My mishaps are often public

[Northeast914]

It seems to me that when things go wrong it's always public. I took my 14 foot daysailer to the local lake for a fun evening sail. On the dock is a photographer with what looked to me as professional grade equipment. He asks me questions about my boat and asks if I mind if he videos and photographs me getting underway. I tell him I don't mind and I don't give it much thought. So I shove off and get some distance between me and the dock before raising the mainsail, only the main keeps jamming. Now I'm drifting and fighting with the main that won't raise, when I remember that this is all being caught on camera . As I'm struggling I can only imagine the video being played back at high speed with the Benny hill music playing. I finally get the main up and sail off having left my dignity squarely on the dock. Guess It's time need to clean the sail track.

At another time and place I was sailing a 16 foot hobie cat In a river When I flipped it trying to fly a hull. No big deal it's only 5 foot deep here. Well despite my best efforts the catamaran doesn't want to right, which surprised me because this was the second time of the day and earlier there wasn't a problem. What I didn't know was that there was an almost invisible hairline crack in one of the hulls that took in enough water to make righting extremely difficult. I found that later. So as I'm enjoying myself trying to right the boat I look towards shore and see emergency personnel begin arriving at the beach I had come from . I just figure someone got hurt and continue with my task. Well unbeknownst to me I was visible from a tall nearby bridge and someone had reported a capsized sailboat. That boat was me. I realized that they were there for me when a sheriff boat approached and over the loudspeaker asked "how many people are in the water? and if there were injuries? My first thought was how many people did he think I fit on a hobie 16? I was clearly in no distress, so I tell him I'm fine but accept the offer to help right the boat. I decided i was done for the day after that and did the sail of shame back to the dock .

I'm not sure, but maybe I need to stay away from small boats .

[bletso]

There is a truism in boating. There is never a shortage of witnesses to our screw-ups / mishaps, but there will be absolutely no one around to witness your perfect solo S curve sail, under sail right into your slip.

[MarkJ]

Lol. A video camera, youtube and the internet. You might be famous!!!

[daletournier]

Ok try this, 4mths ago Bali. Speeding in on the dighy to have beer with friends ,very low tide. I take exactly the same path as every other day up till then,somehow that mooring line was higher than normal and catches the ourboard leg, dinghy stops I keep flying, im in the water not really sure what just happened to the ammusement of friends and local fisherman. The irony of the story is only several days earlier I read a post by Muggle Fuggle regarding the wearing of red engine kill cord, I decided hiss logic made sense so I actually had it on when I supermaned off the dinghy.

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[Northeast914]

Originally Posted by bletso

There is a truism in boating. There is never a shortage of witnesses to our screw-ups / mishaps, but there will be absolutely no one around to witness your perfect solo S curve sail, under sail right into your slip.

This seems to be true with a lot of things. Now that everyone has a camera in their pocket I'm sure I've ended up on more than one blooper reel.

[subie]

I had this friend we road off road trails together with our bikes. Always amazed me he only crashed when there was spectators around.
I have been lucky all my mishaps happened away from public eye mostly.

[first wind]

Originally Posted by Northeast914

It seems to me that when things go wrong it's always public. I took my 14 foot daysailer to the local lake for a fun evening sail. On the dock is a photographer with what looked to me as professional grade equipment. He asks me questions about my boat and asks if I mind if he videos and photographs me getting underway. I tell him I don't mind and I don't give it much thought. So I shove off and get some distance between me and the dock before raising the mainsail, only the main keeps jamming. Now I'm drifting and fighting with the main that won't raise, when I remember that this is all being caught on camera . As I'm struggling I can only imagine the video being played back at high speed with the Benny hill music playing. I finally get the main up and sail off having left my dignity squarely on the dock. Guess It's time need to clean the sail track.

At another time and place I was sailing a 16 foot hobie cat In a river When I flipped it trying to fly a hull. No big deal it's only 5 foot deep here. Well despite my best efforts the catamaran doesn't want to right, which surprised me because this was the second time of the day and earlier there wasn't a problem. What I didn't know was that there was an almost invisible hairline crack in one of the hulls that took in enough water to make righting extremely difficult. I found that later. So as I'm enjoying myself trying to right the boat I look towards shore and see emergency personnel begin arriving at the beach I had come from . I just figure someone got hurt and continue with my task. Well unbeknownst to me I was visible from a tall nearby bridge and someone had reported a capsized sailboat. That boat was me. I realized that they were there for me when a sheriff boat approached and over the loudspeaker asked "how many people are in the water? and if there were injuries? My first thought was how many people did he think I fit on a hobie 16? I was clearly in no distress, so I tell him I'm fine but accept the offer to help right the boat. I decided i was done for the day after that and did the sail of shame back to the dock .

I'm not sure, but maybe I need to stay away from small boats .

murphy's law. it matters not how many times you do a thing perfectly; there will never be a witness. but, mess up once ad all the world will be there to watch.

[twig]

Capsized my Buccaneer 18 200 yards from shore in front of a restraunt and drove the mast into the mud making it impossible to rite. Someone called 911 and by the time we swam to shore there were 2 fire trucks, ambulance, and 3 police cars plus a rescue boat showed up later. We made the front page of the local paper with a half page color photo titled 2 men lucky to be alive. Never lived that one down!

[SV Bacchus]

Went out with a neighbor on his 25' walk-around buddy. The channel runs right in front of a restaurant with plenty of outdoor seating. The channel is well marked but also has a "Sea Grass" sign on a pole; same size as the channel markers and exactly in line with them. When looking up you see three poles. My buddy mistakes the Sea Grass for the red, how I don't know, and runs up on some rocks in front of about 100 people.

Not bad I know except he did the same thing a week later. He thinks he needs lessons. I think he should take double!

PS: I was in the rear cockpit stowing gear the first time and not with him the second time so for those of you thinking I need lessons as well, naw, I just need to pay more attention to him!

[Scotty Kiwi]

There are few things worse than being unneccessarily rescued, or making the news for it.

It seems that more adventure prone folk just can't get up to our regular exciting or challenging activities without a bunch of naive nanny-ing do-gooders calling in the help, towing us off the beach,

Several times, on land, harbour, lake and sea, I've had various (often very amateur) rescue services show up and give orders. "Who invited you"? I've said. If anyone had looked closely they'd see that "that fellow is conscious, moving, and not doing any of the international signals for "I require assistance"".

Sometimes they've said "We know, but our call centre is getting clogged".

Yeah, and then the press arrive, and now I guess it's be the youtubers. Is there an international signal for "protect my privacy, do no film me"?

[Doug4bass]

Shorepower cable for me, while backing out of a slip......on 4th of July, many years ago.


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[four winds]

'Dang, the wind's got me pinned in the the slip. Doesn't seem that strong. .... Maybe a little more throttle....... well,..... Maybe a little more.'

Then from the dock, "Hey cap, can I get that last dock line for you?"

"Uh,... yeah sure, thanks man." lol.

[Jim Cate]

Oh yeah, then there was the time I backed out of a marina berth towing the old Zodiac Mk II...which still had a shore line attached. Also known as how to turn a 12 foot inflatable into a 13 foot inflatable...

Only a few neighbors around, but they were the talkative types!

Jim

[sailing_gal]

General rule for docking:

The quality of your docking maneuvers is inversely proportional to the number of people watching you at the dock.

[Crocboy]

I'm a commercial boat skipper doing tours on a crocodile infested waterway in Australia.
A few days ago I'm reversing away from the dock only to find one dockline still attached, much to the amusement of the 30 passengers on board.
"Don't worry folks, I have driven a boat before."

Hey we're only human, right?