pendlecats
Well-Known Member
Sat in the sun wishing I was sailing I started reminiscing, when I was learning to sail I was convinced the boat had a spirit of its own, after all it was considerably older than me.
She would behave beautifully if she looked it on the water (which was most of the time), and I’m sure she once clipped me on the tip of my head with the boom when I tacked the wrong side of a buoy.
I am also convinced she saved herself once due to her crew’s inexperience (as I was the crew I won’t say incompetence).
We were coming in, to a short jetty under sail (the skipper always sailed in and away), I was given my instructions to hand the forward line to my uncle on the jetty, this I did as we passed by at walking pace, he duly tied the line round a post.
This is where I needed the experience, as no one had instructed me that the other end should have been attached to the boat, so now running out of time - as it doesn’t take long to walk to the wall at the end of the jetty - uncle hurriedly whips the line off the post and throws me the end, I duly grasped the line to immediately be aware there was a small lead weight attached to the end as it hit me square on the head.
A little dazed I tied the line to a cleat, as the crew had started this chain of erratic events they felt bad as the line went tight at the wrong moment for my uncle whose balance was compromised by 5 tonnes of moving boat ending up with him flat on the jetty with the line now free.
As there was now nothing to cease our momentum through the water I was at the stage of jumping ship and waiting for either the keel or the Bow to make first contact.
But the boat then stepped in and stopped us dead, with the sound of a crack and the sight of a glistening stainless object flying off into the water, she had looped the flagging jib sheet around a post and stopped herself as soon as the Carr had reached the end of the track and thrown away the end stop.
Skippers reaction was very mixed but sympathetic, the mention of yard arms and keel hauling were I’m sure only in jest.
I know, not very eventful, I'm bored, however I’m sure to this day the boat had a spirit of its own and over the years took care of me as much as it chastised my mistakes.
She would behave beautifully if she looked it on the water (which was most of the time), and I’m sure she once clipped me on the tip of my head with the boom when I tacked the wrong side of a buoy.
I am also convinced she saved herself once due to her crew’s inexperience (as I was the crew I won’t say incompetence).
We were coming in, to a short jetty under sail (the skipper always sailed in and away), I was given my instructions to hand the forward line to my uncle on the jetty, this I did as we passed by at walking pace, he duly tied the line round a post.
This is where I needed the experience, as no one had instructed me that the other end should have been attached to the boat, so now running out of time - as it doesn’t take long to walk to the wall at the end of the jetty - uncle hurriedly whips the line off the post and throws me the end, I duly grasped the line to immediately be aware there was a small lead weight attached to the end as it hit me square on the head.
A little dazed I tied the line to a cleat, as the crew had started this chain of erratic events they felt bad as the line went tight at the wrong moment for my uncle whose balance was compromised by 5 tonnes of moving boat ending up with him flat on the jetty with the line now free.
As there was now nothing to cease our momentum through the water I was at the stage of jumping ship and waiting for either the keel or the Bow to make first contact.
But the boat then stepped in and stopped us dead, with the sound of a crack and the sight of a glistening stainless object flying off into the water, she had looped the flagging jib sheet around a post and stopped herself as soon as the Carr had reached the end of the track and thrown away the end stop.
Skippers reaction was very mixed but sympathetic, the mention of yard arms and keel hauling were I’m sure only in jest.
I know, not very eventful, I'm bored, however I’m sure to this day the boat had a spirit of its own and over the years took care of me as much as it chastised my mistakes.
![[32511]](https://ybw-data.community.forum/avatars/m/32/32511.jpg?1576058889){kind=avatar}
