Stupid things you have done in boat repairs.

[mezereon]

A Cautionary Tale

Boat on the hard and supported by wooden struts. Crouching under the boat, using an angle grinder to chase-out the gap between iron keel and fibreglass stub.
Did I stop the grinder while I stepped around the wooden support? I did not. My arm (holding the screaming grinder) banged into the support and swung it neatly into my throat. My safety glasses and leather gloves did little to prevent the inevitable result.
The world stopped turning for several seconds while I worked out how much blood was coming out and if I could still breathe.
However, my brave attempt at a Darwin award did not succeed and the damage was fairly easily fixed with a couple of stitches.
I'm now a little more careful with power tools and sharp things than I used to be!

 

[emsworthy]

My diesel tank has now got 2 identical 7mm sockets rolling around in the bottom. I was removing the inspection hatch on top to reseat a weeping o-ring and just caught the socket on the lip as I was manouvering in a tight space and 'splosh' it went into 50 litres of red diesel. When my mate asked what all the swearing was about I demonstrated what had happened with the 'spare' 7mm socket on the extension and did exactly the same thing!!

 

[JumbleDuck]

My diesel tank has now got 2 identical 7mm sockets rolling around in the bottom. I was removing the inspection hatch on top to reseat a weeping o-ring and just caught the socket on the lip as I was manouvering in a tight space and 'splosh' it went into 50 litres of red diesel. When my mate asked what all the swearing was about I demonstrated what had happened with the 'spare' 7mm socket on the extension and did exactly the same thing!!

The last time I dismantled the front end of my Citroën DS I removed five 11mm or 7/6" spanners from inside the front valance.

 

[Danbury]

Wife and I were refastening our Stella. To avoid too much disturbance we were doing every third fastening working out from midships [seemed like a good idea at the time!]
I was cutting off the heads and driving the nails down, she was outside pulling out old nails and driving new ones in. Communication was difficult. I said " go three nails aft" she heard "3 nails forward"
That's where I was sitting. She really nailed my arse to the floor!

I'm sure it was entirely accidental...

 

[Ripster]

Was changing a one of those daft fold flat cleats fitted to a US Mobo. It was an aft one right at the stern. To get to the inside, I had wedge myself along side the nasty sharp engine and roll up into ball shape on my back. Took everything I needed along to do the job, did the repair, then found that after 20 mins I had seized up completely and literally couldnt move. After about 10 mins more of trying to work out how to escape without shouting for help, SWMBO came back from getting supplies, unfolded me and levered me back out to much complaining from me and laughing from her. On the way back out my jumper got hooked on the throttle linkage and bent it, so I then had to rebuild that too.

 

[mjcoon]

My diesel tank has now got 2 identical 7mm sockets rolling around in the bottom. I was removing the inspection hatch on top to reseat a weeping o-ring and just caught the socket on the lip as I was manouvering in a tight space and 'splosh' it went into 50 litres of red diesel. When my mate asked what all the swearing was about I demonstrated what had happened with the 'spare' 7mm socket on the extension and did exactly the same thing!!

And no doubt the tank is mild steel (or at least magnetic) so a magnet will be no use for retrieval...

Mike.

 

[emsworthy]

And no doubt the tank is mild steel (or at least magnetic) so a magnet will be no use for retrieval...

Mike.

It's actually plastic, but I figured that the sockets were unlikely to block the pickup pipe and if anything, with them rolling around in the bottom, they might keep any sediment stirred up regularly and filtered through the system rather than waiting for a rough passage when it all arrives in one go!

 

[Greenheart]

You gents might like to prevent a nasty accident here, by correcting a classic stupid assumption I'm about to make...is it okay, using a cola bottle to store acetone? No, seriously?

I'm going to move the Coke label and put big skulls & bones, and DO NOT DRINK under clear tape all round. But is the plastic bottle itself likely to wilt with acetone inside?

 

[BrendanS]

You gents might like to prevent a nasty accident here, by correcting a classic stupid assumption I'm about to make...is it okay, using a cola bottle to store acetone? No, seriously?

I'm going to move the Coke label and put big skulls & bones, and DO NOT DRINK under clear tape all round. But is the plastic bottle itself likely to wilt with acetone inside?

Before giving any advice, does the bottle say what plastic the bottle is made of?

 

[Greenheart]

It does say it contains no sugar. And apparently it's cherry-flavour. Beyond that, I'm in the dark.

