Favorite oops stories of the season...

[OldCat]

Other than me failing to use Seafoam for two weeks and having paddle in when the OB would not idle (no harm no foul?), here are my three stories at someone else's expense for this season:

1. Sailor down the way doesn't think about spring lines and is stern to our famous Chinook winds. In the middle of the night the dock is a poor fender and the bow of his M'Greg is chewed nearly through. Frayed glass fibers abound.

2. I'd have sympathy for the newbies near me - but too much Mr. Alcohol has been observed & me tolerance is a little worn. They had bought an older boat nearly sight unseen with the assurance that everything was good to go. Except the standing rigging wasn't. And they ignored the advice of a local rigger. Add in a droopy spreader bar and the inevitable happens. They suffer a dismasting, at least nobody is hurt. Worse, when the mast goes back up, the stays are slack and the spreader bar still droopy. I understand a mistake - but it is hard to understand its repetition when there are so many around who would help. Add in that they are also stern to the winds as well, & of course, with poorly placed wimpy spring lines. At least someone finally got them to get their stays reasonably tightened. I'd have more sympathy, but the excess of alcohol and lack of listening just causes me to shake my head.

3. And best - or worst of all - this last one is a PB'er and thankfully nobody got hurt. I was on a biz trip recently and did a little marina crawling in the SF Bay area. An older gentleman walks into the marina office a little sheepish and starts to tell his story. The marina manager nods sympathetically & listens to the sad story of why he is leaving the marina. Apparently in the south bay there is a stub of old railroad bridge that sticks out past the supports of a larger higher road bridge. He hit the RR stub at night doing 12kts. Ripped to whole pilot house off his old classic PB. Big enough boat and he looked like he had all the money in the world for GPS, lights and FLIR. Plus, when you are used to conquering the Silicon Valley biz world at high speed - who needs education for a wheel and throttle & why would you slow down for a mere bridge?

At least no one was hurt. Sailor #1 learned his lesson, it won't happen again. I try to learn mine once as well, I am not sure about the other two.

OC

 

[Bill Roosa]

Segue is our 8-ball sailing dingy that we tow. The dagger board well pumps water into her if we forget to install the dishrag plug prior to taking off. We eventually catch it as she starts to sit low or we notice the water pumping in while looking for other boats behind us. We normally head up and use the motor to stay in irons while the Captain get on Segue and bails out/installs the plug. This is a pain and I don't like stopping expecially when we are on a nice run. sooo, We are sailing on a broad reach at close to hull speed and we see the water coming in. The lug-nut Captain get the less that completely thought through idea that we could just pull Segue in and he will jump on board, bail her out, install the plug, then the crew (5' lady who knows what to do in an emergency and older man with gout and not so much strength) will pull me in and I'll jump back on board. No alcohol was involved in this idea, honest. End up getting the painter wrapped around my leg, having to lean into Segue to keep it from constricting around my thigh and she lists to port and begins to fill with water. In a feat of amazing physical prowis, I manage to not kill myself but do end up in the water (yes martha I have a PFD on, I'm dumb not stupid) watching Bardi Sea sail away at 6+ knots with an inexperience crew. I'm thinking I should be doing more MOB drills with the crew at this point and assessing the swim to shore which is about a mile away. The First Mate turns the boat into the wind to stop her, She then bears off as expected and I'm facing her on a DDW run coming right at me. Boats are really big when they pass you going fast BTW. Of course the "grab him as we pass" technique is not successful but I did manage to grab Segue's gunnel and work my way to the stern. So now I'm being drug. In another feat of physical prowis I manage to haul myself into her. The First Mate turns the boat back onto the original course and throws me a dishrag and a pot to bail with. Strangely, Segue is not that full of water. Upon compleating my tasks the First Mate turns the boat till she is pinching at about 0.5 knots and I get pulled in.
Note to self, the crew needs training on the use of the life sling, and MOB drills, consider always trailing a knotted line, make an entry in the "getting under way" section of the boat operating instructions to prep the dingy.

 

[RECESS]

Decided to get a jump on going offshore and thought the fog would be less on the sound than it was on the river. Motored down to the sound. Once we got past the condo lights and in the marsh area where there are no lights....... ran aground. Called Boat US to come pull us off the river bank. Have not tried to leave in fog again. It was a light fog at that.

