Newbie mistakes

We all made avoidable moves in our early days, so welcome to the club - you survived, that's the most important thing.

There are some basic physical facts to bear firmly in mind;

A cubic meter of water weighs a tonne - not easy to push aside or remove from a vessel. Well beyond our capacity to lift, even to shift.
Wind increases the force it delivers logarithmically, so double the wind speed quadruple the power delivered to you, boat and sails
Wind resistance is key to liners and small tubs alike; you need a lot of power to overcome it. Humans are not a source of power - we offer a fraction of a HP.
Everything on a boat must be lashed down or it will disappear over the side.
Fenders are matelot's best friend - have lots to hand when in the vicinity of land and other vessels.
Approaching a lee shore is a max risk manoeuver. Stay off.
Being forearmed by studying charts appraises you of what lurks below your vessel - it is always hostile.
Most other vessels you encounter on the move are not as much under command as you would wish, so be prepared to avoid them; standing on and shouting is not covered by your insurance.
Half the gear you carry on board is of no consequence; replace it with comforts - now or next year.
Ginger biscuits are the lowest cost and best remedy for sea sickness.

Keep at it - its the best sport in the world.

PWG
 
Some really good advice here. - key one is being prepared - looking at weather and planning accordingly and having stuff to stay on the boat left there just in case. it's amazing what a difference sitting down with a cup of coffee or even a tinned meal can make to your thought process!!

But a couple of other thoughts once you had got down there there.

Before setting out properly to the boat - try and go against the wind / tide. if you find it a real struggle getting away from the shore at a safe landing spot then perhaps have a rethink. Sometimes it's far to easy to set off down wind and only realise the nightmare when it's a long way to come back. Far easier if you only end up 10 yards from where you started!

if you had got out to the boat, don;t ever feel the pressure of getting back - the expression time and tide waits for no man is true for a reason - just because you want to be somewhere else, don;t assume you can be! With hindsight - the better option would have been to wait on the boat for conditions to improve - you may be hungry and thirsty but you'd be warm and dry and unlikely to drown. A proper kit of longer life food on board and sleeping bags etc would have made the stay nicer but no safer.

Thirdly - once you got into the dinghy to come back - don't try and row against the wind/ tide. It can sometimes be better to just accept be blowing / carried by tide down / up the harbour whilst you row across and can get into shelter. Once you're out of the wind/ tide you may be able to make progress - think of it like a knights move in chess - 1 move across and 2 forward. it's the same principle that lifeguards will teach for people in a rip current. You need to know that you will get into shelter of course though before just accepting that.
 
It's great that this hasn't put you off. I have been boating for a while (21 years? omg!) - things still "happen" every now and again and I am constantly learning, although as time goes on, most do develop a sixth sense predicting potential fiascos before they hit you.

My most recent fiasco was at East Head. Boat is anchored off the beach, crew are on the beach with the tender. I am watching the boat from the beach which is maybe 100m away. Boat starts to drag anchor in the current caused by the falling tide!

It turns out it's actually quite a stressful situation to be in a tender with wife / daughter that is on full power with a 5hp engine in the current, barely approaching the stern of the mothership, then attaching, unloading, powering up, raising the anchor, all the time going BACKWARDS through the busy anchorage at East Head. I'd like to claim that no boats made contact due to my superb positioning skills during the original anchoring manoeuvre, but the truth is that it was sheer luck.

I'm now looking for a larger / more effective anchor that will fit, but the internet is only full of "anchor wars" threads, which is unhelpful.
 
Lots of excellent advice above.

Some thoughts about the dinghy (tender) -

This is one of the most neglected aspects of sailing, and one of the most dangerous, as you have found.

They're not all the same: some are much more stable, or much easier to row, etc, etc. Just because you have 'a dinghy' doesn't mean you have 'the right dinghy' for your needs (though we all have to make some compromises).

Do not assume that once you have an engine you have solved the problem. One day it will break down or refuse to start. You need to be able to propel your dinghy with oars, even if you have an outboard. Always take the oars, rowlocks and a bailer in the dinghy with you.

Get your rowlocks properly sorted. The oars may have been slipping out because the combination was the wrong sizes; because the rowlocks were cheap plastic junk that isn't rigid enough for the job; because the rowlock shafts were too thin for the sockets they were in and leaning over as you puled; or because the socket they were in was at the wrong angle or insufficiently rigidly mounted. Your cable tie solution was an ingenious bodge, but is certainly not a permanent solution.

You may have been saved from disaster, or at least embarrassment, by not being able to get your yacht outboard started. If it was too heavy for the dinghy it may have just tipped the dinghy straight over, or caused the dinghy to sit low enough in the water for water to flood in over the stern once you start moving.

