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our most embarrasing moment

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Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5937 Posts

Response Posted - 08/03/2002 : 11:26:49

My worst moment was when I decided to sail a 14 ft. unballasted dinghy, after having sailed a ballasted boat for over twenty years. I launched the boat and rigged it at the dock, and then, when I was ready to sail, stepped onto it, standing fully upright, just like I always did on my C-25. The boat flipped on its side, dumping me alongside it in the slip. At times like that you have to wonder how you can love an activity that can be so humiliating, and that makes you work so hard and sweat so much, but then I guess the same things could be said about sex.

Steve Milby "Captiva Wind" C-25 T/FK #2554

Edited by - on

Leon Sisson
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1893 Posts

Response Posted - 08/04/2002 : 02:00:55

<center>Most Embarrassing Moment Sailing?</center>

Well gosh, there have been so few, let me see ...

Once upon a time the confident young owner of a beautifully restored wooden Lighting (19' open daysailor) was out on the river on a hot summer day with two young ladies of his acquaintance. Let's call them Captain Val and Kara The Jockette. They all knew exactly what they were doing. Their sailing abilities were honed to such a fine edge that a mere case of beer only served to sharpen their skills. Our young hero had just that morning confidently assured a somewhat skeptical Kara that there was no chance her boombox and prized 35mm camera could possibly get wet on this boat.

After a long thirsty day of sun and fun on the water, the Lightning was tearing along just down wind of a golf course, flying in the smooth water and clean air off the open fairways. Kara was at the helm, Val had the sheets, and the grinning owner was hanging off the windward shrouds, trying to keep the boat somewhat level, or at least the rail out of the water. Meanwhile the girls whooped, hollered, and encouraged each other to push the boat harder. There was no reason to expect a sudden sharp burst of wind.

When the gust hit, the lee coaming went under instantly. Water was pouring into the cockpit in a six foot wide waterfall. The owner, too far outboard, and too far from the controls to do anything but holler, yelled to head up and ease the sheets. Captain Val, in a momentary brain lock-up, dropped the still-cleated jib sheet to get a better grip on the main. The jib sheet tail disappeared under the waterfall. She also shifted her footing, and in so doing, stepped on the mainsheet tail. Once uncleated, the main only ran less than a yard of line. By the time Kara gathered her wits enough to push the helm down, the rudder blade was mostly out of the water and getting more horizontal by the second. She had a sickly quizzical look on her face when the normally very responsive boat ignored the hard over tiller.

The boat filled with water and swamped on its side so fast, there was no time to do anything more but try to minimize bruises and avoid entanglement. The wooden hull settled in the 10' to 15' deep water with more than half its beam submerged. A flotilla of flotsam consisting largely of empty beer cans slowly spread out around the boat. The two more experienced sailors started laughing hysterically. Kara's face had an expression that clearly said, "Would it be OK if I panic now?!" Being a very strong swimmer, she was immediately assigned to round up the stray floating objects to keep her mind occupied.

Fortunately, there was a shallow sandy shoal a couple hundred feet downwind. There was just enough time and space to swim the masthead around so that the hull was pointing upwind as it went aground. Once the sheets were finally released, along with the halyards, it wasn't too difficult to rock the boat back up onto its keel in the warm shallow water by climbing on the 5' bronze centerboard.

The swamped wooden hull offered up about 4 inches of freeboard. Fortunately, that would be enough for bailing, if it weren't for the water gushing up out of the centerboard trunk. One person stuffed all three available T-shirts into the centerboard slot while the other two crew steadied the hull from the sides. A general purpose 5-gal. bucket was passed around from one pair of exhausted arms to the next, and the boat was bailed non-stop as fast as possible until the centerboard trunk surfaced. (If you ever wondered, an open construction Lightning can hold a lot of water.)

As the trunk slot stopped admitting water, bailing slowed to a less frantic pace. Once dried out, the boat was sailed as close to home as practical, and a passing motorboat was flagged for a tow the rest of the way through the canals to the dock.

The drowned outboard motor was revived later that same day, and ran reliably for many more years. The boombox and camera weren't so lucky. A new 35mm with bells and whistles barely appeased Miss Kara. She never forgot about the drowned boombox.

Edited by - on

FrankV
Navigator

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USA
135 Posts

Response Posted - 08/04/2002 : 16:32:07

1. Sailing a Hobie 16, both crew memebres fully trapped out on a 15-20 day, and the skipper decideds to pass a slow moving, ponderoues monohull sailboat and show them real speed and class in action. Drinks in hand, the skipper went by at top speed, on the leewared side of the monohull, hit a big wave, lost the wind and did a spectacular pitchpole. They came over and offered to help...