 

[dscribner]

Pam and I sailed to So. Freeport, not far from Freeport, ME, home of L.L. Bean's. The channel is fairly narrow and the charts say it's around 13' at mean low with 1' of water to the east shore . . . mean low. We anchored just outside the mooring field, between two boats in about 10 feet. Tide had already dropped a couple of feet so I felt secure in our location. We hopped in the dinghy and motored to that distant shore, about 1/4 mile away, tied off on the bank of what we thought was a state park and began to explore. An hour or so later, we returned to find the dinghy 100+ feet from the water, listing in a clam flat. SO, trying to be gallant and secure romantic rites for the evening (common, we're mostly guys here!) I told Pam to go to the rocky outcropping, I'd pick her up there. I began to push, pull, grunt and groan to make that 100 feet to the water. I finally reached the waterline, another 10 feet to float, right? The water ended up being 3 inches deep for over 1/4 mile across that clam flat. Oddly enough, that was 1/2 of the depth of the mud we were mucking our way through. We . . . at this point, my armor was so badly tarnished that my lady in waiting had joined the fray. It took about 45 minutes to reach water deep enough to motor. Another 10 when we found out that was a small low spot in the clam flat. Then, we finally got to the boat, filthy, smelly. We cleaned up OK, and as I made supper in the "galley", I watched the rocks a couple of hundred feet away become more and more exposed. At about 5 feet under our keel, the tide turned and I felt pretty good about the location.

That night, after supper, at about Merlot:30, a beautiful full moon rose over the harbor in a cerulean sky. Gorgeous . . . and romantic. I fell asleep in the cockpit; Pam slept in the salon, both on the port side of the boat. In the morning, we both woke at the same time. This is unusual, but not as unusual as the angle the boat is listing at! I quickly moved to starboard and assured my lovely bride that it was only because we were both on the same side. I made breakfast in the galley, the center of the galley, and watched those same rocks, a couple of hundred feet away, now fully exposed and creeping oh-so-slowly away from the water. We ate, lounged, read, on opposite sides of the boat for a few hours while the tide receded and returned. At low, I took a "sounding". I dropped a line over the side into 15" of water! Our keel was NOW embedded 15"+ in that mud. The boats down river slowly rotated, one group at a time. Then another group closer to us, then another past us, until all the boats were facing the incoming tide except us! Finally, while I was checking my eyelids for pinholes, all the shadows began to travel past my face. I quickly shortened my scope and we made ready. While motoring out, I wasn't sure if I should have put a bag over my head in shame, or passed a hat from boat to boat. Every good show deserves appreciation.

Don (name withheld)

Biddeford, ME

 

[sailormanbigd]

thouggt i would be cool and salty to sail away from the crowded holiday weekend island. Wind was blowing off island and out, hoisted main and jib while on anchor, got out to pull anchor with admiral at helm, pulled anchor and headed boat out from water only to have gf sail back into island, pushed bow out again instructing to turn and sail out, sails filled and took off, me hanging to coaming, "turn,Turn" i said. I can't came the reply. After dragging me along way, got inside and released the tiller tamer-oops my bad! wonder how we missed all them anchored boats-i never looked back to see who was watching us! Nobody i hope it was Southcoast 22 sweetsue

 

[Cool Beans]

Decided first week of April to pull the mast for a quick re-rig, new lights, and look over the mast compression post. . .looks easy on paper, shouldn't take but a couple weeks. . .

OOPS. . .

96 days later the mast goes back up. . .going on 7 months and still haven't been sailing this year

LoL

 

[Indysailor]

Good one today. Coming into the dock, my wife asked me to give the outboard a quick burst of reverse. I never look back to change from forward to neutral or reverse, so I just reached back and tapped the lever all the way back. Or so I thought- turns out I must have dragged my hand across the lever and put it back into forward (still pondering how this happened, actually). It was also pretty breezy across the beam coming in and I was occupied more with actually getting into the slip than monitoring my speed. Needless to say after another ten yards, she said- "is that reverse?" (and ever so politely, I might add).

I put it in reverse, but she still had to provide the muscle to keep the bow from smacking the dock. Then the stern started drifting towards my slip mate's, but at least this time I was enough on the ball to use the outboard to bring it back over to my side.

I should just let her bring the boat in; she's better at it than I am anyway, but today was gusty and she always lets me sail the boat when the wind pipes up. That's fine by me because at least I can figure out the wind.

 

[eliems]

Seriously embarrassing as I am showing off my new Remote Control for the Auto-Pilot holding it up so the Yacht next to me could see me click the button for a 10 degree adjustment as my wife back in the cockpit lets go of the wheel ... next thing I know the boat is doing a 360 at 6 knots and a complete circle before she realizes she had not engaged the auto-pilot.

