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Kiteboarder · 30-09-2011, 16:11

The title says it all. What's the worst piece of advice anybody has ever given you?

Therapy · 30-09-2011, 16:19

Don't sell your stocks. You are in it for the long run. (Early 2008)

**Tellie** · 30-09-2011, 16:27

To buy a sail boat!
But then anybody is usually me and I'm known to foolishly take my own advice without listening to others.

Kettlewell · 30-09-2011, 16:28

"Don't marry her," from my grandfather when I was dating my wife of 26 years.

Rakuflames · 30-09-2011, 16:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiteboarder

The title says it all. What's the worst piece of advice anybody has ever given you?

You don't need a reefing system. If the wind picks up, just tie this little line through the cringle and around the boom.

MarkSF · 30-09-2011, 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Therapy

Don't sell your stocks. You are in it for the long run. (Early 2008)

Buy a house (in late 2007). Home values can only go up.

Kiteboarder · 30-09-2011, 16:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

You don't need a reefing system. If the wind picks up, just tie this little line through the cringle and around the boom.

Haha. Can you elaborate on what happened here when the wind did pick up?

Rakuflames · 30-09-2011, 17:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiteboarder

Haha. Can you elaborate on what happened here when the wind did pick up?

Little tippy cup of a boat, right? 25' long, 8' beam. Same person also told me that it didn't matter if the centerboard didn't drop down because I didn't really need it (the question said worst PIECE of advice, not worst PIECES. I had to pick). Both pieces of advice from the same person.

So we got caught in a 5' following sea. I told my sailing companion to dump the sail when we got to the bottom of the wave, but she was having too much fun (it WAS fun, truthfully, at the top of the wave ...) ...
and she said ...

NO.

The boat was overpowered and rounded up. THEN she dumped the sail, and let go of the mainsheet, and it went through half of its blocks. The boat was rolling so much that we couldn't stand up to get the little lines through the cringles and around the boom, which would have been very dangerous anyway with the wind behind us since it couldn't be done out of the way of said boom.

I told you it's been an action-packed four years ...

So we sail up the next wave, and we hear a thump in the cabin. "I wonder what that was?" says my companion. "We'll have to find out later," I said.

Go down the next wave, and she doesn't dump the sail. We round up severely again, and we hear another thump. By then we were quite busy, because we'd also heard ANOTHER thump. The gas can had freed itself and was no longer connected to the outboard. The motor was no longer an option.

"Has this tiller always felt this loose?" She asked? That as we approached a treacherously shallow area.

I pointed the boat out to sea and into the waves. She objected. She wanted to be CLOSER to shore. I ignored her.

Later, after SeaTow had us (it was harrowing, truly, to crawl up to the bow to catch the tow line, especially since the headsail had caught itself halfway up and halfway down and could no longer be controlled. I freed it with my rigging knife ...) ...

and she went down to see what had been thumping (besides the gas can).

Karma came through! The first thump was her back pack rolling off the vee berth onto the floor.

The second thump was .....

not yet ....

the porta-potty tipping over onto her back pack.

ShaunJ · 30-09-2011, 17:37

While taking a study class for the radar endorsement for the GROL a fellow student asked the teacher why a nautical mile was longer than a statute mile, his answer was, because you had to go up and down the waves and that made it longer.

SVMorningStar · 30-09-2011, 17:44

"They can't make you evacuate the marina before the hurricane hits! You should refuse to take your boat out!" (Melbourne, FL. in 2004 Hurricane Jeanne. Every boat that stayed in our marina's basin sank!)

Rakuflames · 30-09-2011, 17:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by SVMorningStar

"They can't make you evacuate the marina before the hurricane hits! You should refuse to take your boat out!" (Melbourne, FL. in 2004 Hurricane Jeanne. Every boat that stayed in our marina's basin sank!)

So did you follow that advice or did you move your boat? If you moved it, what was the outcome? (We know what the outcome was if you didn't move it ...

)

SVMorningStar · 30-09-2011, 17:56

We were outta there! I'd already seen what the waves did to the seawall from Hurricane Francis 3 weeks earlier and wasn't about to take chances. Rode it out at anchor in the ICW. Not a fun experience (we didn't stay on board) but better than what the folks who stayed in the marina had to deal with afterward. The marina was almost completely demolished.

zeehag · 30-09-2011, 18:31

worst advice i ever was given was not to buy one of these boats(formosa)-- callled them ;leaky teaky and said they donot sail well and such----- i LOVE MY FORMOSA.

the other worst piece of advice i took was that the newmar transformer/charger/isolator was not rebuildable. and i allowed it to be dispo'd--....... they ARE rebuildable and hard to replace.

bobofthenorth · 30-09-2011, 18:36

"Buy a Bayliner 4588" from a semi-family member whose opinion we still respect. He had his reasons & I understand them but we're pretty happy that we ended up with our Defever 43. And I can hold my head up in the marina coffee shop.