A day in the life of a rookie boat owner

Dan Hill · May 5, 2012

I have made many sacrificial offerings to Neptune thru the years. BBQ tongs, 2 beach towels, fav sailing hat, car keys (took that one back thank you!), countless stainless steel hardware components (he likes those best I've found). Consider it insurance so he doesn't eye the whole boat

Scott · May 5, 2012

Welcome to Chesapeake sailing

To paraphrase a saying which I can't quote: There are 3 kinds of sailors on the bay; those who have run aground; those who are about run aground; and those who lie about running agound:dance:. In addition, if you don't run aground, you're missing alot of nice gunk holes and aren't exploring much

. As for losing something overboard; if it's stainless steel, you'll invariably hear a "ping" followed by "kerplunk."

Have fun and welcome!

njwtech · May 5, 2012

I lost a phone out of my shirt pocket last month. I don't know what kind of calling plan Neptune has, but he has a really nice (less than a month old) Samsung Galaxy S II now. Now I make sure that whatever shirt I wear to the boat has no pockets. It went in fresh water, and I probably could have repaired it if I had gone after it right away, but the visibility in this marina is about 2 feet, and I didn't know where the alligator was... :O

Kordie · May 5, 2012

I stepped off my boat and was looking down. Neptune has a brand new $200 set of reading glasses now.

Wanted to get a diver but was told the mud was soft and deep and with the huge boat next door going out they would be impossible to find.

Like sunglasses, I cannot lose a $20 pair but if I spend $100 on them they are gone within a week.....

Sail123 · May 5, 2012

I have lost a couple things over the side, but with my little friend and some line, I have always gotten my stuff back.

$15 and freight. I keep it ready to go, and it never fails me.

I keep a silicone cover on my iPhone, so it does not slip out of my pocket, I have to wrestle it out each time.

http://www.harborfreight.com/retrieving-magnet-250-lb-pull-36905.html

Dan Hill · May 6, 2012

Gary you'll need a wee bit more line for my sailing waters, 300+ feet

. Besides... that magnet wont work on the good stuff, SS and my hat lol.

kloudie1 · May 6, 2012

Phone goes with wallett and keys into the nav station as soon as I am aboard.. but I have lost one set of keys.. bungie in pocket.. pulled out and sproing... the keys flew out and landed 50 or so feet away in the slipway.. luckily, she had a spare set in her purse. Have lost one winch handle, a few screwdrivers, a bunch of bearings from the Harken roller furler. a few caps/hats, one 100 foot coil of nice double braid.. regulator from the Magma BBQ pit. a flashlight.. Ya gonna lose things.. sounds like a lot, but this is over a 25 year span..

gpdno · May 6, 2012

Keys are on a floaty key chain, iPhone goes in a waterproof pouch I can hand on the binnacle or my pocket, wallet just goes a draw in the cabin. Never lost a thing... Yet

inarathree · May 6, 2012

Hand held VHF, was the most expensive, but I miss my whisker pole the most.

healeyman · May 8, 2012

Hey McZube , U don't have to be new at this to lose stuff. How about glasses, cell phone, belt, towel, and the wife (recovered). I know there are some other things...Now I leave the cell below, and my glasses have a lanyard. ....I bought a magnet... no help... Hey, it is part of the experience... I always wear a life preserver when I step in the dock... Yes, have slipped and fallen in the water by the dock.... and had to hauled out by dock mates... hey , it is part of the boating experience.... Just do it... the up side is much greater than the down side... And US BOAT, towing insurance is the best deal on the water.

ENJOY.... Dave

healeyman · May 8, 2012

I just wonder what else will hit the drink... my biggest fear: a hatch cover

dparilla · May 8, 2012

Two screwdrivers, 3 hats, one winch handle, one bimini cover, one helm cover, one handheld vhf, 1 drivers license, the magnet I bought to retrieve things from the bottom...and oh yeah...my wife (though I got her back). The screwdrivers and bimini cover were the only things I have dropped so far. My father in law was responsible for everything except the helm cover and the friends drivers license.

