Another candidate for the Darwin Award

Texas Lake Sailor · Jul 6, 2009

Mistakes I've made

Gards, where do you keep your boat? I have a Hunter 30 at Sail & Ski. With 24 years in the Navy and 30 years sailing I have made, survived and learned from many mistakes. Some self induced and others, just events. But going out with no prep or a plan is foolish. Pushing your experience is good, going off half-cocked can get yourself or some rescuer killed.

gards · Jul 6, 2009

Texas Lake Sailor said:
Gards, where do you keep your boat? I have a Hunter 30 at Sail & Ski. With 24 years in the Navy and 30 years sailing I have made, survived and learned from many mistakes. Some self induced and others, just events. But going out with no prep or a plan is foolish. Pushing your experience is good, going off half-cocked can get yourself or some rescuer killed.

I, too, am at Sail & Ski (Still have a hard time not calling it Yacht Harbor). I completely agree with your statement.

I'm still very much new at this having only started sailing in '05. Perhaps you know Greg White, he's been my instructor for the ASA certs I've completed so far, he's also at Sail & Ski?

Genny Sea · Jul 6, 2009

Being a corn field sailor, I bought a Boatex 12 dinghy to learn sailing. Within 2 years I had spent more on replacement parts than I did the original fully loaded boat. My favorite foul up was failing to pin the mast to the step. I turned turtle in 45 feet of water and lost mast, main, and jib. Many, many tanks of air were spent scuba diving to no avail. The entire Cedar Valley Search and Recovery team did no better. The little things DO count, don't they!

captas · Jul 6, 2009

re: Darwin Award

For those few of us professional captains that "came up through the ranks" (not Sea School 90 hour wonders) the stupidity of most new amateur sailors is beyond believable.
Where have these people put their common sense? We all make mistakes, no matter how much knowledge & experience we have, but come on folks, sailing ain't rocket science. Read Royce's Sailing illustrated & spend a few days on the water & you've pretty much got the basics.
At 5 or 6 miles an hour most mistakes are recoverable, if one keeps their eyes open & pays attention to their surroundings (again add a little common sense).
Don't be foolish; If you are getting into yachting, read a book or two, then hire a captain for a couple of days to show you a few things & save yourself, your friends & boat a possibly catastrophic experience.
Even a great chess player must player a better player to improve.

kenn · Jul 6, 2009

I'm just happy that garylinger was around to help, so that the result was one chastened rookie, and one funny story, instead of something worse.

Our boat is small, and fortunately so are most of my mistakes. And since most were only witnessed by my wife (who is sworn to secrecy), it's as if they never happened.

Being in a big city, we see our share of jerks, experienced or otherwise, on the water. Fortunately, the majority are conscientious and look out for fellow boaters. One of the reasons I enjoy boating so much.

John · Jul 6, 2009

It's hard to know, from the description of this particular incident, whether these people were careless, unthinking idiots, or jost somebody who didn't know enough and got in over their depth, so to speak. Why would we assume the former?

I do know that a lot of people who've been doing something a long time tend to lookd own on anybody who makes rookie mistakes. They've forgotten all the rookie mistakes they made! And let's not forget this: None of us, no matter how expert, is immune from most of those same mistakes. The only difference is that the more experienced person makes the mistakes more subtly and less frequently. So, when we see somebody making a mistake, we should really thank them for teaching us... provided we're willing to take a real look at ourselves, which is to say to learn from them.

Then, of course, we can go on to try to show them what they've done wrong, if they're willing to listen.

Tim R. · Jul 6, 2009

This is so far beyond a rookie mistake. I am going to make a prediction here. Some guy saw a great deal on a sailboat on Ebay and bought it(without a proper survey I am sure). How hard can it really be to sail it home? It floats so it must be worthy of the trip right?

Confession: I made a rookie mistake when I started sailing in salt water. No bottom paint on my San Juan 21. I thought I would use it enough not to need any in our cold Maine waters.

abk · Jul 6, 2009

I have posted my mishap here when the Forestay came loose and I wondered why the boom was lowering itself into the cockpit... I first thought the topping lift had let go... It was the Forestay... I came out without a major mishap... But I posted the story here and now check clevis pins, cotters and everything else... I received many thanks from members who said the check I mentioned was now on their list.

When everything goes right, you learn very little... You do learn more from mistakes. Posting them here has been a great source of knowledge for many people, including me.

Keep the mistakes coming, share them with everyone and you too will be able to help out many people who will learn from your errors too!!!

Safe Sailing to all!!!

ABK

John · Jul 6, 2009

My biggest one

abk said:
I have posted my mishap here when the Forestay came loose and I wondered why the boom was lowering itself into the cockpit... I first thought the topping lift had let go... It was the Forestay... I came out without a major mishap... But I posted the story here and now check clevis pins, cotters and everything else... I received many thanks from members who said the check I mentioned was now on their list.

When everything goes right, you learn very little... You do learn more from mistakes. Posting them here has been a great source of knowledge for many people, including me.

Keep the mistakes coming, share them with everyone and you too will be able to help out many people who will learn from your errors too!!!

Safe Sailing to all!!!

