Boarding a vacant boat without permission

[Boathook]

I have secured or zipped up the occasional canvas canopy or closed a window with no thought given to it. As said the owner would not have been aware .

Earlier this year noticed a not very loud beeping alarm from a boat so I notified the marina . The marina notified the owner. It turned out to be a gas alarm caused from a battery which was gassing and overheating. The marina disconnected shore power . The owner attended and found a very hot battery. He brought me a bottle of wine which he didn't really need to do but it was well received. I didn't climb aboard but surely people would like any fault noticed by others to be actioned.

Batteries overheating seems to be coming more of a problem over the last few years. It is obviously due to being constantly connected to some form of charging, but is the charger mains, solar or wind and does the controller fail or the battery from being constantly charged?
I have about 120 Watts of panels feeding 2 times 110ah batteries via a victron mppt controller. In theory the batteries could take the panels direct but I didn't like that.
Should I pull the fuse on my set up when not on board much during the winter ?

 

[dankilb]

I blame the pompous tradition of asking “permission to come aboard, skipper?” for leading some to think such permission is sacrosanct!

 

[oldgit]

Moved my boat and then helped to move another boat without its skipper to allow a latercomer to moor on a bankside mooring with very limited space.
Never gave it second thought.
Later veryone else departed leaving only my boat and the craft that had been moved , probably about 6 feet , the absent skipper returned and asked had I moved his boat.
Replied, guilty as charged and explained why, he had left his boat slap bang in the centre of available mooring space.
He then heatedly went off on one .....at some length, tried not to laugh when he went on about the law of the sea, we about 50 miles inland.
Me, bit taken aback, thought about it and then said he had best tell someone who gave a ......................................
Chap then departed in bit of a huff.
The boat in question was actually a small sailing yacht with its mast removed.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

I have boarded boats to sort out flapping Genoa’s, rattling halyards, and once an imminent sinking (half an hour of vigorous pumping before the owner and marina staff turned up with a petrol driven pump). No-one ever complained and twice I’ve found a bottle of that which cheers in the cockpit with a thank you note.

 

[Praxinoscope]

I often have trouble when using the iPad. My way of overcoming it is to add three nonsense letters, usually nnn after the suspect word before making a space, and then deleting them. I find this quicker than trying to outstare the damned machine.

I’ll try this solution.

 

[BobnLesley]

I was talking to someone who said he’d never go on board a boat without the express permission of the owner even to sort an obvious problem as he’d be worried about getting sued for trespass...

Were they from the USA? Twice over the years we've had similar. I and two Swiss guys boarded a drifting US yacht in Cuba when it was dragging in a squall, eventually towing it away from the rocks with a rib and re-anchoring it. The owner was very grateful but amazed that we'd 'taken the risk' of doing so, particularly with my using a spare anchor of my own to help secure it. In his mind, our actions would've made us liable for any damage sustained to his boat both during the rescue and had it dragged again while hanging to my anchor.

 

[Momac]

Should I pull the fuse on my set up when not on board much during the winter ?

I leave the shore power on . But did get a fault when my battery charger developed a fault. That fault consumed a few pounds worth of electricity.

 

[Keith 66]

Recently i boarded a members boat as it had broken one of its two mooring chains, we tied a warp to the next mooring & made her safe. I would hope any fellow member would do the same for me.
Years ago a yacht got hit by an out of control fishing boat & took a fearful whack, i broke the padlock to gain access to check she wasnt taking on water. Owner thanked me for it.

 

[steve yates]

In the uk trespass is a civil offence, not a criminal one, so you cannot be prosecuted, only sued; and to be successful one has to prove actual damage, if I remember correctly. So you cant actually be done for climbing a farmers fence and walking over his field, unless he could prove you actually damaged the fence itself in doing so, or the field!
More to the point, it is a matter for the local council, not the police, so hardly even worth trying to call someone out about

 

[PhillM]

I once had my boat boarded by a stranger in a marina. I had left my alarm clock set to ring on the hour, as a belt-and-braces alarm should I oversleep while single handing. Having arrived back at my at my home berth, I was picked up by my son and promptly went home for a sleep. 48 hours later I returned to a note saying that the alarm had been driving them mad so they boarded and turned it off. I was quite happy that they did so and even happier that they informed me in case I had gone out sailing again, expecting it to still be set.

In those days, I did not bother to lock the boat, but since having had things stolen from my new one twice this season, I now lock up every time I leave the boat.

