Pride before a fall.....

[Chiara’s slave]

In fact, it was much the same with ships and submarines.......

That’s my experience too. A friend assures me it’s the same with aircraft. He’s a pilot with Crab Air.

 

[jamie N]

Smoke from beneath the cockpit sole was the exhaust hose, having freed from its fastening and mated with the prop shaft FFS.
No big deal, a small cut back and relocate. Maybe 15cms lost.
Obviously everything's fixed now, and nothing more can go wrong.
??

 

[AntarcticPilot]

A career in yachting has taught me to remain in a state of anticipation that something will break very soon. Even if it had just been maintained by Scotty.

Murphy's Law is embedded in the Laws of Thermodynamics, so Scotty's fallback position would be "Ye canna break the Laws of Physics!"
0th Law: There is a game
1st Law: You can't win
2nd Law: You can't break even
3rd Law: You can't get out of the game

 

[pyrojames]

As soon as I feel smug, I know something is about to go wrong.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

As soon as I feel smug, I know something is about to go wrong.

Some folks sail in a permanent state of anxiety. I get around that by being in a state of resignation.

 

[ProDave]

My "engine misshap" was on the final approach to the harbour in something like an F6 lee shore, 100 metres from the harbour entrance the OB ran out of fuel. That got the anchor dropped in record time. Lesson learned that day was check OB fuel LONG before getting so close.

 

[Stemar]

My "engine misshap" was on the final approach to the harbour in something like an F6 lee shore, 100 metres from the harbour entrance the OB ran out of fuel. That got the anchor dropped in record time. Lesson learned that day was check OB fuel LONG before getting so close.

Mine was coming back to Portsmouth with roughly 1/3 of a tank of fuel in a Snapdragon 24. 6 gusting 7, according to the inshore forecast an hour or two earlier and I'd been beating (=bouncing) for a couple of hours. Started the engine to get across to the small boat channel and it died 100 yards short of No 4 buoy. I called up QHM and asked for permission to enter under sail, hoping they'd say no and get the harbour patrol to tow me in. No chance. I had to be well out of the small boat channel to get any wind, and then Brittany Ferries came out to play...

I fitted twin filters in parallel very shortly afterwards so, of course, I never had a filter block again.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Those ferries look awfully big from a 24 footer!

 

[RobbieW]

Murphy's Law is embedded in the Laws of Thermodynamics, so Scotty's fallback position would be "Ye canna break the Laws of Physics!"
0th Law: There is a game
1st Law: You can't win
2nd Law: You can't break even
3rd Law: You can't get out of the game

Sod's law simply states that Murphy was an optimist

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Sod's law simply states that Murphy was an optimist

Covered by the 2nd law of thermodynamics! Murphy's law is the 1st (You can't win)

 

[WoodyP]

I was wrong about something once. I thought I was wrong but then it turned out l had been right all along.

 

[Stemar]

Those ferries look awfully big from a 24 footer!

Yep!

Especially when you're struggling with wind that can't make up its mind if it wants to come at you from over the fort, round it from the south, round it from the north or, just to be awkward, curl over the top and come at you from the east.

 

[harvey38]

I've just got used to putting a 38' mobo into a rather small mooring in a crowded marina.

Having just come back from a nice day at sea and feeling rather smug and looking forward to a chilled beer I crept forward, turned on a sixpence, and started to reverse back into the berth and it all went t"ts up. Fortunately
a few neighbours were able to get me back using ropes and manhandling the boat.

It transpires the Port forward/reverse selector cable had sheared. My brain could not immediately compute the problem.

Smugness factor quickly evaporated

 

[TSB240]

I've just got used to putting a 38' mobo into a rather small mooring in a crowded marina.

Having just come back from a nice day at sea and feeling rather smug and looking forward to a chilled beer I crept forward, turned on a sixpence, and started to reverse back into the berth and it all went t"ts up. Fortunately
a few neighbours were able to get me back using ropes and manhandling the boat.

It transpires the Port forward/reverse selector cable had sheared. My brain could not immediately compute the problem.

Smugness factor quickly evaporated

You did well as most will have the instinct to just apply more throttle to take the way off.

We had a large fully crewed visiting training boat which had the same failure on a single engine. In this case the highly qualified trainer rammed the 100 year old dock lock gates at full throttle stuck in forward gear. ?