The guy in the yacht is holding his hands out, shaking his head and I am looking for a place to hide

 

[PrincessoftheLake]

I think my best one was as part of shutting up Emmanuel at the end of a long weekend I went around and shut all the through hulls making a mental note to not forget to open them all up the next time up. A couple of weekends later I am back on the boat and did remember to open up the thru hulls for the head and the sink and the reverse heat cycle pump. The next morning motoring out through the breakwater and heading for the open lake I am at the helm and I knew something about the rumbling of the Yanmar sounded off. I am standing there puzzling over this and trying to figure out why it sounds funny when the engine over temp buzz goes off and scares the living daylights out of me. I holler for the crew in the cabin to pull the kill switch. Luckily we are in no danger and have plenty of time to get the sails up. Once we are underway again I am down in the cabin with the engine cover pulled off. There is no anti freeze in the engine bilge and it doesn't even smell hot. So I sit and think about what could be causing the over heat when all of the sudden it dawns on me. I dive into the aft cabin, rip open the lazarette and hey, what a surprise-the fresh water thru hull for the diesel is CLOSED. I rotated the handle to open, started the Yanmar back up and heard the reassuing spit of water as she chugged away. That's what was missing as I was motoring out of the marina-the water pump discharge. Sheesh. I am blaming it on the blond hair.

 

[sinnettc]

I rebedded most of the hardware on my cabin this year, including the mast tabernacle. Got to the lake, got the mast up, and realized the @#$# tabernacle, is twisted port to starboard. Dumba** me didn't mark the centers before I removed it and obviously wasn't seeing straight when I bolted it in place. I sailed with it that way all season and it worked ok. Now that it's on the trailer I'll measure and straighten it for next season.

 

[John]

suggestion

I think my best one was as part of shutting up Emmanuel at the end of a long weekend I went around and shut all the through hulls making a mental note to not forget to open them all up the next time up. A couple of weekends later I am back on the boat and did remember to open up the thru hulls for the head and the sink and the reverse heat cycle pump. The next morning motoring out through the breakwater and heading for the open lake I am at the helm and I knew something about the rumbling of the Yanmar sounded off. I am standing there puzzling over this and trying to figure out why it sounds funny when the engine over temp buzz goes off and scares the living daylights out of me. I holler for the crew in the cabin to pull the kill switch. Luckily we are in no danger and have plenty of time to get the sails up. Once we are underway again I am down in the cabin with the engine cover pulled off. There is no anti freeze in the engine bilge and it doesn't even smell hot. So I sit and think about what could be causing the over heat when all of the sudden it dawns on me. I dive into the aft cabin, rip open the lazarette and hey, what a surprise-the fresh water thru hull for the diesel is CLOSED. I rotated the handle to open, started the Yanmar back up and heard the reassuing spit of water as she chugged away. That's what was missing as I was motoring out of the marina-the water pump discharge. Sheesh. I am blaming it on the blond hair.

I hang the ignition key over this through hull, exactly because I know how absent minded I am.

 

[Tim R.]

I think my best one was as part of shutting up Emmanuel at the end of a long weekend I went around and shut all the through hulls making a mental note to not forget to open them all up the next time up. A couple of weekends later I am back on the boat and did remember to open up the thru hulls for the head and the sink and the reverse heat cycle pump. The next morning motoring out through the breakwater and heading for the open lake I am at the helm and I knew something about the rumbling of the Yanmar sounded off. I am standing there puzzling over this and trying to figure out why it sounds funny when the engine over temp buzz goes off and scares the living daylights out of me. I holler for the crew in the cabin to pull the kill switch. Luckily we are in no danger and have plenty of time to get the sails up. Once we are underway again I am down in the cabin with the engine cover pulled off. There is no anti freeze in the engine bilge and it doesn't even smell hot. So I sit and think about what could be causing the over heat when all of the sudden it dawns on me. I dive into the aft cabin, rip open the lazarette and hey, what a surprise-the fresh water thru hull for the diesel is CLOSED. I rotated the handle to open, started the Yanmar back up and heard the reassuing spit of water as she chugged away. That's what was missing as I was motoring out of the marina-the water pump discharge. Sheesh. I am blaming it on the blond hair.

Definitely a blonde thing. My blonde wife did the same thing. She also closed the reverse cycle seacock instead of opening it because she thought it was already closed when in fact it was open. She does know the difference but just spaced.

The worst thing I did this season(so far) was drive a screw through the cabin top because I miscalculated the thickness of the cabin top and the length of the screw. I have since filled the hole but it still needs cosmetics.

The worst thing someone else did to my boat this year was back a launch into it and crack the gelcoat.:cussing::cussing::cussing:

 

[JohnS]

Decided first week of April to pull the mast for a quick re-rig, new lights, and look over the mast compression post. . .looks easy on paper, shouldn't take but a couple weeks. . .