 

[johnalison]

Now I recall the genoa that unwrapped I removed, had genoa sheets wrapped around it. The wind had caught the top and it had unfurled quite a bit and I thought it was going to rip and possibly damage other boats close by. Not sure what I ended up doing but it was a real pain at 3 in the morning in driving rain. the sail was undamaged and I tucked it out of the wind in to the cockpit and tied it down. When I had finished the yard chap came out. nice timeing!!.

I never leave my genoa on, as its so easy for the wind to catch it even with it wrapped especially on a mooring. I find it only takes minuets to put the genoa on. Not sure what the boatowner thought when he turned up. probably frustrated at finding his sail off but hed have been more upset to find it shredded.
Steveeasy

I have from time to time seen furled genoas damaged in high winds in spite of having a sheet wrap, since this leave such a long stretch of sail unprotected. My solution is to wrap the jib with the spinnaker halyard tightly wound in a spiral in the opposite direction to the furled sail.

 

[ChromeDome]

Worked at a marina and was ordered to go round and stop halliards tapping on the masts,and bill the owners?

I wish more (all) boaters in marinas would do this.

Halliard owners clearly don't care about the inconvenience it creates ?

At least until they have to sleep on board themselves and the noise is pounding through the roof

 

[westernman]

I have from time to time seen furled genoas damaged in high winds in spite of having a sheet wrap, since this leave such a long stretch of sail unprotected. My solution is to wrap the jib with the spinnaker halyard tightly wound in a spiral in the opposite direction to the furled sail.

My solution is to lower it and stow* it below.

* Just chuck it down below while still furled - can be very quickly and easily hoisted up through the hatch and reattached - or jus dumped on the foredeck. This is quicker, easier and more effective than any complicated procedure with ties, wrapping with another halyard (which will develop a twist) and anything else.

 

[Poignard]

My solution is to lower it and stow* it below.

* Just chuck it down below while still furled - can be very quickly and easily hoisted up through the hatch and reattached - or jus dumped on the foredeck. This is quicker, easier and more effective than any complicated procedure with ties, wrapping with another halyard (which will develop a twist) and anything else.

I could not get it off the foil without first unfurling it.

 

[clyst]

A classic case over thinking things

A crazily risk averse attitude.

So I should have just watched the french Feeling drift past us and onto rock in Great Porth, Bryher this summer?

No. I boarded it with my skipper, we started the engine, re-anchored it and put out a decent (this time) scope. The french skipper was very appreciative, and we got a bottle of wine for it.

Think of the flip side. "What, you watched my boat drift past onto the rocks....?" That might end up with a lawsuit!

Law suite ? For what ,not risking your life maybe for a boat ?

 

[johnalison]

My solution is to lower it and stow* it below.

* Just chuck it down below while still furled - can be very quickly and easily hoisted up through the hatch and reattached - or jus dumped on the foredeck. This is quicker, easier and more effective than any complicated procedure with ties, wrapping with another halyard (which will develop a twist) and anything else.

You clearly haven't seen how long it takes me to get the sail off and reduce it to a volume of less than three cubic yards. Wrapping with a halyard takes all of a minute or so, and any twist in the braided line unravels itself on retrieval.

 

[fredrussell]

I have boarded numerous boats over the years, ever since a fellow told me that the universal sign by a boat owner that they no longer want their small outboard is to leave it on the pushpit. I’ve been amazed over the years how good a condition some of these unwanted engines have been in. I blame our throw-away culture.

 

[Paulfireblade]

I have from time to time seen furled genoas damaged in high winds in spite of having a sheet wrap, since this leave such a long stretch of sail unprotected. My solution is to wrap the jib with the spinnaker halyard tightly wound in a spiral in the opposite direction to the furled sail.

I do the same. Seemed to me a simple solution using what was close to hand.

 

[DJE]

My solution is to lower it and stow* it below.

* Just chuck it down below while still furled - can be very quickly and easily hoisted up through the hatch and reattached - or jus dumped on the foredeck. This is quicker, easier and more effective than any complicated procedure with ties, wrapping with another halyard (which will develop a twist) and anything else.

But it's furled round a 17m long aluminium tube and inside that there's a wire which I'm pretty sure is holding the mast up. Gonna take a bit of chucking down below

 

[Sandy]

I used to put a sail tie round the genoa but felt it was OTT when I have at least 4 turns of the sheets wrapped round and the furling line made fast in 2 places. The sheets are both round winches and then cleated as well. I mightvchange my mind if something happens in the future.

Snap. So do I.

A. I have more than once motored out of a port and found I could not unroll the genoa because I had forgotten to remove the sail tie. ?

I strongly recommend the lovely bright yellow ones from Jimmy Green.