What is the Weirdest Thing You Have Ever Found on a Boat

PaulK

.
Dec 1, 2009
1,222
Sabre 402 Southport, CT
Did you have them scrambled or fried? My father used to have Canada geese lay eggs in his waterside window boxes. He invited the head of the Audubon Society over for omelets. You had to wait for the geese to leave before grabbing the eggs.

To get back on thread... We also had barnswallows start nesting in the transom hole for our MOB pole one year, when we launched early and didn’t get out for a week or so. Couldn’t figure out why the birds were following us around after we dropped the mooring lines, but then noticed the scraps of grass sticking out of the housing. Sorry, birds...
 
Last edited:

DougM

.
Jul 24, 2005
2,242
Beneteau 323 Manistee, MI
Had problems with sparrows building nests deep in the end of the boom. They wrapped their nesting materials around all the internal lines. That was a mess to clear out. It usually happened in they few days between uncovering in the spring and launching. It took awhile to figure out how to stop it... stuffed a beer can into the boom end each fall. Cost: 10 cent Michigan can deposit.
 
Mar 29, 2017
576
Hunter 30t 9805 littlecreek
I bought a trailer sailor down. In NC. For nice old man. in cabin a tv VCR combo. After got boat home kids and neighbors kids playing in cabin turned on tv and u guessed it old man left a porno in VCR Another boat trailer boat I picked up owner gave me a 5 gal bucket of parts and sails that I threw into hatch of SUV. Had a long drive and it was cold so headed out when along comes a snake slithering up leg on gas pedal. I hit brakes with other foot and slammed in park jumped out car running around getting all stuff out car and looking for more snakes kept turning on light whole way home looking for more snakes
 
Mar 1, 2012
2,182
1961 Rhodes Meridian 25 Texas coast
I work for a very large hydraulics manufacturer . We use JIS , Japanese Industrial Standard , BTW .NPT, SAE , BSPP,, ORING FACE SEAL , fittings Sometimes on the same test component !
The strangest thing I found on a boat ? A previous owners idea of how to wire a stereo or the vhf .
I need to talk to you-
call me tomorrow when you have time
 

TomY

Alden Forum Moderator
Jun 22, 2004
2,758
Alden 38' Challenger yawl Rockport Harbor
The weirdest thing I've found - so far - on my old boat was a message. I was in the midst of this when I noticed some writing on the oak beam (below the sawzall), I'd just uncovered.

Demolition- Binnacle removed (1 of 1).jpg


In fact, there were two messages scrawled in pencil from two workers who were beneath the cockpit sole in the past 50 years, at different times.

Message on a beam (1 of 1).jpg


Message 1 says: 'Don't you hate this kind of job?'

Message 2 replys: 'Be content with what god gives you. Consider it a challenge' (likely tongue in cheek for this boat; Alden Challenger).

The messages are still there on the oak beam which remained after a new cockpit was dropped onto it.

To see them, you lower yourself into the open manhole in the cockpit sole - facing the engine - and lay back until your head is under the binnacle.

Before I'm done, I'll add a third message to the beam. Any ideas on what it should say?

Cockpit coamings.jpg
 

GSBNY

.
May 9, 2019
138
O’Day 192 New York
I was crash boat for an Optimist regatta and of course one of the boats flipped. When I got over to the sailor I realized it was the kid who didn’t speak, he just sat and stared at people. It also doesn’t help that he looks exactly like a Chucky doll and all that together gave me the creeps a bit whenever I was around the kid.

Anyway, I see all the stuff from his Opti is floating down the bay so I go to pick it up. I pull up to the small debris field and grab a hat, water bottle, sandle, and then see a black thing bobbing next to a bag of chips. It was a giant fillet knife.

I don’t know if it came from the kid’s boat but what are the odds the rest of his stuff magically ended up right next to it in the middle of the bay. I hid the knife on my boat, gave him the rest of his stuff, never said a word about it. I can’t prove it came off his boat but the odds are pointing that way.

Every time I see the kid now all I can think of is:

424D06A4-935F-4C04-9013-7EB822F369FF.jpeg
 
Sep 24, 2018
2,549
O'Day 25 Chicago
I saw this on one of those crime investigation shows a few years ago. After years of investigation authorities narrowed their search to a sailor who sails the same route every couple of months. It turns out he had glassed a few bricks of cocaine (if memory serves me correctly) into the bottom of his boat
 
Dec 9, 2019
2
Catalina 36 mk1 Gibsons
When I did the first oil change on my boat I found the PO had installed a fuel filter instead of an oil filter. Remarkable that the threading was compatible. Also found plumbing tape on almost all the propane gas line connectors.
 
Dec 29, 2008
805
Treworgy 65' LOA Custom Steel Pilothouse Staysail Ketch St. Croix, Virgin Islands
The previous owner’s dirty underwear. Ewwwww!