Pitch In And Help

[RTB]

Like Tellie, I was afraid you might not pull this off knothead. Great job, and sorry for ever doubting you. Not only do you make some nice splices, but you are now the go-to guy to get my boat off if I screw up passing through Florida. We'll be passing through later this year. I'll stop by and buy you dinner and a few beers!

Regards,
Ralph

[DeniseO30]

Yall gonna love this updated vid from Tampa Bay times!
Grounded sailboat freed from Gulfport Beach - Tampa Bay Times

[susanna reiter]

.... Saw video from the Gulfport News, and pictures..what a job and what a great bunch of volunteers ...and .. to our own...Knothead and other CF'rs involved.....Again.....WOW !!!!

[callmecrazy]

Originally Posted by DeniseO30

Yall gonna love this updated vid from Tampa Bay times!
Grounded sailboat freed from Gulfport Beach - Tampa Bay Times

"Burki was in his bed at Bay Pines VA Hospital when he saw his home on the evening news. "Look! She's floating!" he said through his wired jaw. "I'm very, very grateful to all those people."

He isn't sure when he will be recovered enough to be released. When he gets out, he said, he wants to go home. Friends anchored "Promise" in deep water where the boat should be safe. At least until the next storm.

"I don't know what damage I'll have to fix," Burki said. "But I want to get her going and get back on the water, sail away and see the world. Or maybe, at least, Key West."

[Geoff54]

I missed the beginning of this and I’m not nearby anyway. I have never met Knothead but he is obviously a straight up guy who supports his community - he is also a pro. rigger that I have seen recommended on another forum. I think we all should support the good guys and think about who to contact when we need rigging or rigging work.

[Ishmael]

Originally Posted by DeniseO30

Yall gonna love this updated vid from Tampa Bay times!
Grounded sailboat freed from Gulfport Beach - Tampa Bay Times

Burki said. "But I want to get her going and get back on the water, sail away and see the world. Or maybe, at least, Key West.

Yeah...let's not get too carried away.

[DeniseO30]

here's the story about how Jay's jaw was broken.
Man Punched 'Captain Jay,' Witnesses Say - Gulfport, FL Patch

[Dyevochka]

What this project needed was a leader, and Steve Smith was perfect for the job in every single way. We in the Tampa Bay area are lucky to have him. I would happily follow him and the SSMR crew into pretty much any sailboat related situation. Thanks for putting this together, Steve.

It Takes a Village... To Raise a Sailboat on The Gabber - since we're sharing stories ... a local Gulfport piece about the project.

- Denise

[smackdaddy]

KNOTHEAD - YOU FREAKIN' ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great job everyone!

[Rocketman]

Hi everyone, and thanks to all who have patted our backs. I will try to explain what happened over that past few days as best as I can. This was truly one of the best sailing experiences I have had and I wasn't even sailing.

I talked with Knothead several times on the phone over the weekend and it was obvious that he needed some help as soon as possible, so I volunteered to drive up on Monday. He offered me a place on his couch, so I loaded up and showed up Monday around low tide.

After seeing the boat in person, and the tasks at hand, I could see we had our jobs cut out for us. We found a storage unit for Jay's stuff that was donated, and a local paid for a couple of days of U-haul truck rental. The rest of the evening was taken up by removing as much stuff as we could while still leaving the cockroaches behind. This boat was not a healthy boat. We set 5 bug bombs off and left it for the night to return on Tuesday to hopefully remove the rest of Jays stuff.

On Tuesday morning we floated a dingy out and removed the rest of Jays stuff, while Knothead and his partner stegthened the mast and rigging. We made many, many trips. We had local volunteers who also helped. We filled a large U-haul truck with nasty junk. Very little, IMHO was worth anything. Knothead, described it to many people as the show "Horders: Burried Alive" on steroids. There was still some stuff on the boat, but anything that weighed more than a few pounds was removed. Tuesday at low tide we had about 6 or so volunteers with shovels, and using a gas powered pump we removed as much sand as we could and the boat stared to lean. We also tied Knotheads sail boat to the mast with a line and started pulling. The boat was leaning about 15-20 degrees.

Today, we got an early start. Knothead slept on his boat last night, and we had 6 or so sailboats anchored about 75 yards off in the bay. We then ran as many lines to the anchored sailboats and started pulling with winchs while waiting for high tide. The boat started leaning more and more as more lines and tension were applied. We also tied an old dingy to the masthead filled with water. We also had 20 or 30 people show up willing to push, which is what you saw on the vidieo. Without all the volunteers who pushed and the sailboats with winches pulling, this would never have happened. It was a collective effort and all who helped should be thanked.

