Down but not out in Kansas

[John Dasenbrock]

Those of you who pull your boats each fall and are overanxious to put in early in the spring will understand. I have a 1979 Catalina 25 #1513 that my wife says should be named "The Other Woman" instead of "Home Office". My story. The water hoses had never been changed and were, you know, kind of sticky on the outside and the water on board was turning pretty fast, so I decided to replace them over the winter. I pulled them all. Spring came and I was anxious to get into the water. Everything went without a hitch. I put in on a Saturday the 11th of March, took the trailer back to the yard, and motored to my slip. I spent a lot of time going forward to check the new hole I had drilled for a new knot meter I had installed, but didn't really think about anything else. I had made a list of all the things I had to do to get in the water and had decided that I would install my new water hoses after I was slipped. I used all six of my dock lines and tightened things up tighter than I normally do. Kissed my baby good night and went to town. The following Tuesday, I and my wife decided to take the sails out to the boat. As we crossed the bridge, I looked over, as I always do, for my first glimpse of my blue hulled girl. I didn't see her. I thought, well, I don't have the sail cover on so...I made a joke that my boat had sunk. I looked again, and I can't repeat here what I said. I looked again and the top of my mast was not as high as some of the other boats close by. Joan says that she has never seen me walk so fast and talk so strangely as I did as I approached our slip. There she was...the whole 25 feet of her, plus a foot of her mast..UNDER WATER. You can only imagine, but never feel what I felt at that moment. The only thing that saved her was the tight dock lines, she was hanging on them. When they brought her up the next day they told me that when I had closed my valves in the fall, before taking her out, that some debris had gotten in the way and I only partially closed the valve. During the season, I don't normally close my valves, and only close and open them when I pull out or put in. Why have I humiliated myself before the nation and not just my marina? This story had two morales: 1) Close your valves when you leave your boat. 2) Never, never ever pull a hose from a thru hull without replacing it immediately.Condolences are accepted at MiakaY6401@aol.com

 

[Chane Lee]

Sinking feeling

John:Recall what I read in LOG newspaper back to January 2000. Somewhere about 840 recreation boat was sunk during 1999. Amount all of them, around 800 were sunk in the harbor, mooring, or slip. What am I trying to say? You are not alone.

 

[Jim]

There are others in the same boat

Don't feel too bad. My first sail boat was a Catalina 22. This particular model has one thru hull for the cockpit and sink drains. Not long after owning her and on a nice fall day, we returned to the marina where I did your trick of tying up tight and making sure thru-hulls were closed. Remember how I said the thru hull was also for the cockpit drain? Next week, 18" of rain. Boat sunk.Wrote a checklist of things to do before leaving boat and modified it to include the thru hull. Even assigned responsibilities. One month later took a co-worker sailing. Gave him the checklist and he did like he was supposed to per list. Unfortunately, El Capitan had forgotten who he put in charge of the thru hull and got to it first (opening it). So my crew did as the checklist stated and "rotated the thru hull 1/4 turn." (closing it). The good news was I already knew how to bail out a Catalina 22 when I check the boat three weeks later!Lessons(1) If you assign a task to someone, you should check to see if they do it, but don't do it yourself without telling them.(2) Make sure checklists really have what you want done, e.g., thru hull is OPEN instead of rotate thru hull 1/4 turn.(3) Label thru hulls so that OPEN and CLOSED are obvious to anyone.

 

[Dennis Thomas]

Rats!

I had a similar experience several years ago when my Catalina 25' became the temporary home to a rat. He came in through the clam shell vent on the stern and intered the cabin though the access panel at the back of the quarter berth. After gnawing a few cushion corners, he set in on the fresh water lines. The hose from the deck plate to the tank was completely seperated! The worst, however, was the hole just a half inch above the visible water level above the the through-hull for the head sink! After that I never leave the through hulls open -ever- when I leave the boat. Remember, this varmint did all this damage from one weekend to the next in the busiest time of year at our marina. And my boat was past dozens of other boats from the shore. After getting rid of the rat and repairing the damage, I cut squares of steel hardware cloth to fit inside the clam shell vents to prevent future incursions.