2. Proud new owners of a 20 foot C-scow, took about 8 people sailing on the first day with the required 20 knot wind. The skipper carefully briefed the new crew, "Now, when I say about, go to the other side of the boat".
The call went out, "ready, about!" and all 8 stampeded to the other side and the whole thing rolled over with the diginity and grace of a VW van.

Edited by - on

Doug
Captain

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USA
457 Posts

Response Posted - 08/04/2002 : 17:16:08

The Hobie story reminds me of a trip when I was much, much younger: Friend had a Hobie on the local lake, we always thought it would be cool to take it out when it was really blowing. Storm rolls in. We head to the lake. Rig the boat. Since the wind is blowing so hard we decide maybe we should try to just sail it right off the beach. We launch off the little beach, can't get the dagger boards in, and instantly loose anything resembling control. Somehow the boat ends up heading the wrong direction. The short chunk of sand did not stop us, but the oak tree sure did. I think we spent a couple hours rigging and unrigging the boat, but far less than 10 minutes afloat. I expect I'll do a lot of dumb things on my C25, but I'm hoping hitting a tree won't be one of them.

Doug - #1913 Noeta

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Ben - FL
Admiral

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880 Posts

Response Posted - 08/04/2002 : 21:06:16

I had to Laugh Out Loud at that one <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
Thanx

Safe voyages,
Ben, FL s/v Chick-a-pea C250wk

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jellyfish
Navigator

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USA
171 Posts

Response Posted - 08/05/2002 : 10:26:02

hobie story also reminds me of long ago and far away. some 20yrs ago I bought a Prindle 16 and a sailing handbook and was off to learn to sail. at the time I was living in Destin,Fl and was learning to sail in Destin Harbor and the Destin Pass. After a couple weeks I thought I had the basics down. (really didnt know ) Im coming in from the pass to the harbor. the entrance to the harbor is very narrow and takes a sharp starboard turn when entering from the pass. long story short I happen to time my entrance when all the Charter fishing boats where coming in. of course I flipped the Prindle in the narrowest part of the entrance and had fishing boats blocked and stacked up like cord wood behind me. after fumble butting around for a while I managed to right the boat and get out of everyones way. I dont think I had ever been cussed like that before or since!<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

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cathluk
Admiral

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USA
513 Posts

Response Posted - 08/12/2002 : 13:44:13

Coldducks-

Just so you know you aren't alone:

We've had our C250wk for 3 years now & we sailed a Prindle 16 & Force 5 off a beach for a couple years before that. This weekend we had a 5 hours sail back from our anchorage in 2' seas with around 12-15 knot winds. It was great sailing, but a rough & physical ride on a light boat likes ours. It was the first time we had towed our hard dinghy too & we had some problems handling it with the seas while tacking (it wanted to keep hitting our tilted up outboard). Well, you can image we were tired & hot by the time we got back & woudn't you know the wind caught us while backing into the slip & turned us sideways and right onto the 30' Moody that hangs out 3 feet past the end of their slip next to us. Long story short, it took us 3 tries to get into our slip & we ended up tying the hard dingy to a neighbors boat to get it out of the way. Oh yes, and we were yelling at each other pretty loud by then (to be fair I started it by overracting) <img src=icon_smile_angry.gif border=0 align=middle>- & of course our neighbors were around to see it all! We made a pretty bad scene! <img src=icon_smile_blush.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=icon_smile_shock.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=icon_smile_blush.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=icon_smile_blackeye.gif border=0 align=middle> I'm sure the neighbors think the boat will be up for sale soon in some kind of divorce settlement.

So - please don't get discouraged. I guarantee we made a far far bigger scene than anyone on this board probably ever has. And no, the boat is not for sale - we made up & will sail again next weekend!