TerryGufshoz · May 10, 2012

When I took possession of our '95 Hunter 29.5, I went from a swing keel drawing 2 1/2 ft. to a fixed 4 ft winged keel. I used the swing keel on the O'Day 23 as a depth finder, so I got pretty casual about the thickness of the water and sandbars. I only ran aground twice while getting it home, but luckily my son and I were able to kedge her off to deeper water. During the next month I hit bottom once more (I never claimed to be a fast learner) and my wife buried the keel enough to require a commercial tow. My only intelligence showed when I did purchase towing insurance prior to picking up the boat. We do keep a close eye on the channel markers now.
I must say that my "luck" has changed since I no longer forget to share an occasional libation with Poseidon. ; )

JonnyQuest · May 10, 2012

Way down in the Bayous of Louisiana I managed to kick my fancy brass bell into the water while heading forwards from the cockpit. CLANG, BANG, kerploop! Followed by long string of new words that the kids shared with others in preschool --doh!

Funny thing was that Neptune wasn't about to let me retrieve my bell either. Each time I'd get ready to jump in he'd send an alligator or two over to my boat in the harbor. Those gators parked off my boat for two days straight until I gave up on my bell.

Score: Neptune 1, Jonny Quest 0

Updated score is probably like 15:3 in Neptune's favor.

Dave Groshong · May 10, 2012

Hahhahhaha, thanks for sharing! I've owned about 15 sailboats: the first one I bought, I ran aground, found my way off, and got home safely.

Rick D · May 10, 2012

Retrieval Magnets; A Story

Sail123 said:
I have lost a couple things over the side, but with my little friend and some line, I have always gotten my stuff back.

$15 and freight. I keep it ready to go, and it never fails me.

I keep a silicone cover on my iPhone, so it does not slip out of my pocket, I have to wrestle it out each time.

The following appeared here many years ago. I kept it (without attribution) because it is so funny and since we can see ourselves in this same situation:

