What is the most idiotic mistake you have made on a boat?

[Stemar]

Having never been to Newtown before I spotted a free buoy and so took the easy option. Needless to say at about ½ tide I felt the boat settle. I then spent the next three hours anxiously waiting to see how far over we would go, we ended up at about 50 degrees. Fortunately it was October and was completely dark. We left early the next morning before any other boats were up and hoping that my error had not been noticed by any other boats.

We did something similar on my Dazed Kipper course. The instructor said, "All the fin keel boats leave Wooton Creek for low tide, but I know it and we'll just sink into the mud." Dinner at the Royal Vic was great but when we went back to the boat she'd developed a bit of a list. It was 2am before we could go back on board and have a reasonable chance of staying in our bunks

 

[ceproof87]

My most idiotic mistake: When i was at the helm.....

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Solo, desperate for a pee, tiller pilot on, slipping passed, yet very close, to a large grey funnel tied up for scrap in Portsmouth harbour, got to heads and doing the business, when..... CRASH!!!! Twister 28' had rammed the grey funnel almost head on.

Tiller pilot had 'lost' its magnetic bearing and taken a liking to the warship!

Bent cqr... and roller but no other visible damage. Very embarrassed!

S.

p.s. it did encourage me to get a modern gen' anchor after roller was straightened though, so no real regrets.

 

[ffiill]

Back in the 60s a friend was an able seaman on one of the navy support boats.
They were heading into Rothesay Bay to moor up along side the pier.
My friend was at the bow with mooring warp ready.
The boat was heading straight towards the pier as they had done many times before with the aim of turning once close in and coming along.
The pier got closer and closer and my friend ran for it as it hit the pier head on.
The chain linked steering had jammed!
Back in 1990 was moving my old new boat from its jetty at Skipool to David Mosses Boat yàrd in Skipool Creek to refit the mast.
For those who dont know it Skipool Creek is a very narrow and deep tidal chanel which runs of the River Wyre near Blackpool Yacht club.
There is as I recall about 20 feet between high and low( no water) herabouts.
When the tide is high and covering the surrounding salt marsh the chanel entrance is invisible.
Suffice to say I overshot the entrance and got stuck on a sandbank.
As the tide fell I also realised that this was a spur of sand between Skipool Creek and an adjascent chanel
Which was in those days was Blackpool Sewerage works outfall chanel.
The boat finally settled luckily leaning upslope on the chanel edge again about 20 foot deep.
I spent the afternoon layingchainthe 200 foot of anchor chain and 30 lb cqr to the mouth of the creek.
The max high tide for two weeks was that night at about 10.00.
Calling on the services of the friend I had just bought the boat from we met in the local pub a bit too early and fell out about 21.30 into the dingyand to the boat.
The aim was to use the anchor and chain to guide the boat back into the chanel with the help of the engine.
The boat soon freed itself,it overran the chain which wrapped itself around my fingers and the pulpit
T.
Luckily I managed somehow to free my hand without loosing my fingers but did end up with a septic infection courtesy of the sewerage works.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Makes you wonder why people charter nice new AWBs in the Med, doesn't it? It's something I often ponder as I peer through the companionway at the clouds of midgies / rain drops / hail stones / fog / small animals blown horizontally (delete some if applicable) between me and Scotland.

 

[Seajet]

Makes you wonder why people charter nice new AWBs in the Med, doesn't it? It's something I often ponder as I peer through the companionway at the clouds of midgies / rain drops / hail stones / fog / small animals blown horizontally (delete some if applicable) between me and Scotland.

I often wondered if BAe got a discount for camera - dependent trials in midwinter Scotland, sometimes we couldn't open the hangar side door against the wind...

Not myself I hasten to say but a classic by a fellow Oliver Lee design owner; we were together at St Peter Port, my Anderson and his Hunter 490 on opposite sides of the pontoon at the inland end by the pivot for the gangway - nb there's a 40' + tidal range there...

Chum had an enjoyable extended lunch so crashed out for the afternoon, leaving his hired pushbike under the handrail of the gangway.

