.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by SecondWindNC

I'm guessing that would be to cover the name so that nobody knows it's you sitting there high and dry!

Exactly - Pacific Yachting used to have annual article about the boats that ran aground in the vicinity of Gabriola Island. The photos were of the transoms. The rock at the entrance to Silva Bay is called Shipyard Rock.

There is also a rock and a reef in the Ganges area both named "Moneymaker."

[CalebD]

I had not even considered the embarrassment factor of our grounding. Since it wasn't my boat I did not care as I was not the skipper, just along as crew. We were mostly concerned that the boat would eventually topple over once all the water was gone so we tip toed around the boat while on the hard.
We were quickly enveloped by darkness anyway.
Note to self: bring along a towel big enough to cover boat's name and hailing port.

[speciald]

I stood my C&C with a wing keel in the ICW on a falling tide. Luckily, I had a dinghy and set two anchors out on each side. The water got so shallow the depthfinder transducer came out of the water. We sat there for 8 hours until the tide returned. I also hit a world war II concrete barge in the St. John's River while doing about 8 knots - that was a sudden stop. My wife reminds me that I have run our current boat aground at the same place twice in Road Town Harbor. You havn't been sailing long enough if you havn't run aground.

[FishSticks]

Hadn't hear about the towel trick.

If you're transiting the Anisquam Canal in Cape Ann it's advisable to bring a clam fork.