"I bought a 150 lb magnet (that is the lifting ability not the weight of the magnet). My slip is in about 45’ of water and over time I have dropped an assortment of wrenches, car keys, bolts, nuts, multiple pairs of sunglasses, irreplaceable parts to my roller furling, etc. I could just picture sending this magnet down on the end of a line and retrieving all sorts of treasures from the bottom. I even thought I might become the ‘man of the hour’ by helping my lesser-equipped dock mates retrieve their lost treasures. In essence this magnet was going to make me look really cool. The first lesson I learned with the magnet is one should never stand too close to a car with a powerful magnet in a thin plastic bag. According to modern physics, if a magnet is designed to lift 150 pounds, it takes 150 pounds of pulling power to get it off of the fender of a 1993 Mazda Miata. Also we discovered, Mazda paint jobs will not hold up against a sharp metal object being pressed against it with 150 pounds of pressure. One piece of advice, if you decide to test this theory, make sure the young attractive girl that owns the Miata (and you have been trying to get a date with her for months) is not in the proximity of the test area – oh well. The second lesson I learned is one should never place a very powerful magnet near an electronic component. Usually electronic components and magnets are natural enemies and the magnet is highest on the food chain. Like the lion and the zebra – the magnet wins. This includes the compass on your boat (actually it was one of my crew members that attached it to the rail around the compass). All of these problems seemed to be worth the effort in order for me to strut down the dock with my new purchase, tie it to a 50’ line, and pull untold treasures from the deep and impress my friends on the dock. As I calmly walked toward my slip, with my magnet sticking to my car keys thorough the thin plastic bag and my shorts, I beckoned to my dock mates to witness the miracle of reclaiming the abandoned and formerly lost treasures from the deep. Apparently, the confidence in my voice and the promise of untold treasures from the deep, caused a larger than normal crowd to gather on the dock. Without even stopping to unlock my boat, I retrieved an old anchor line from the dock box. While I straightened out the dock line, a friend of mine (powerboater – this distinction will become important in a minute) used all of his skills to tie the 150 pound magnet to the end of the dock line. As I slowly eased the magnet over the edge of the dock I learned my third magnet lesson. Floating docks have a great deal of metal below the waterline. Since the water is rather opaque, I had not noticed the brace 10’ below the waterline that ran between the ends of the finger piers to keep them from floating apart. Having no eyes and an unnatural attraction to large quantities of metal, my magnet did not suffer from the same handicap and firmly stuck to the brace. The fourth lesson I learned is to never let a power boater tie a knot on something that is going anywhere near the water. The fifth lesson (well ok I should not count this as a new lesson because I learned it with the Miata) is it TAKES 150 pounds of pulling to get the damn magnet off of a big piece of metal. YES – this was a new lesson because I was 10’ below the water, under my boat, holding my breath and pulling really hard. My sixth lesson was learned shortly after pulling the magnet free. One should never hold onto a heavy object underwater without some immediate means of support. Luckily I was able to reattach the magnet to the metal beam as I accelerated toward the bottom. Actually I think the magnet had more to do with this than I did. The seventh lesson I learned is one minute is a really long time to hold ones breath. The eighth lesson I learned is always look up when you are coming up under a boat. The ninth lesson I learned is you really run out of air fast when you are holding your head, seeing stars, and trying to find the surface. The tenth lesson I learned is never invite a large crowd of people to watch you try out any new piece of gear. The eleventh lesson I learned is never leave your cooler full of cold beer on the dock with ‘friends’ on a hot day while you dive underwater (hey they were laughing at me and drinking my beer!!). I don’t care what they say, one minute is way too short of time to declare someone dead and divide up their belonging. Now that I had the crowd warmed up, I decided to take my three-strand nylon anchor line and run it through the eyebolt of the magnet and back up to the surface. This way I would not have to risk a sudden trip to the bottom and I would not have to tie a knot underwater. Considering the day I was having this went amazingly well. It also gave those clowns on the dock a chance to get another round of drinks from my cooler Thinking ahead, for the first time that day, I realized that the support member was attached to the dock by a vertical piece of metal. Not wanting that evil magnet to reattach itself several times to the support member while it was on the way to the surface, I climbed onto the deck of my boat. When I pulled on the line I learned my twelfth lesson of the day (second physics lesson). A three-strand nylon line has roughly the stretching ability of a rubber band and while water has a natural resistance, it is not enough to keep a magnet from hitting the bottom of your boat on the way to the surface. I also learned that a magnet can scratch gelcoat as fast as it will scratch a Miata. In the end I finally got the magnet correctly tied to the line and on the bottom of the lake. After about an hour, with no beer remaining in my cooler and with only a small audience, I finally gave up on recapturing any treasure. The only thing the magnet was able to find was a great deal of rust shavings. I know the bottom of the lake under my boat is littered with all type of hardware, tools, coins, etc so I was amazed when the magnet failed to bring up even one small item. Maybe the fish are calmly swimming around with sunglasses, or they have constructed their own secret city out of all of the spare parts. All was not lost with the magnet. My fellow boaters now play ‘hand me the wrench’ with the magnet. This is a game they devised using the magnet, a metal wrench and a dockbox with a thin top. They first take the magnet and put it on the underside of the lid to the dockbox. They then attach a wrench to the top of the dockbox and close it so everything looks normal. They then pretend to be working on their boat. When the unsuspecting target of this game walks by, they ask him to hand them the wrench. It works every time and it is amazing how hilarious my dock mates find it when a new person joins the game. They seem to get particular joy in this game when they can think of new things to stick to the dock box or when they can catch someone more than once by using different bait. They even had someone hide in the dockbox to pull the magnet away when his partner showed the victim that the wrench did not weigh 150 pounds. The magnet also seems to be good for playing ‘throw the metal object over the magnet’, ‘the worlds largest refrigerator magnet’ (WARNING – apparently the magnet will scratch a Kenmore refrigerator as easily as it will a 1993 Mazda Miata), ‘find the car keys in your wife’s purse’, and a whole lot of other games. Hey we might not be too smart but we are easily entertained. In the end – I guess the magnet was worth the price."

dparilla · May 11, 2012

That is funny as hell! Thanks.

A day in the life of a rookie boat owner

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SBO Staff

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