Tide came in, gangway levelled, and by the time he could prise the bike free it was fit for use by a Chimp in a Circus; he strolled back to the hire shop with it tucked into his armpit, " gather my deposit is out of the question ?! "

 

[bbg]

OK, I've got another one.

Exhausted at 3 am, woke up from a 20 minute nap to see a target on the AIS showing a reciprocal course with a CPA of 0.2 miles. Time to CPA 45 minutes. Set the alarm for another 20 minutes sleep but I was so sleepy I FORGOT TO PRESS THE START BUTTON.

That could've ended badly.

 

[pmagowan]

3 events:

1) Sailing from Strangford to Peel, stonking sail with wind from NW pushing us along. I stuck to the tiller the whole way instead of letting my sister take a turn and give me a rest. When we reached Peel it was dark, wind and sea got up and I had a hell of a time getting the sail down. My sister couldn't get her pointed into the wind as the waves kept knocking the bow off. I had the halyard in my teeth and was trying to hold in a filling sail. Eventually made it in knackered but the gate was closed to the inner harbour so we had to anchor outside in horrendous swell. If I had not been so tired the whole thing would have gone a lot more smoothly and we might have been in time for the gate.

2) The morse cable to the gear box fell off while I was doing a 20 point turn in the marina (long keeler). Stuck in forward gear we gave the marina quite a knock and my sister tried to use her legs as fenders and was lucky to escape. I didn't think quick enough to shout at her just to let it happen.

3) Spent an hour and a half in Portpatrick repeatedly running aground as we tried to get in a t the wrong state of the tide to get a pint and some grub in the hotel. I was swinging off the boom on a number of occasions and must have been quite a site. Eventually I rang the hotel and told them that I was desperate hungry and thirsty and they were not to send the chef away until I had arrived in. They had worked all this out anyway as they laughed out t he window and told us not to worry, we would be, and were, well fed and watered.

 

[Burnham Bob]

We had to leave Titchmarsh early in the morning. Got up, went for a pee and rather than disturb SWMBO cast off and motored away up towards Stone Point. Thought SWMBO was a bit quiet and dashing below found the sleeping bag rucked up enought to look full but empty. Spun round and motored back to see SWMBO in dressing gown on the pontoon having nippped to the ladies whilst I was in the Gents. I am still alive.

 

[xyachtdave]

I've enjoyed reading this thread but unfortunately have nothing to add.......

 

[Corribee Boy]

We had to leave Titchmarsh early in the morning. Got up, went for a pee and rather than disturb SWMBO cast off and motored away up towards Stone Point. Thought SWMBO was a bit quiet and dashing below found the sleeping bag rucked up enought to look full but empty. Spun round and motored back to see SWMBO in dressing gown on the pontoon having nippped to the ladies whilst I was in the Gents. I am still alive.

Brilliant!

 

[Robert Wilson]

We had to leave Titchmarsh early in the morning. Got up, went for a pee and rather than disturb SWMBO cast off and motored away up towards Stone Point. Thought SWMBO was a bit quiet and dashing below found the sleeping bag rucked up enought to look full but empty. Spun round and motored back to see SWMBO in dressing gown on the pontoon having nippped to the ladies whilst I was in the Gents. I am still alive.

There's a moral there somewhere, but I can't think what. !!

Damned if you do, damned if you don't:-

Wake her by checking sleeping lump - wrath.
Don't check and cast-off without her - wrath.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Not myself I hasten to say but a classic by a fellow Oliver Lee design owner; we were together at St Peter Port, my Anderson and his Hunter 490 on opposite sides of the pontoon at the inland end by the pivot for the gangway - nb there's a 40' + tidal range there...

Had he sailed the 490 across from England. If so, respect, as the kids say. I'm planning a jaunt across to the Isle of Man in mine, but it will have to be a VERY nice forecast.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

We had to leave Titchmarsh early in the morning. Got up, went for a pee and rather than disturb SWMBO cast off and motored away up towards Stone Point. Thought SWMBO was a bit quiet and dashing below found the sleeping bag rucked up enought to look full but empty. Spun round and motored back to see SWMBO in dressing gown on the pontoon having nippped to the ladies whilst I was in the Gents. I am still alive.