OOPS. . .

96 days later the mast goes back up. . .going on 7 months and still haven't been sailing this year

LoL

I did the exact same thing 3 years ago. Only I found the top 4 feet of my 36' wooden mast was rotted and needed to be cut off and replaced. Just got it re-stepped two weeks ago. (In my defense I only get the occasional weekend to drive the 1.5 hours to get to the boat to work on it.)

My favorite "oops" this year occurred last Sunday morning as I'm lying in bed thinking about driving to the boat and actually bending on the sails and hopefully shoving off for a quick sail. I was planning it in my head, attaching the boom gooseneck to the track, then attaching the topp.... CRAP! I forgot to attach the topping lift at the masthead. And it attaches using the same clevis pin the backstay uses.


I got it installed but it took some creative use of halyards and having my 80 year old dad crank me up the mast. (He's still quite fit, but last time he cranked me up the mast, he managed to get an overwrap on the winch which took a while to untangle while the climbing harness was cutting off circulation to my legs. With repeated warnings, he didn't repeat that mistake.)

Dealing with that and disassembling my mast removal device (which is a story in and of itself) took much longer than expected, so no sailing that weekend, and rain with no wind meant no sailing last weekend. I'm keping my fingers crossed and calendar clear for this coming Saturday.

 

[Fly_H23]

This past Sunday we had 10-15 winds with blue skies and 65 degrees. Perfect sailing weather me thinks!!! With the Admiral comfortably at the helm, I go forward raise the main and then the jib. Not realizing I had one jib hank caught inside the anchor locker I huff and puff on the halyard and proceed to rip the jib then quietly lower it back while saying it's too breezy anyway for the jib and gee, guess that jib is really old and ought to be replaced.

We had a great day sailing and were joined by a dozen other sailboats as the day went on.

 

[Ray Bowles]

This just happened on my last sail of the year. Oct.1.
As I came into the dock at the end of the day a ruff looking 18 foot inboard/outboard, with a man and woman aboard, was very slowly leaving the dock with the engine running but the stern drive unit in the raised position. As the wind was pushing them over to the rocky shore I yelled that they needed to lower the rear unit. They lowered it 2 inches at a time as the gentleman with another boat at the dock continued telling them to lower it more.
The woman said it was a new boat and their first time out. Well, that was plainly evident. The male powerboater then said "it wouldn't go in gear." My new boating friend at the dock yelled that "the stern unit had to be down before it would go into gear". Male powerboater then said "if I lower it all the way down the engine quits." He then also said "I'm fairly mechanical so I'll figure it out."
I then quietly commented to my dockmate "I'll bet you that they don't have life jackets or oars either".
It was getting dark as I was loading my boat onto the trailer (I dry sail) and I noticed the male powerboater gingerly walking on the rocky shore trying to bring the broken powerboat back to the dock." My unknown dock friend then turned to me and said "did we bet any money a little while ago because he dure doesn't have any oars?" We both chuckled and then hauled ass out of the dock area.
The only thing that beats sailing is watching the boat ramp on Sunday afternoon.
Ray

 

[OldCat]

You guys are amazingly open and honest. I have had a reasonable year avoiding trouble, still:

1. Hit the dock end twice - a little too hard - but gladly not so hard as to brake anything.
2. As others, oops, drilled a hole from the outside through the liner into the cabin.
3. Still takes me 2-4x the time to raise the mast as most C22 owners, I get to use the excuse that I only do it once a year.
4. Not finishing a few projects, so I have money sucked up into chandlery items that I am not enjoying.
5. And, of course, forgetting to use Seafoam and suffering a clogged carb. Plus, I clipped my kid with the paddle on the way into the slip (he survived).

Still, I think that the guy who hit the remains of the RR bridge takes the trophy. If you have ever looked at a chart of south SF bay, it is clearly marked. Just looking at it on the chart makes my skin crawl. Going through there at 12kts at night strikes me as a bit more than a mistake.

OC

 

[JohnS]

I unfortunately didn't have many opportunities to screw up on the boat this past year, so I'll share one from last year.

The ultimate motivation for my afore mentioned mast removal was a rotting compresion post and cabin sole. My first attempt to cut out the sole with a jigsaw was short lived as I couldn't get close enough to the tabbing without the blade bouncing off the hull. My next attempt with a dremel was ridiculously slow but at least allowed me to get closer. I decided I needed to use the "big dremel" - aka rotozip.

