Things you should have checked

Zagato said:
Before deflating your dinghy on trhe mooring make sure your spare pump is on the boat.

Er brought the dinghy on board last night as it was belting down with rain and had to flag a passing RIB down to give me a lift back this morning, as it turned out I couldn't have rowed back as it was a choppy F5 so in the end it turned out easier!
Click to expand...
Interesting
I have found i can row my 45 year old Avon in almost anything. This is because i can deflate the seat a bit & keep my legs down low. This allows me to pass the oars over my legs. Plus as it has wooden oars i can push them out so they do not lash in the middle. I might add i am 6ft 6 ins tall
I bought a new Wetline dinghy with my new boat. Cast off in the dinghy & found that because the seat is wood & cannot be lowered i was sitting too high. The oars would not pass over my legs on the backstroke so they just went back & forward in the water. The oars have fixed rowlocks so i could not push them out to miss my legs
Needless to say that after being rescued i have gone back to my trusty Avon
 
Things I should have checked, remembered or never said....

On first ever sail as skipper of a boat (after 7 days total sailing experience) with SWMBO on board a yacht for the first time in her life:

  1. That you know how to reef the mainsail when the wind outside the harbour is stronger than that inside
  2. That your wife heard you say that you intended to sail around for a few hours before entering a tidal harbour and not go straight there (not enough water to get in)
  3. That you remember to check the tide direction when coming alongside a neighbour's boat and don't just assume that you point the boat the same way as all the others
  4. To be sympathetic when your wife's been dragged across the deck trying to hold onto a mooring buoy rather than critisise her technique (especially when it was your fault!)....
  5. Never to say "all we need now is for the outboard to fail to start" when there's a strong ebb tide that means you daren't try and row against it and you would otherwise have to wait several hours for the flood and enough water to reach shore
  6. To check that the paddle part of the cheap plastic oars that came with the dinghy is securely attached to the shaft

etc. etc.

It wasn't my finest weekend....
 
Daydream believer said:
Interesting
I have found i can row my 45 year old Avon in almost anything.
Click to expand...

It's full on rowing against wind & tide in Chi Harbour anyway but do-able but I draw the line at waves with white caps, slack tide or not :eek:, it was mad out there today. The guy that gave me a lift in the RIB was taking his sailing school kids out for a jolly as the conditions were too rough to sail! He was having a great time smashing into the waves but the kids were cold and miserable!!
 
Houleaux said:
On first ever sail as skipper of a boat (after 7 days total sailing experience) with SWMBO on board a yacht for the first time in her life:

  1. That you know how to reef the mainsail when the wind outside the harbour is stronger than that inside
  2. That your wife heard you say that you intended to sail around for a few hours before entering a tidal harbour and not go straight there (not enough water to get in)
  3. That you remember to check the tide direction when coming alongside a neighbour's boat and don't just assume that you point the boat the same way as all the others
  4. To be sympathetic when your wife's been dragged across the deck trying to hold onto a mooring buoy rather than critisise her technique (especially when it was your fault!)....
  5. Never to say "all we need now is for the outboard to fail to start" when there's a strong ebb tide that means you daren't try and row against it and you would otherwise have to wait several hours for the flood and enough water to reach shore
  6. To check that the paddle part of the cheap plastic oars that came with the dinghy is securely attached to the shaft

etc. etc.

It wasn't my finest weekend....
Click to expand...

This could be me next weekend!
 
Always check that your tiller still operates the rudder before you cast off from your swinging mooring. (The welds on my tangs had failed).

In a similar vein, check you can engage gear before casting off in a windy marina. (The neutral button got jammed in).
 
Zagato said:
It's full on rowing against wind & tide in Chi Harbour anyway but do-able but I draw the line at waves with white caps, slack tide or not :eek:, it was mad out there today. The guy that gave me a lift in the RIB was taking his sailing school kids out for a jolly as the conditions were too rough to sail! He was having a great time smashing into the waves but the kids were cold and miserable!!
Click to expand...
I was not critisising your decision about rowing
It just jogged my memory of the difference in rowing useability of 2 makes/designs of inflatable dinghy
Seat position & oar adjustment etc never seems to be questioned in dinghy tests
 
I've really enjoyed reading this thread there's been some good tips. I've just bought my first boat and she's still ashore getting the stuff done that was picked up in the survey but I'm sure I'll commit all these "offences" in due course plus many extra ones to fill these pages over the next few months.
 
Should have checked that I had brought the log from home. In the back cover of the log are lists of
- what to check/do before leaving her
- what to check before starting engine and casting off
- what to take home when leaving
Failure to take the log meant I had no check list when leaving and a mild niggly worry all week wondering what I forgot to do before leaving
The lists are a result of suffering many of the issues described already
 
Halo said:
Failure to take the log meant I had no check list when leaving and a mild niggly worry all week wondering what I forgot to do before leaving
Click to expand...

Surely once you got back home you could look at the list and check you'd done it all (or at least know what you hadn't done)?

Personally I try quite hard to minimise the number of things that need to be done - when you often nip out for a couple of hours sailing on the way home from work, you don't want to spend half an hour packing the boat up before you can leave. So it was pretty much just sail covers on, all electrical switches off, tiller lashed and washboards locked. The only thing I used to sometimes forget was the burgee, but I'd always notice that when halfway down the pontoon and looking back.

New boat has no tiller, one less sail to cover, and that cover is a stack-pack type with a zip anyway. So I should be in and out even quicker :)

Pete
 
:mad:That the paper bag holding your almost new smart charger was not going to disintigrate while climbing down the harbour wall ladder, might not have been a total disaster if the tide had been out.:mad:
 
prv said:
Surely once you got back home you could look at the list and check you'd done it all (or at least know what you hadn't done)?
Pete
Click to expand...

Pete
If, on arrival at home, I could still remember what I had done when I left her a couple of hours earlier then I probably would not need a list in the first place - but I suppose I could have written a list of what I had done and talken it home for cross checking - but then it would have to be pretty serious for me to do a 4 hour round trip if I did find something overlooked !
I suspect age or an overloaded brain is against me here !
 
Things I should have checked?

That I'd tied my inflatable to the pontoon before stepping ashore with the outboard, clambering onto my yacht to secure it on board and then glancing over my shoulder to see the dinghy drifting some 50m away......

Luckily for me an RNLI RIB had just entered the marina, so it was only a short walk to their pontoon with a very red face to ask "Please will you get my dinghy back mister?" rather than a cold swim! :o
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top