Oh boy, that is the best so far by a country mile...... I laughed my head off!

 

[JumbleDuck]

This thread is beginning to worry me ... I am beginning to wonder if I have ever done anything right in a boat.

There was the time I arrived in Crinan by at 2am on a Friday morning. It was my usual routine: leave Oxford after work on a Thursday, get to Crinan in teh small hours, sail three days, back down on Sunday evening. Couldn't be away from the lab for a chunk of time, you see, but long weekends were OK.

Anyway I arrived in unbelievably heavy rain, the sort even West Highlanders comment on ("A wee bit dreich today, Wullie" ... "Aye") and I had no waterproofs, as I left all my sailing gear on the boat, on a swinging mooring. Since nobody was about, and it was quite warm, I decided to row out in the nude, clothes in a plastic bag, and get dry when I was on board. Unfortunately I didn't reckon on the suspicious natures of yachties hearing a dinghy rowing around at two in the morning. I wasn't halfway there when the first searchlight shone out, and by the time I got to the boat I was evading three or four of them like a Heinkel over 1940 London. The Heinkel pilot probably wasn't starkers, though.

 

[Poignard]

What is the most idiotic mistake you have made on a boat?

Coming alongside the fuel pontoon at Camper and Nicholsons, single-handed, I leapt ashore with a line. As I left the cockpit I accidentally kicked the engine control into ahead and then found myself being pulled along the pontoon like a small child with a big dog on a lead. After a while I had the sense to run ahead and get a turn round a cleat. Very embarrassing but entertaining for the onlookers.

 

[Ripster]

I ones that spring to mind:

1. Leaving the boat in astern when saying to SWMBO it was in Neutral and rolling my eyes and saying to her to stop messing about and just pull the bow in.

2. Taking about 5 attempts to get on a pontoon in a stiff breeze blowing us off (crowd watching), before thinking of my training and doing it properly without an issue.

3. When berthing astern, getting the Bow thruster direction controls backwards whilst standing looking astern and looking smug as I just blipped the Bow in a bit - trouble was, I blipped it out and bumped on the boat next door (only fenders) and woke three navy guys up who had been asleep - oops!

4. Not seating the jib car properly on its peg in 30kns of wind and then having it come flying back down the track, rip the end stop off then fly and bounce about the deck on the sheet, taking lumps out of everything it hit.

That's enough for now!

 

[alahol2]

Whilst searching for something on the interweb I came across this astonishing report from 1977. Sounds perfect for this thread...

60 seasick shoppers rescued


RAMSGATE, England [AP]-Sixty Belgians returning from a weekend shopping trip to Britain In a flotilla of package-laden rubber dinghies were rescued from the stormy English Channel Sunday night.

A spokesman for the Ramsgate coast guard said the women and children aboard 24 dinghies all were in good shape, but a few were seasick.

Authorities said it is unusual for such group crossings of the channel In rubber dinghies, but the Belgians apparently were trying to save money by not taking the ferry.

The shoppers, who sailed from Dunkirk to Ramsgate on the southeastern English coast without incident Saturday, began the 50-mile return journey Sunday afternoon when the sea was calm. Most of the dinghies were about 18 feet long and were equipped with outboard motors.

"LATER THIE WIND freshened up and caught them unawares," the coast guard spokesman said. The Belgians roped their bobbing boats together and, when the waves increased, abandoned the crossing and tied up beside the Falls lightship 15 miles off Ramsgate's coast.

Rescue boats from Ramsgate, Margate and Dover, plus several fishing boats, took the Belgians back to Ramsgate.

The weak British pound has made Britain a shopping haven for Europeans.

 

[johnalison]

My nomination for the daftest effort of 2014 is a the crew member of a friend of mine. As they approached the pontoon in St Helier with my friend at the helm of his boat, the friend took the bow line and took it upon himself to jump off the bow. He managed to leave his leg attached to the pulpit and landed on the pontoon with a broken leg. It got worse when he developed a DVT in the plane when he was flown home.

 

[Nostrodamus]

Sailors have an unequalled gift of squeezing big mistakes into small opportunities.