Cathy
"Blown Away"
'97 C250WK #253

Edited by - on

coldducks
Captain

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USA
342 Posts

Response Posted - 08/12/2002 : 19:02:38

cathy, thanks for sharing. what an awful experience. its bad enough to screw up, but there is ALWAYS a crowd on hand to watch you. UGH!! it makes me want to sneak out at night when everyone is either in bed or gone home.!! hahahahah!!! WOULDNT IT BE GREAT IF BOATS HAD BRAKES!! COLDDUCKS
FANTASY #409 C250WK

Edited by - coldducks on 08/12/2002 19:25:07

Edited by - on

Phredde
Navigator

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125 Posts

Response Posted - 08/12/2002 : 20:53:19

I am sure glad that some of the experts here have stories to rival mine. Over the 5 years I've been sailing SF bay, these include:

* Recent running out of gas <img src=icon_smile_blush.gif border=0 align=middle> : http://www.catalina25-250.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1677

* Nearly ending up on the breakwater in front of a neighboring yacht club <img src=icon_smile_dead.gif border=0 align=middle>

* Running aground on a beach at night. That one got witnessed by both the coast guard and the national park police! No arrests, but it was close. <img src=icon_smile_clown.gif border=0 align=middle>

* Screaming matches with my original boat partner <img src=icon_smile_blackeye.gif border=0 align=middle>

* Chipping my tooth on my own rail during a motor-out while trying to fend off a neighbor berthed boat <img src=icon_smile_angry.gif border=0 align=middle>

* My dad falling in 55 degree water as we were docking on father's day <img src=icon_smile_shock.gif border=0 align=middle>

* Mast shaped like a candy cane for a moment after a shroud came loose. <img src=icon_smile_dissapprove.gif border=0 align=middle>

And I'm sure there are a few I'm forgetting. But I guess the good news is that the lessons learned are starting to sink into my thick skull and I'll be a better sailor because of it all. If I force myself to own up to these silly mistakes, maybe I'll make fewer of them. Thanks everyone!

Phredde
Catalina 25
San Francisco

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MattL
Admiral

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USA
990 Posts

Response Posted - 08/13/2002 : 04:36:58

Oh, so your quirey was for the distant past also non catalina boats....

In the mid 70's my dad and cousin Berry and I took out in early winter our Lido 14 on to San Luis Resivoir (could never spell that<img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>. When we got there the lake was like glass. We were standing by the water trying to decided to go or not. All the passing fishermen were saying that they were "biting good". I guess they thought the mast was some sort of gigantic fishing pole.
As we were getting ready to leave Dad saw some ripples out across the lake. "lets go".
Now let me describe this lake. It is about 7 miles across and 5 or so wide situated in Pacheco Pass in central California. On the other side of the pass is the San Francisco Bay area. There are many signs warning motor homes to watch for high winds when crossing the pass. It is a state park and maintains a wind watch with a couple of towers that flash green 0 to 15, yellow 15 to 30, and red 30 + MILE per hour winds. They close the lake to boats at the red light. The wind is known to come up quickly. Most boats are of hte fishing type, I think we were probably the only sail boat that went on it. No overnight on the water at all. Rangers justify this by saying the water level fluctuates too much and the winds are too high which causes too many people to drown.
We left the docks with the hopes of a little wind. In about 15 minutes we were closer to the ripples. In 30 minutes the red light was on and there were 3 foot white caps all around us. COOL.
The first mishap was a quick and easy fix, the main halyard came loose and the sail dropped around us. headed up and put the sail back up.
We were flying.
Cousin Berry was sitting on the lee side (he didn't like to move much) and dad and I were hiked out, I was driving while hooked into the hiking strap. Did I mention that the hiking strap came loose yet.<img src=icon_smile_shock.gif border=0 align=middle> My (at the time) 180 lbs body left the boat with out a helmsman. The boat hedded up and the wind caught it on the other side flipping the lido on top of my dad. The boat is now about 20 feet away and Berry was right next to me, he never said anything about being air born but I can't think of any other way of getting there.
We look around but Dad isn't there. Just as we begin to get worried he bobs up after trying to find a nonexistant air pocket under the turtled boat. Some how we get the sail down and flip the boat over. We all hang onto the side trying to use our gallon jug water scoops to empty the boat. Did I say something about white caps. Normaly when full it floats right at water level. My dad says something in French and jumps in he boat and grabs the foam ice chest and uses that while my cousin and I keep the boat level. After bailing it out we just sit there wrapped up in the jib waiting for warmth to return. When our courage returns we raise the jib and head to the boat ramp. As we get closer we see one of the park rangers on the shore watching us limp in. We couldn't see who it was and no one ever came up to us about being out with the red light on.
At the ramp dad and I take the boat apart while Berry heads up to get the car. Time passes and we are waiting. Dad goes looking for him and finds the cur sitting in the car with the heater on. Dad sends me to warm up and get the boat on the trailer.
Oh, we went out a few days latter for a nice sail as I remember.

Matt/Brigitte Loeffler
E.C. Rider
Cat 25 86'
FK/SR _/)

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