I'd recommend wearing a buoyancy aid in the dinghy, rather than a life-jacket (though they are generally better on the yacht). A buoyancy aid will give you less buoyancy than a life-jacket, but will be much less restrictive when you are trying to row or move about in the dinghy, and unlike a lifejacket it will enable you to swim if you end up in the water (which is almost inevitable one day).

We all make mistakes, so don't get disheartened. Choose a nice calm day to make your next visit, so you can remind yourself why we put ourselves through such trauma, and regain your confidence. Then try to build up experience and challenges only gradually.

I'd strongly recommend an RYA course such as Day Skipper,: you will learn lots (including finding out what you already know) and will almost certainly have a lot of fun while you do it. Try to go sailing with other people on their boats (people are often looking for crew, or at least willing to take someone out), and you will learn a lot from them (including, sometimes, how not to do it!).

Happy sailing!
 
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sgr143 said:
basic "stuck on the boat" kit: … easy-to-cook food …
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Tinned chilli con carne is amazing.

ryanroberts said:
Was never taught dinghy use / safety at either competent crew or day skipper,
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I believe it's in the syllabus for Competent Crew, but my instructor / examiner didn't take it very seriously. I was left alone with one of the Day Skipper students (who didn't know what they were doing either) to inflate it on my own. I think I was supposed to row it to the end of the dock and back.
 
The most important thing to learn is that sailing is all crisis management. Try to see this experience as fun and character building. More difficult and important is to get your partner to see it the same way. Of course you can't help but learn from experience. Perhaps weather forecast is most important.
You do need however to be able to access your boat with dinghy in much worse conditions than you would choose to sail in. Perhaps more experience with the canoe rowing it. I have always stuck with oars for the dinghy. In my case a 10ft ali dinghy. It is very hard to manage in strong winds. Indeed in my case it is safer easier to swim (with buoyancy) to the boat than row when wind gets up and I want to check the mooring. (fairly close and no tide concerns)
Persevere with the new boat be carefull and above all optimistic. ol'will
 
That’s a wonderfully honest confessional, BizarreBazza. Very brave of you to write it. Welcome to the forum.

No point discussing the dinghy issue as it’s all been covered. Given the potentially dangerous situation that you found yourself in, I’m sure that you can imagine that it could have been worse in an out of control boat.

I like the idea of spending time aboard to become familiar with your new boat but sooner or later the temptation to cast off will become too great to ignore. Please get some help from someone with experience with your first few ventures. You’ll be glad that you did, so will your family, so will other boat users and, potentially, so will QHM and the emergency services.

A whole new word awaits you. Sailing isn’t difficult yet we all learn something each time we put to see. Getting some help now will pay handsome dividend for the years to come.
 
To all the good advice here I'd only add one further thought. Although it's a faff, I carry a small anchor and warp in the dinghy if I'm using it while the boat is anchored (as opposed to in a marina with no walk-ashore). If the engine fails, rowing is not always an easy option especially if well loaded. The anchor will at least stop you drifting away until someone else turns up to offer a tow! Speaking of which, when afloat always have your anchor ready to drop fairly easily. It's your handbrake and you might need it in a hurry in some circumstances.
 
We all need a bloody good foundational WAKE UP! moment.

Mine was aged twenty-two: hung-over and breakfastless, I joined a chum to go windsurfing off Hayling Island. I was young and therefore naturally confident, and had done a bit on a holiday in the Med so roughly knew how to stand up and 'sail'. But I kept finding myself dumped by vicious little waves and after a while became exhausted and confused by the effort. I decided to try to furl the rig for a rest, but a bigger wave suddenly came in hard and I lost the rig underwater. With just the board to keep me buoyant, I started paddling for the shore - which seemed a different shore to that I had left and much further away. I saw a couple in a motor boat and waved frantically at them, but (yes, that's right!) they just waved back! Eventually, my wetsuit unzipped to my waste in an effort to stop overheating and shaking with exhaustion and fear, I gained the shore about half a mile or so from where we had launched. As I scrambled up the pebbles I swore to myself to never mess with the sea ever again!

So when I decided to try sailing aged about forty, I started with a Comp Crew course, then crewed for others before doing Day Skipper theory and then practical, and also read every damned book I could find on the basics, etc. I then understood that the conditions I found myself in were 'wind-over-tide' at something like mid-rates and possibly Springs.

Don't ever be complacent. If you feel a bit sick before a major undertaking (your first harbour crossing or your first Channel crossing), then that's a good sign that you're connected.

And always have a "Plan B" :)
 
I always say that if you've only got a plan B, you're already in trouble! You were in trouble, but you got yourself out of it and, pride apart, no one was hurt and nothing was damaged, so I'd say the lessons learned and good advice obtained were worth the aggro.

