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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

"This Could Happen To You" Dept.

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/05/2007 : 14:08:15

What's more embarrassing to a sailor than running into a power line?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wVV_zXDnt5o

Association Port Captain, Mystic, CT
Past member and DPO of C-25 #5032
Now on Eastern 27 Sarge (but still sailing) and posting as "Stinkpotter".

Passage, Mystic, and Sarge--click to enlarge.

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Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 09/05/2007 : 15:54:05

Being rescued by a jet ski

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KenDavis
1st Mate

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USA
69 Posts

Response Posted - 09/05/2007 : 16:02:53

Up river from me there are some LARGE lines coming from the power plant that cross the river. My chart lists them as 65 feet clearance.

I know it's hard to judge distance looking up the mast, but holy smokes they look close. I can't bring myself to sail under them.

If I really want to go up river, I'll borrow a john boat.

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Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 09/05/2007 : 16:43:10

This one is a hoot!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DPX9nFZabhA

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OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3468 Posts

Response Posted - 09/05/2007 : 16:53:41

Tom - That was great ! The thing is...was he having fun ?

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Justin
Admiral

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502 Posts

Response Posted - 09/05/2007 : 17:25:27

Tom, one of my younger brothers saw an advertisement for one of those and I had to convince him it would be a waste of money. Now I need to show him this video for proof! The concept sounds nice, an inflatable sailboat that you can throw in your trunk, but I could not think of it sailing well at all.

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 09/05/2007 : 17:31:02

Looks to me like he was trying to launch into irons. Reminds me of trying to learn how to windsurf w/o wind. I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to just get on the board w/o immediately falling off. Man was I bruised up, and never did catch any wind to speak of.

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 09/05/2007 : 17:55:02

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by delliottg
 ...Reminds me of trying to learn how to windsurf w/o wind. I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to just get on the board w/o immediately falling off...<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">I had the same experience trying to learn to windsurf with no wind--it's like trying to learn to ride a bicycle standing still.

As for the balloon sailor, there's the old saying: "You can get there faster on a powerboat--on a sailboat, you're already there." He's already there... and there he is.

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Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3321 Posts

Response Posted - 09/05/2007 : 18:06:12

Didn't they just make a movie about that - "failure to launch"!

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Justin
Admiral

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502 Posts

Response Posted - 09/05/2007 : 18:36:15

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Derek Crawford
 Didn't they just make a movie about that - "failure to launch"!

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

HAHA Yeah, but I know first hand that the boat in "Failure to Launch" sails!

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stampeder
Master Marine Consultant

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1608 Posts

Response Posted - 09/06/2007 : 11:59:00

those two vids remind me of my first year of sailing. I bought a windsurfer and flailed around like an idiot for an entire summer before I finally caught on.
That same summer (1982) our little lake had a power line running across the launch ramp. A guy with a catamaran did not heed/read the sign that shouted out "power line above". He subsequently lost both arms when the power line came into contact with his mast.

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 09/06/2007 : 12:35:45

Ouch, just thinking about that hurts. I was dismasted on my catamaran once, but while very exciting when it happened, there was very little damage to the boat, and virtually none to me other than a slap mark where one of the shrouds whacked me.

I read a story some time ago about a family who were anchored somewhere on a South American river, upstream of a powerline and a bridge. I think they'd been able to sail under both on the way up, but a big storm came up, the water came up something like ten feet, and they dragged their anchor. The current swept them under the powerlines where it arced to the mast shocking their dog, who fell into the river. They were able to get their engine started before they hit the bridge, but had no choice but to motor upstream under the powerlines again. After the storm subsided and the water levels dropped, they were able to go look for their dog. If I remember correctly they couldn't find him after several days of searching & presumed him dead. The continued upstream, and when they came back down a couple of weeks later, they found the dog had been rescued by a fisherman. He was a bit frazzled from the electrocution, and some fur was missing, but generally none the worse for the wear.

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Renzo
Admiral

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USA
621 Posts

Response Posted - 09/07/2007 : 17:28:23

Wish I would have caught this embarrassing moment on video; it would have been a classic. The Picton Castle, a 200 ft., square rigged tall ship was docked along the seawall at Navy Pier in Chicago, as part of the Sail Op 2000 Tall Ships festival. A guy in a brand new 35 foot sloop was motoring around the harbor with a boat full of passengers. Everyone was enjoying looking at the Tall ships while partaking of the platters of food and drinks that were distributed on the deck and in the cockpit. The proud skipper appropriately attired in crisp freshly ironed blue shorts and a dazzlingly white Izod shirt stood at the helm with a martini glass (two olives) in one hand and steered his boat along side of the Picton Castle ( the biggest boat in the fleet) to give his guests an up-close and personal view. It was at this point that the upper shroud of his boat snagged the lower yardarm of the Picton Castle. It stopped his boat and, actually pushed it backward before his shroud snapped pelting his guests (who had already been thrown around on deck and splattered with food and drink) with shrapnel from the broken spreader. The skipper, when he had recovered from the shock of being thrown into the wheel and breaking his martini glass, looked up and seemed to be surprised that a ship would have spars extending, athwart ships, so far past the hull.

Edited by - Renzo on 09/07/2007 17:29:02

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.