So after much effort and cheers the boat broke free. Once the boat was in about 5 ft of water we were able to pull it off the sandy bottem with a power boat.

I would like to personally thank Steve (Knothead) and his wife and all the unnamed volenteers of Gulfport. They were a true delight and new lifelong friends. Also, if you ever need ANY rigging work on your boat, or even advice please call Steve or SSMR for all your rigging needs. He will do a great job at a very reasonable price. (Sorry Steve I just had to put that in there.)

I also would like to say that during this whole process, I was extremely doubtfull that we would be successful, but Knotheads faith never wavered. The boat does have a 6.5 ft to 7ft draft and once was a blue water boat. It is very heavy.

After pulling the boat out, we then had 2 50lb anchors and 100 ft of chain with 1 inch rode that we anchored to boat with. It should hold it for a while......?

Thanks agin Knothead (Steve)

[Tom Stormcrowe]

Good Lord, did anyone get a load of the facebook page of those "Gulfport Guardians"?

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Tom Stormcrowe

Good Lord, did anyone get a load of the facebook page of those "Gulfport Guardians"?

What "Gulfport Guardians?" You mean the City Manager, who cooperated as much as he could given that the beach was open? Or the Gulfport Gabber, a good small0-town paper that covered the story? Or maybe the people who donated food? Or all the locals who showed up to urge the helpers on?

You think Gulfport setting that deadline didn't galvanize the people here to help? Or maybe just that this small town that has a LOT of low-income people in it, and very little valuable property (translate, low income for the city from propterty taxes, and there is no income tax in Florida to help out) really didn't have the resources to save this boat?

Or *maybe,* given that the boat has been there for years, they knew the boat had no functioning sanitation system and that it was rat infested?

I came back to this thread to find more people bitch and moaning about how they hoped they never ran aground in the US.

WHY? TWO big boats ran aground in that storm, not just one. The first one was also gotten off by tremendous effort from locals -- that one while the storm was going on. That person wasn't wealthy either, and while his boat is in better shape and his seamanship unquestionable, it was on rocks and not gotten off easily. He was out of town when it happened.

Yeah, everyone in Gulfport are monsters.

The town officials are already looking at what to do about the fines. They know the man is in the hospital. lives on $800 a month, got punched out within their city borders (really weird; in six years Ican't recall anything like that happening before -- why does everything happen to Cap'n jay?)

Locals are looking for medical attention for the dog? I can already tell you which local vet will step up and treat the dog and worry about how it's going to be paid for, because he's done it over and over and over through the years.

But if there's anyone here who wants to believe Gulfport, FL is full of a bunch of meanies, go ahead. It won't change what Gulfport really is.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Just to say that (when I get time!) that I will update the Website with both the happy ending story (a cut & paste of Rocketmans post ) and will add to the links page the new media stories (as posted in this thread) - plus links to any other Youtube or whatever.

I was going to zap the Website into oblivion - but, no harm in leaving it for posterity (it don't cost me anything ). On the off chance that anyone wants to attach (and pay for!) a catchy URL let know and I will rejig the site around that......but odds on that no one will .

Same goes for the FB page.


Oh, and I will also zap the Volunteer Now! page.

[mbianka]

Here's more video of the successful effort yesterday by Steve (knothead) and the other volunteers in Gulfport:
Video: Volunteers Save Capt. Jay's Boat - Gulfport, FL Patch

[svcattales]

Congratulations to Knothead for the most excellent job in coordinating this rescue.

One of the most exciting part of the rescue didn't appear on the video. When Promise finally moved out of the hole, most of the tension on the six or seven lines slacked off (including the line to the mast) and Promise's mast came almost vertical. Steve was the only one left in the dinghy attached to the mast head which was used to heel Promise over. Steve became the captain of a "flying dinghy" and was able to survey the whole operation from 20 feet in the air... "Holy Crap Batman!" As all the lines were retensioned, Steve returned to earth and organized the next phase of moving Promise to deeper water. (I don't think he even had to change his underwear since he went right back to work.)

For cruisers who insist on buying beer or whiskey for volunteers, please include Barry & Rick on SV Naked Sail from Apollo Beach.

PS. Knothead, Steve at SMR rigging, is an outstanding rigger. He rerigged Cat Tales 3 years ago and did a great job. I highly recommend him.