 

[Marmalade]

My diesel tank has now got 2 identical 7mm sockets rolling around in the bottom. I was removing the inspection hatch on top to reseat a weeping o-ring and just caught the socket on the lip as I was manouvering in a tight space and 'splosh' it went into 50 litres of red diesel. When my mate asked what all the swearing was about I demonstrated what had happened with the 'spare' 7mm socket on the extension and did exactly the same thing!!

I failed to reseal my weeping O ring and the diesel tank just kept filling the next time I filled up - out through the leaky ring and into the aft bunk, the bilge, the engine bay - you name it. My wife, looking over the stern asked why our bilge pump (on a float switch) was pumping out pink water... :-(

Boat smelled for a year and we had to replace mattresses, cushions - the lot.

 

[JumbleDuck]

You gents might like to prevent a nasty accident here, by correcting a classic stupid assumption I'm about to make...is it okay, using a cola bottle to store acetone? No, seriously?

I'm going to move the Coke label and put big skulls & bones, and DO NOT DRINK under clear tape all round. But is the plastic bottle itself likely to wilt with acetone inside?

It's almost certainly polyethylene terephthalate (PET) on which, if this website is to be believed, acetone has no effect.

http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/keep-asking/what-chemical-melts-plastic/

Incidentally, your sails are probably made of PET as well - it's the generic name for dacron / terylene. In thin sheets it's mylar. Also known as polyester. The damn stuff appears everywhere.

 

[Greenheart]

Thanks JD. Does that mean I can clean my sails with acetone? Lucky I stocked up!

 

[itchenseadog]

You gents might like to prevent a nasty accident here, by correcting a classic stupid assumption I'm about to make...is it okay, using a cola bottle to store acetone? No, seriously?

I'm going to move the Coke label and put big skulls & bones, and DO NOT DRINK under clear tape all round. But is the plastic bottle itself likely to wilt with acetone inside?

I have stored acetone in a plastic milk bottle and that's ok.

 

[ffiill]

I was once doing some glassfibre deck repair-I had in my hands a small tub of made up lay up resin.
I triped over and the resin flew up into my face and hair.
Luckily copious amounts of sugar soap provided by a neighbour in the yard plus careful use of acetone cleaned me up before the resin set.
The deck was a different matter!

 

[30boat]

I was setting a fiberglass shaft tube in epoxy and microfibers.I must have put too much on because suddenly the whole thing started fuming and getting very hot.If it weren't for a bucket of water nearby that boat would not be with us today.By the way,despite all that water the resin still cured perfectly.

 

[James_Calvert]

You gents might like to prevent a nasty accident here, by correcting a classic stupid assumption I'm about to make...is it okay, using a cola bottle to store acetone? No, seriously?

I'm going to move the Coke label and put big skulls & bones, and DO NOT DRINK under clear tape all round. But is the plastic bottle itself likely to wilt with acetone inside?

Yoghurt pots dissolve in acetone, at least the one I was using to clean out brushes etc in did.

No I don't know what it was made of ... not much of it left.

 

[Robin]

I used to antifoul under the cradle supports by dropping thetwo forward ones with the aft ones in place, painting and then reversing the process by dropping the aft ones to paint under them but forgot to replace the forward ones first. Fortuntely it was a W333 which had a very wide bottom on the keel as the boat sat there quite happily. thereafter I always added a couple of extra struts but the yard heard of my first efforts (who snitched?) an banned owners from lowering cradle pads, fortunately they allowed me to do the pad areas thereafter with the boat sitting in slings overnight prior to launching next morning.

Associated boo -boo is to remember to put a sheet of polythene over any pads before replacing them against the hull as even paint seemingly dry to the touch is still soft enough to stick under 'load.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Yoghurt pots dissolve in acetone, at least the one I was using to clean out brushes etc in did.

No I don't know what it was made of ... not much of it left.

Normally polystyrene. Foam polystyrene comes off even worse.

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Two weeks ago I removed a twin jamming clutch on the coach roof as one of the levers was broken. My first mistake was starting to tear down the headlining to get to nuts which didn't exist. The bolts through the clutch go into a threaded plate set into the GRP.

Having fitted the new lever and cleaned off all the old sikaflex I bedded the fitting down and even made sure I had the slots on the bolt heads neatly lined up. Then I rethreaded the spinnaker pole up haul and down haul lines and locked the jammers down. The only problem was I couldn't pull the lines tight in the cockpit but could pull them loose from a forward position.

I had replaced the whole fitting back to front! Fortunately the new sikaflex was still fresh and I was able to turn things round in just a few minutes! And I got the bolt heads lined up the second time, too.