Finding Obscure Sailboat Items (and a sorry story to go with it).

Kings Gambit · Apr 13, 2020

Send down a diver? :huh:

One of those boat-bottom scrubber guys. They’re are pretty good at finding stuff.

Justin_NSA · Apr 13, 2020

I dropped my prescription glasses over the side in 6' of murky water in my slip. I wasn't about to give up. I'm 5' 11" but I found them with my toes!

dlochner · Apr 13, 2020

If the bottom is silty and soft mud, some geologist might find it in a few millennia.

You could try second hand and marine salvage yards. There are some in Florida and Maine and probably elsewhere.

It might just be easier to buy new hawse pipe. won't be an exact match, but hopefully close enough.

rgranger · Apr 13, 2020

Machine shop?
Cover your pipe with a Walmart bag... smash some clay over the pipe to make a mold. Cut and smooth the above-pile clay to the approx right shape and let the clay dry. Then bring your mold to a machine shop. If it gets too pricy have a wood worker use the mold to make you a gorgeous wooden one out a small piece of some exotic hard wood.... oil it up and have the most salty pipe cover at the marina.

jssailem · Apr 13, 2020

With a picture in hand and the dimensions check out one of the few left consignment chandlers. Poulsbo, WA has a great one. Longship Marine

FastOlson · Apr 13, 2020

There are couple of local Portland are guys that dive for lost "stuff" around our moorage, and it's all 6 to 8 feet deep at low tide. I might be misremembering, but seems like you can expect to pay about $100.
By the time you track down a replacement part or have one made you might be out more than that. Maybe.
Curiosity -- what marina are you in? (I moor @ RCYC.)

Benny17441 · Apr 13, 2020

Was working on the swim platform at the stern of the boat when I felt a "plop" in the water, thought it was a fish. A few minutes afterwards I conducted my customary routine check by passing my hand over my wallet pocket and it wasn't there. Had my "oh crap" moment and tried to figure what I could do. Tried to scrub the bottom with a pool net to no avail. Called my diver and he said he could be there the following morning. When he got here I asked him if he had a torch because it was cloudy and the water murky. No he did not, but suited up and dropped over the side of the dock. After a little while came up and said he could not see anything down there that he was feeling the bottom by touch. He went back down again but I was loosing hope thinking it may drifted overnight with the tide. Next thing I see is his hand with my wallet in it. I asked him to invoice his visit together his monthly bottom cleaning and he said no that he only charged for cleanings that favors were on him. I had to force him to accept a tip of a wet and soggy $20 bill.

Kings Gambit · Apr 13, 2020

Bottom scrubbers working in my marina, i.e., already suited up, charge $20 to retrieve something from the bottom. I just wait until I see one, working, then wave him over and request the recovery dive. I remember one time not finding it in say 10 min or so; I paid anyway although he wanted to decline it.

dasreboot · Apr 14, 2020

did an ebay search for anchor pipe and saw a bunch of them. make sure to search in ebay motors

Justin_NSA · Apr 14, 2020

Slightly off topic: I would have liked to find out how they scrub bottoms in the BVIs. When we picked up our charter cat at Conch, I peered over and saw sharks swimming amongst the boats. I hate sharks! Do they move boats to a net-protected area to scrub them?

thinwater · Apr 14, 2020

Dive. It's part of being a sailor. I can't imagine not having the required gear to go in the water to solve a problem, in any season I sail in. It seems like a basic safety matter to me. What if it was a person you need to go get, or a fouled prop or rudder, no diver available, and a storm coming? A leak that needs tended from underneath? Something you really need to inspect or you fouled some fishing gear?

capta · Apr 14, 2020

Justin_NSA said:
Slightly off topic: I would have liked to find out how they scrub bottoms in the BVIs. When we picked up our charter cat at Conch, I peered over and saw sharks swimming amongst the boats. I hate sharks! Do they move boats to a net-protected area to scrub them?

More than likely, those sharks weren't at all dangerous. There are only a few places you could go in the VI where you would find dangerous sharks, and they aren't where sailors often go.

capta · Apr 14, 2020

In thick gooy mud, it is almost impossible to recover items dropped. They will continue to sink deeper and deeper in the mud as time goes on, until you'd have to plow the bottom to get it back up.
The used chandleries, as mentioned above, are your best bet.

Pirate Dave · Apr 14, 2020

You can replace the whole hawse pipe and cover. Defender has them for $55-75.

Kings Gambit · Apr 14, 2020

Sharks are potentially dangerous when they are larger than you are, which seems true of most wild animals. Also, if there are many in the vicinity, and something stimulates “mass attack.” However, certain species such as nurse sharks, even if large, probably would not attack. The first dorsal fin of nurse sharks is far back over the pelvics; whereas, for reef (requiem) sharks, the potentially dangerous types, it’s mid-body. Kind of like recognizing the difference between venomous and non-venomous snakes if spending much time in wooded habitats. Still, it’s a bit unnerving to be in the water amidst sharks, no matter

.

jssailem · Apr 14, 2020

Kings Gambit said:
it’s a bit unnerving to be in the water amidst sharks

Especially if your bottom fishing with a snorkel and they are hungry...
Tried it off La Jolla Shores in my youth. Gave up my fish, and a couple of my cat lives, to the bigger predator of the sea.

rgranger · Apr 14, 2020

Kings Gambit said:
Kind of like recognizing the difference between venomous and non-venomous snakes

One of my daughters is a biologist and she often tells people... "Venomous snakes have slit shaped pupils and non-venomous snakes have round pupils. "

My response was... so! You get up close and look in their eyes... and if you get bit in the face, they are probably poisonous :facepalm:

Finding Obscure Sailboat Items (and a sorry story to go with it).

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