Unfortunately after I bought the rotozip and made the drive to the boat, I discovered the disc cutting accesory didn't fit the tool. The store was a 30 min drive oneway so I decide to just use the small router-type bit that was included. I set the depth at slightly more than the plywood thickness and attacked. It was actually working quite well and I'd gotten about 3/4 of the sole up when I suddenly saw a small fountain of water shooting straight up out of the cut. Yup, I cut a hole in the bottom with the boat in the water.

I quickly ripped the wood away from the cut then jammed a splinter into the hole which barely slowed the stream. After tearing through several drawers and lockers I finally found the stick of epoxy putty, tore off a chunk, kneaded it furiously, pulled the splinter out of the hole and jammed in the epoxy. With a lot of pressing and working I got it to stick and seal the leak. Crisis averted. So now I get to do patch job on the bottom, yippee.

 

[Johnb]

I don't know how you can get stupid enough to put down an anchor without tying on the bitter end but I did that just two weeks ago. We went up to the San Joaquin delta and were anchoring in the dark at the end of a long day. Procedure is to put down the stern anchor, motor gently up to the tules on the bank and toss out a grappling hook.

I was holding the rode, keeping just enough tension to make sure it did'nt foul the prop when the end slipped through my fingers. I could have sworn there was much more line to go!

Next day we deployed the dink and I rowed round and round while the admiral fished with a grappling hook and eventually we caught the rode and recovered it, in about 20 feet of water. It took more than 2 hours, but that’s a pretty good hourly rate and was good exercise.

 

[soling42]

My sailing season begins down here at about the time everyone else up north ends so my launch day was just last weekend and my "oops moment" began about 10min into it.

I pride myself on preparation and my wife and I have have trailered our 26' Hunter for years. After an endlessly hot Summer it was finally a 12-15kt cool dry Autumn day and I excitedly went through the setup process quickly, too quickly. Setup went seemingly flawless and after a Summer of maintenance projects I was sure everything was perfect.

Immediately after launching, and as my wife held the boat off the windy dock, I hastily jumped into the boat slipped it into reverse and enthusiastically waved goodbye to meet her later at our seasonal dock. Heading into a 15kt headwind I plowed away from the ramp when I realized the boat had a very strange feel. After years of chastising every water-ballast sailor to ALWAYS COMPLETELY FILL THE BALLAST TANK I had raced away from the ramp with it completely empty. Being onboard alone with an unusually low tide in a channel I tried to engage the AP to hold an upwind course so I could briefly go below to the tank valve when I realized the AP and depth finder weren't functioning. I tied the helm off and dashed inside the cabin when my next challenge arose. I heard the OB stop dead! Triple crap.

I was only 1/2mi from the ramp and my supposedly flawless launch day was a near wreck. Humiliated I set the anchor, filled the ballast tank, decided my helm electrical failure could wait and tried to restart the OB which wouldn't comply because it had overheated although it had pumped water fine the previous day running from the rinse fitting on the head!?? I considered the unthinkable, Seatow towing me back to the ramp(ouch).

As I bounced around in the building seas I realized my recent impeller maintenance hadn't aligned the pickup tube inside the foot correctly so the OB was done for the day. Then I started to think....... Screw Towboat US. I'm on a sailboat, I have a substantial tailwind toward my dock and a favorable tide so I just might be able to sail it back to our dock w/o an OB if I could just navigate the 4mi down the very busy ICW, through a timed opening draw bridge(which I reached exactly on time) and back into a mile of curvy channels(where the wind shift Gods pitied me at each turn).

Amazingly it all came together as I humbly ate crow on my ride back regarding my many preparation lectures given all together too often. Just when you think you've got it figured out, you get in a hurry and eventually realize(often with humiliating consequences) that you're not so wise or well prepared after all.

Then.... my wife called to say she couldn't pick me up because she'd run down the battery in the truck waiting for me at the ramp and needed a jump start.....I had a jumpstart batt pack in the back of the truck so maybe I wasn't totally unprepared after all.

Humbly, Mike

 

[Sailm8]

We were rushing to leave on a week sail when my wife stepped over the lifeline to go back to the house and lock up. The lifeline brushed her pocket and out went her very expensive sunglasses into the drink. I changed into my trunks and put on my mask and swam around the boat to the spot she was marking with the boathook. She extended the boat hook over the side and into the water where she thought they went in. Using the boathook as a bannister I pulled my way underwater and found the glasses. My wife was hanging through the bottom lifeline and I handed her the glasses. She reached back and put them in the boat. As I'm getting back in the boat I hear "I'm stuck". It seems her two lady parts (my favorites) had popped over the edge of the boat and she couldn't back up.

For a brief moment I thought about pushing her through into the water but that path led to certain death (for me) and so I had her exhale enough to unsnap the pelican hook and get her out. In all the commotion, I stepped on the glasses.