If it's any consolation, I ended up getting helicoptered off the Portsmouth mud in a blow once. We'd planned on going racing, but it was a blustery 7 from the east, and we decided that for two blokes, both well past their best before date, it was a bit much, so we went to put the boat (Sunfast 20) back to bed before the tide got too low. It was blowing so hard, the only way we could pick up the mooring was to go in astern, driving the outboard like a motor bike. Then, as we left, the prop hit an anchor chain or something and broke the shear pin. I tried to row, but a tupperware dinghy was only going downwind, so we stuck on the mud. My assessment was that trying to get through the mud was a bad idea, so we settled down to wait a few hours for the tide and called the club to let them know what happened. They informed the Coastie, who sent GAFIRS, the local independent lifeboat to our rescue. Long story short, they couldn't get us off, but there was a helicopter already airborne that would be passing nearby, so they picked us up and dropped us off in a carpark, whence the GAFIRS landrover took us back to the club.

Took a long time to live that one down :)
 
1st hand experience- best form of learning going. Much better than being told by someone else, especially from this forum!!;););)
 
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There is a technique for getting a dinghy to "skate" across mud. You sit on the transom with feet over the stern. You put your feet in the mud and as you push you sort of lift your weight off the stern and the dinghy will slide forward. Works extremely well with an inflatable and well enough with a hard tender. I have used this method of getting near enough to firm ground several times over the years. This works even in very soft mud.
 
C08 said:
There is a technique for getting a dinghy to "skate" across mud. You sit on the transom with feet over the stern. You put your feet in the mud and as you push you sort of lift your weight off the stern and the dinghy will slide forward. Works extremely well with an inflatable and well enough with a hard tender. I have used this method of getting near enough to firm ground several times over the years. This works even in very soft mud.
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Brilliant I like to learn a new thing every day, and i think this is it. Not much mud in my area so i havent needed to know this trick, but i immediately understand the principle. Might save my bacon one day if i go "foreign"!
 
Mudisox said:
1st hand experience- best form of learning going. Much better than being told by someone else, especially from this forum!!;););)
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I find that these forums, especially this sort of thread, are rather like a virtual evening session in the bar with a good club. You learn a lot from the chat back-and-forth.

Those sorts of sessions (in real life or virtually) are a really good way to absorb sensible practice and tricks of the trade; especially of the "Well, this happened to me, and I did this, but what I should have done was that". I recall several counter-instances from my other life in the caving world - in a couple of cases resulting in the rescue being called out needlessly, when what relative newbies would have learnt from yarns in the pub from the old hands would have led to them doing something more sensible.
 
The water close to the shore normally runs slower so if you have to get back against the tide stick close to the shore till you are up tide of the boat.In the normal run of things most people get advice from parents at a young age but starting as an adult your on a steep learning curve,endevour not to put your crew off especially children,who have memories like elephants as regards bad experiences ?
 
Welcome. Your w/e experience will be invaluable to you.
Did you launch your dinghy from the same place that you returned to?
Launching and returning to a pontoon where there is normally water at all states of the tide is totally different to the shore line or a slipway where Tide Times are paramount. If you haven't got a local set of tide tables make that a priority, you can also check tide time on the net - Port Solent Marina Tide Table and Lock Information | Premier Marinas
or Tide locations in South of England - BBC Weather
I see HW on Sunday was around midday, so launching from a mud shore line on that day I would only give myself about two hours either side of HW.
If HW is morning and evening, that gives you more boat time as you can launch around morning HW and return around exening HW.
I got a bit confused re your dinghy, which you also describe as a canoe! If it has a transom to fit an outboard and holes to fit rowlocks, then that sounds more dinghy like.
Does your rowlocks lock into the dinghy gunwale? if they don't, and they just push into a hole, then I suggest you drill a hole in the bottom of the rowlock (if it hasn't got one already) and attach a cord with a toggle on the end (a length of dowel / plastic or copper pipe will do a job) to stop you loosing the rowlocks if you capsize.
Again with your oars, a cord from the oar with a loop on the end to the rowlock toggle will stop you loosing the oar. You could also put a binding around the oar just inboard of the pivot point to stop the oar slipping in the rowlock. A length of say 12mm rope with about three tight turns around the oar, each turn with a half hitch in it should do a job there.
When you get an o/b engine (you wont need anything more than about 2 - 2.5 hp) put an eye bolt through the transom, attach a cord to your o/b with a snap shackle on the other end to attach to the eye bolt so you can't loose your expensive engine! Don't for get to put your dinghy and o/b onto your boat insurance ;)
 
Yeah the advice about having two snap on painters fore and aft seems golden. One thing I did learn practically is that overly small dinghies suck, rowing a 1.5m was precarious in flat calm and like trying to ride a clown bike. Might have gone a bit too chunky with 2.8 in 33' but the bugger fits behind pilot berth seat with some swearing.

Don't for get to put your dinghy and o/b onto your boat insurance
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oops
 
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