What's your biggest boating fail?!

[William_H]

After 55 odd yrs of boating ... list is too long !! I am sure more will be added before I go meet maker !!

Hit mid channel buoy when both of us watching Ferry coming out behind us ....

Chatting away mind in neutral - both of us beer in hand ... hit overhead power cable ... ruined top 15" of furler

Had pal sailing with me - Folly Inn ... mentioned to him that we would be letting go and with tide / wind - we would ferry glide of pontoon and clear of other boats ... I'm chatting to guys from other boat on pontoon ... one points and asks what my guy is doing .... ran down dock to just catch the end of mooring line ... he'd let all lines go !!

and it goes on ...

Yes something I learned while teaching sailing in my little boat. I spend time explaining what is going to happen. (like letting go lines) You have to be so careful to emphasise "only when I give the order" Over enthusiasm is a real killer. You just have to be aware they might just do it too soon. An interesting art teaching sailing. ol'will (now long retired from teaching but I enjoyed it enormously.)

 

[Refueler]

Lets be honest ... when something happens - so often you look at yourself and think :

How can I be so dumb !!

 

[Laser310]

not buying my next boat before covid...

 

[capnsensible]

Around 25 years ago, I was doing a skippering job for a corporate sailing event run out of Campers in Gosport. Large sailing school, loadsa similar sized Bavarias, great for the job. Anyway we all left together and with a northerly wind, motored up Portsmouth Harbour to stow warps and fenders then get mainsail up.

The yacht in front of me started veering around with the skipper looking a bit frantic. Tip, do not ask novice crew to 'untie the fenders'. Coz that's what they did. Leaving Skips with 6 man overboard practices to do at once. Then the Cross Channel ferry hove into view.....

 

[Topcat47]

Financially and aesthetically, the thing that still infuriated me is the money wasted re-painting the hull and coachwork. The paint started flaking off within days of my paying for the job and despite several attempts to keep the coachwork looking sound, it still looks bloody awful.

Sailing, I've had three embarrassing biggies and no I"m buggered if I'm gonna share them, but they only hurt my pride. The paint job was the worst. It ended up costing more than the boat.

 

[Birdseye]

Admit it, you'd be lying if you said nothing has ever gone wrong when you're sailing. What mistakes have you made (or seen others make) that we can all learn from. Just interested as I feel I've had more than my fair share of accidents

Got plenty to chose from for sure, from running aground, to sinking, to ramming ( a lifeboat as it happens) to crew having heart attacks to MoB, to engine failures, loss of sails, electrical failures.

The most amusing was coming down river in the early hours of a moonless night, intending to take up my berth in a muddy inlet with a dog leg entrance. The moorings officer, a jobbing builder by trade, had installed new leading marks using some surplus road signs he has found. SWMBO on bow with a big lantern, me on the tiller. It soon degenrated into a full blown dispute about my ability to helm and her hindsight since we seemed to be wandering all over the shop. When we got close we found out why. We had picked up the first mark OK ( a 30 limit sign) but what we thought was the back transit mark was in fact a Fresian cow who was moving about.

 

[Refueler]

Had a berth in Thornham Marina ... and was seriously tide bound even for a 19ft Alacrity.

Being a professional seaman / navigator ... I worked out tides etc. to move boat from TM to Farlington drying mooring. Wife decided she'd brave it ...

We got out of Chichester Hbr but time was passing as we were little late out of Thornham ... you know women !!

We arrived off Langstone entrance still with time to make it to mooring ... BUT ebb tide had started already ... and the Seagull + sails on the Alacrity while towing a dinghy were just not enough ... tide vs wind - the troughs were making that little boat pitch like a crazy rodeo show ... wife was wimpering in the bottom of cockpit threatening me with all manner of hellish things IF she survived it.

I hailed a fishing boat chugging in who ignored us and next we see is the Lifeboat RIB coming out .. who towed us in and plonked us on Hayling Ferry pontoon. By then it was too late to get on the mooring ... but once wife was in 'better mood' - we cast off and made our way towards the Havant end of Langstone to pick up mooring.
We arrived and ahead was mud ... so we edged our way to mooring as tide came in ... finally moored and into the Dinghy ...

There is a very wide excellent slipway there - but water was not at slip and still yards of mud ...

Wife looked at me ... over I went - African Queen style into the mud - pulled her and dinghy to the slip. Our second car was already there parked (little van job ... so no problem with my muddy condition).

We went home ... now past midnight ... my Mother was fuming as plan was that she should have been home form looking after our kids hours earlier ...

Needless to say .... it took quite a while before wife saw the funny side of it ... in fact I don't thjink she ever did !!

 

[Refueler]

Got plenty to chose from for sure, from running aground, to sinking, to ramming ( a lifeboat as it happens) to crew having heart attacks to MoB, to engine failures, loss of sails, electrical failures.

The most amusing was coming down river in the early hours of a moonless night, intending to take up my berth in a muddy inlet with a dog leg entrance. The moorings officer, a jobbing builder by trade, had installed new leading marks using some surplus road signs he has found. SWMBO on bow with a big lantern, me on the tiller. It soon degenrated into a full blown dispute about my ability to helm and her hindsight since we seemed to be wandering all over the shop. When we got close we found out why. We had picked up the first mark OK ( a 30 limit sign) but what we thought was the back transit mark was in fact a Fresian cow who was moving about.

You reminded me of as a kid with Father .. he was terrible for standing to one side and accusing helm of not being in middle of channel ... he of course had the offset viewpoint ...

 

[ronsurf]

Getting the anchor cable wrapped around a rock at the entrance to a harbour on a Greek Island when we chartered a yacht. In fact it was round two rocks and in front of a packed quay.

To my credit I also got us untangled. This was followed up two days later by making an absolute hash of stern to mooring returning the boat while the charter agent was watching. Previous stern-to moorings were fine, but this one.... was not fine.

 

[Corona Mia]

Taking my little sister for some ‘crew training’ in my newly acquired Osprey dinghy!

In the first gust of wind……I missed my toe-straps and tumbled overboard.
’Free the sheets and I’ll swim over’ I shouted……once I’d surfaced.

But she panicked and jumped overboard.
Boat sailed another 50 metres before capsizing.

 

[Sandy]

Not knowing the boat owner only drunk Yorkshire Tea; as you know it is a vile concoction of stuff that is designed to give you the trots for several months. I now always pack enough 'proper' tea to last the trip.

Everything else is an adventure.

 

[Blueboatman]

This thread could in all honesty be ongoing.
It’s the start of a new sailing season

 

[Restoration man]

Buying my current boat , this is the 10th boat including my parents boats I’ve had / worked on most have been fixer uppers and I thought I knew what I was getting myself into ,so I should have known Better , turned out to be lot more work than I ever expected, but I think it’s stopped giving me surprises now

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Getting tide wrong by looking at utc tide table then bst watch and setting off through fierce and potentially dangerous tidal gate of Jack Sound an hour too early. 14kt past the rocks on tickover and a most tremendous splash when we got to the end of the ‘waterslide’.

Much later deciding to avoid Jack Sound and avoid waiting by going round Skomer but too close so straight into a 6ft wall of water in the race as we turned the corner. Water everywhere and got weather boards up in panic but little actually landed in the cockpit

Having too much canvas up close hauled in bluster weather so boat gripped and uncontrollably self tacked to go back the other way. The gyration caused coast guard lifesaver patrol to ask if we were ok. We lied

 

[KeelsonGraham]

Night crossing from Fecamp to Brighton in an F9 from the North with full main up. Despite several knock downs, we were too frightened to get up on the coach roof to put in a couple of reefs.