ABK

Taking Bruce on his:
My biggest mistake was recent, in redoing the running rigging on my boat. I took off the old rigging, took it in to the rigger, and reinstalled the rigging they'd built. I mean, how hard can it be to reinstall something like that? You can clearly tell how it comes off and goes back on.

The cupulas on the top end of the lower shrouds were slightly differently shaped from the previous ones and were considerably smaller than the holes that the rigging ran through. I never really thought about this, and the fact that not enough was bearing in the holes. I swear that the old rigging didn't have larger cupulas on it; at least I never saw it. (The mast was down at the time.)

Well, the lower shrouds pulled through on the starboard side. Fortunately, there wasn't much wind so the boat wasn't dismasted, but it put a bend in the mast. The result is that I have to replace the mast - a $15,000 (more or less) job. Fortunately, my insurance is paying for it. I'm not sure if it's the bend or a crease down near the deck, which may or may not be related to this event.

In any case, it could have caused really serious damage and/or hurt somebody badly. Lesson: Things may not be as clear and obvious as they seem, and when I'm doing something so new, next time I'll find somebody more experienced at least to watch over me.

How different is that from this sailor in the situation described in the original post? A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing!

NotCook · Jul 6, 2009

abk said:
When everything goes right, you learn very little... You do learn more from mistakes. Posting them here has been a great source of knowledge for many people, including me.

ABK

I have to agree with Bruce. My favorite definition of "Experience" is:

Experience is what you get, when you don't get what you want!

One of my other favorite sayings is:

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you!

I have lots of "Experience", in flying, skydiving, sailing, and in business...

Brian

druid · Jul 6, 2009

I would say the biggest (perhaps ONLY) mistake the guy made was not to have the boat surveyed before he bought it. You think EVERYONE who's out sailing even knows where their exhaust riser is, let alone how to check it? He make the almost-fatal mistake of assuming the boat was in "sailaway" condition when he bought it. He was obviously not capable of making that assessment himself - his mistake was not realizing it.

In fact, I'm a little confused myself. Both the boats I've owned with inboard engines had the riser above water level, and a gooseneck in the exhaust, and the outlet above the waterline. And the cooling water line was looped above WL so there was no siphoning if the impeller failed. So, I can't see how a leaking riser would let water in (certainly not at a rate that couldn't be equalled by a bailing bucket, which is REQUIRED). What kind of boat was it?

druid

Dan H · Jul 7, 2009

You think EVERYONE who's out sailing even knows where their exhaust riser is, let alone how to check it?

driud,
I think you'd be floored by the number of people that know absolutely nothing about engines that are out here sailing.

Tim R. · Jul 7, 2009

I checked on Ebay for sailboats with A4s recently sold in the Annapolis area and came up with a 1978 Pearson 30. Description said average condition. No mention of anything glaringly wrong although they encouraged personal inspection. Sold for $3,750.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Pear...em335364cd60QQitemZ220442447200QQptZSailboats

Ken Honeycutt · Jul 7, 2009

Speaking of Darwin Awards

http://www.bwsailing.com/BWS_newsandnotes_Yacht-vs-surf-See-the-pictures.html

Or maybe this should go under the heading of "What were they thinking".

Dick Westwood · Jul 7, 2009

trial and error

The first motorbike I bought was in London. I'd never driven one before. But I went to the dealer's and got a cheap second-hand machine. They had to explain to me how the controls worked (the throttle, the gears, the clutch…)

Then I drove it away. I had to execute an immediate right angled turn across traffic. I was hanging on for dear life, terrified. Couldn't do the turn and get out of first simultaneously, so the engine's screaming (and so probably am I). After a couple of miles, though, I had it down. (Or thought I did, until a few weeks later when I encountered slippery road surfaces.)

I was just a kid. This is how a lot of us learn, especially at that age. I'm an old guy now, and – before venturing out on a sailboat – took an expensive course of lessons. Things change.

Nothing to do with Darwin, just maturity and sense, vs courage and a steep learning curve. Darwin awards should go to the incurably stupid, for whom experience provides no lessons. Plenty of those out on my local waters. Probably plenty of them where you live too. But your "totally inexperienced guy" is probably learning VERY fast, and he'll soon be able to warn us about things we'd never considered!

zeehag · Jul 7, 2009

Re: trial and error

we ALLLL foul up--there is a big gap between learning from a teacher and going out on your own and doing---that gap is called learning quotient---lol----the ones who donot have this are dockriders who enjoy cocktails on theirt boats and brag they have them....ALL sailors mess up.... all sailors go aground--is whether we admit it ---- i wish the guy goood luck and a better surveyor next round lol.....we allll need that.....fair winds....

Ed A · Jul 7, 2009

This story series reminded me of a friend who ran aground in tampa bay years ago, He was sailing a fixed keel daysailor with no motor. while racing he decided to tack close to a bar and promply ran aground.
Later he told us he did what the book said. tried to get it off then decided it was time to pull the mast over to got off. he collected his anchor and chain and about 50 feet of rode and jumped in from the from the cockpit and promply sunk to the bottom some 15 feet deep, He also learned when you fall in with someting in your hand, instinct kicks in and you tend to hold on... in this case to the anchor.

He bubbled up a few moments later spitting out sea water, and all turned out fine..

lots of lessons in retrospect...

Another candidate for the Darwin Award

Texas Lake Sailor

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