What's the worst thing you forgot to do ?

Not fastening the pocket of a fleece into which I had placed my car, boat and house keys as I was stepping off the boat onto the pontoon. Cue an hour's worth of magnet fishing before I found them. The car key still worked!

Then there was the day when I was doing a little bit of sailboat racing. It had been a while since I'd last ventured over to the dark side and this time I forgot to secure my specs by one of those bits of string and, of course, a rather fine pair of varifocals straightaway went to join Neptune.

Not a problem as I had a spare pair in my jacket.

Not a problem at least until the yacht gave an unseemly lurch and I crushed those spare specs against a sticky out object, breaking the frame.

As I was going to have to drive home at the end of the day I thought it best after that second blow to at least keep the lenses safe and mostly squint at things on the water.

...

It would be fair to say that, had I been stopped on the M3 that night the first observation the police officer would have made would have been, "Sir, I may be mistaken, but you appear to have two bits of glass attached to your face by means of sellotape wound round and round your head."

:)
 
First time out last year from my Med berth, forgot port fwd line. Couldn't understand why folks were gesticulating & pointing at my bow.

Soon stopped though, neatly moored mid channel. Diver soon came & sorted me out, did feel a right prat though. Luckily engine stopped before the chain reached the prop.

Still I always believe that sometimes you are the entertainment, we all have to take a turn. No damage to anything apart from one mooring ground line & my pride.
 
Not exactly disastrous, but first sail of the season, set off from the club heading for Walton Backwaters. Removed and stowed fenders unfurled main , tried to unfurl genoa to find that I had fitted the reefing line the wrong way so that hauling on the sheet just furled it tighter!! Never mind we will just pick up mooring off Pin Mill and have some lunch while I sort out the genoa. Lesson learnt.
 
Check the fuel in a "new to me" boat, the fuel gauge was showing half full, but in reality, it was empty, I broke down in the Solent , fitted new filters, and then I was towed in by Sestart, suspecting water in the fuel, got all the gear together to pump her out, removed the fuel sender inspection hatch, the tank was empty, the gauge clearly had never worked...
 
I had a 17' hardy for sale. A prospective purchaser came for a sea trial. I duly launched the boat from the trailer with the prospect and his son in the boat. I gleefully took the trailer back to the carpark only to find on my return the boat had 6/7 inches of water in it. Oops forgot to put the bung in so started the engine got in and powered away. After a few hundred yards all the water had drained out, I then put the bung in from the inside (does it matter if outside or in? its just a hole after all). Went for the trial and the chap still bought the boat phew! He actually became a good friend but now sadly passed away, hopefully not down to me.
 
SpottyDog5 said:
Check the fuel in a "new to me" boat, the fuel gauge was showing half full, but in reality, it was empty, I broke down in the Solent , fitted new filters, and then I was towed in by Sestart, suspecting water in the fuel, got all the gear together to pump her out, removed the fuel sender inspection hatch, the tank was empty, the gauge clearly had never worked...
Click to expand...
Did very similar with a car once. Always make sure I fill the tank, straight after buying a vehicle now to avoid similar!
 
180degree turn using engine power, whilst for getting to disengage autopilot. One hell of a bang when the autopilot gave up and the rudders slammed over, and hydraulic relief valve blew.
 
Not me but cringeful/funny to watch.
On holiday in NZ and did an overnight on Doubtful Sound - the one south of Milford Sound, on a 60ft or so single engine monohull. We had berthed on a pontoon, almost vertical tree covered mountainsides towering above us, a a strong breeze.
The skipper did the common technique: stern rope, full rudder, engine on tickover. The wind swirled around,picked up the bow and swung it off the pontoon so fast that the skipper had no time to react. She swung through 180 degrees with the stern rope cutting through the superstructure of the large cruiser moored behind like a cheese wire. It made a right mess of it.
It was only the quick actions of the 17 year old deckhand who saved the day when he grabbed a machete and chopped the line. One of the other guests got the whole thing on video, we were ashore by now so had a grandstand view.
 
Years ago bought a boat in Largs and made the mistake of believing the previous owners vastly exaggerated fuel tank capacity. Made almost Oban before it ran out!
 
Three things I can think of:

1. driving over 100 miles to the boat and realizing I had left the keys at home
2. driving a sports boat off the trailer, backing out into the fairway and the engine stopping. Took ages trying to get it restarted before realising I had left the fuel taps closed.
3. trying to leave a berth with a single rope still attached. It was on the other side of the boat in my defence, but I spent a while wondering why I wasn't going backwards despite being in reverse.

The first 2 were in my earlier naive days, but that last one was only a couple of months back!
 
Motoring back to the harbour after an aborted sail in wind we should never have gone out in.

The OB was working somewhat harder than it normally does and progress was slow in a choppy sea into the wind.

less than 100 metres from the harbour entrance on a lee shore, the OB stopped. It had ran out of fuel.

That's the quickest we have ever deployed the anchor and it held while we re fueled the OB.

Lesson 1, don't go out in silly conditions.
Lesson 2, check fuel level before attempted entering the harbour, a safe distance out in case you have to re fuel.
 
Sent the wife home in the car with a lot of surplus gear whilst on a short cruise. I then headed downriver back to my own mooring. Blowing up an Avon Redstart by mouth does wonders for a headrush. Paddling a soggy dinghy back to shore did wonders for my future checklists.
 
maverickofpoole said:
I had a 17' hardy for sale. A prospective purchaser came for a sea trial. I duly launched the boat from the trailer with the prospect and his son in the boat. I gleefully took the trailer back to the carpark only to find on my return the boat had 6/7 inches of water in it. Oops forgot to put the bung in so started the engine got in and powered away. After a few hundred yards all the water had drained out, I then put the bung in from the inside (does it matter if outside or in? its just a hole after all). Went for the trial and the chap still bought the boat phew! He actually became a good friend but now sadly passed away, hopefully not down to me.
Click to expand...
I did the same but the bung was at home and I was at Kingston on the Thames so a fast run was not an option ! It took me 10 min to notice which is a lot of water !
 
Towing my S24 from Bedfordshire to Hamble, at pitstop at fleet services on M3, wanted to get some refreshment out of boat fridge ........ cant find boat keys ANYWHERE!!!............. ABOUT TURN !!!!!......get home, CANT FIND boat keys ANYWHERE !!...blood presure now 670/9999 !!!!!!......... started to dismantle disco ..NO LUCK ......get tools to dismantle cabin door ....get into boat with tools to find cabin door unlocked n boat keys on shelf by galley !!!!.........AAAHHHHHHHHH i hate myself ........... ps.. (was about 18yrs ago)............
 
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