Astonishing and rather depressing

[Magic_Sailor]

SWMBO and I went down to the boat on Sunday for a short sail down to Newtown Creek and then back again Monday morning, having a few days previously bent on the genoa as it had needed a small repair.

Unusually the wind was perfect for a beam reach down Newtown on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Hoisted main and gave instruction to number one to flash out the genoa. She flakes out the furling line and I'm not taking too much notice of what she's doing. She, however, picked the line up off of the seat and noting that it wasn't as usual stowed fairly neatly on the safety rail and further notices that there is no stopper knot on the end of the line and puts one on. Out comes the genoa...and stops with only about 25% of it unfurled. The stopper knot was jammed in the first pulley (a number of which lead the line around the toe rail).

I spent the next 10 minutes racking my brains as to how I could have bent the sail on incorrectly. I was sat with the stopper knot in my hand, fiddling with the furry end of the rope. Then is dawned on me. The end shouldn't be furry should it.

Some cretin. Some petty bastard had cut off about 15' of the furling line and knicked it. I would dearly love to meet this person.

I was a manky bit of rope. Why would anyboady even bother. Quite depressing really.

Magic

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[Bergman]

Amazing what people will nick.

Saddening because it is almost certainly a fellow sailor who did it.

Perhaps some comfort to think that 15ft is quite enough to hang himself.

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[graham]

Maybe the wind blew the loose end overboard and it tangled around someones propellor???? Highly unlikely I know but the other explanation is ,as you say, depressing.

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[Eudorajab]

Exactly the same thing happend to me a few years back. Fortunatley I noticed it before heading out. What a pain.

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[Chris_Robb]

Had my Jib sheets nicked a couple of years back. now I remove them from the rolled genoa and tie a short line to the clew and a cleat on the foredeck.

Same weekend - some one stabbed every single rubber dinghy in the club. Moved to somewhere safer now! patrolled by the navy

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[steve_cronin]

I used to remove my sheets when we had a swinging mooring in Poole Harbour. Mostly to keep 'em clean. I Had fitted snapshackles to the mainsheet and I made up a strop to replace the genoa ones. Never thought that it would be needed for theft* protection though. How times are changing.

Steve Cronin

*theft or just vandalism. You know, "...let's nick this blokes rope thingeys- just for a laugh" You know, the people of Greece, where we sail now, would never behave like this. It would be beneath their dignity.

<hr width=100% size=1>The above is, like any other post here, only a personal opinion

 

[Chris_Robb]

we are hoping oneday to get the boat out to Greece - I hope they haven't been westernised before I get there.

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[steve_cronin]

A Victory 40 would be perfect!

Steve Cronin

<hr width=100% size=1>The above is, like any other post here, only a personal opinion

 

[Chris_Robb]

First I have got to either retire or loose my job - thought I had successfully done that in January - but know - unbelievably someone wanted me to work for them.

Do you keep your boat out there or do you charter. Having kept mine in Brittany for one year - the amount of maintenance done has suffered - so its back again in Plymouth. I fear that if I could only get out there 2 or 3 times a year, the boat would eventually become a complete wreck through lack of maintenance.

So at the moment - sailing in warmer waters remains a pipedream!!

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