What is the most idiotic mistake you have made on a boat?

[Nostrodamus]

We all make mistakes but the trick is to learn from it. What is the biggest idiotic mistake you or someone aboard has made?

[atoll]

taking 3 French people as crew on an English yacht with an international crew totalling 7.................be prepared for constant complaints about the food............

[Nostrodamus]

Originally Posted by atoll

taking 3 French people as crew on an English yacht with an international crew totalling 7.................be prepared for constant complaints about the food............

Did you manage to find three French people who could actually sail?

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Nostrodamus

Did you manage to find three French people who could actually sail?

most French sailors I have met are as passionate about sailing as they are about their food.........baked beans on toast is not considered a culinary delight in france as much as it is in the uk

probably the mistake I made was not having them do the provisioning with an unlimited budget...........

[Nostrodamus]

Originally Posted by atoll

most French sailors I have met are as passionate about sailing as they are about their food.........baked beans on toast is not considered a culinary delight in france as much as it is in the uk

probably the mistake I made was not having them do the provisioning with an unlimited budget...........

I will be fair here. As long distant sailors the French are brilliant and there are few better. The problem they seem to have is leaving or coming in to anywhere. I don't think that is included in their syllabus.
In a year in France we found the sauces they make wonderful but there was not a huge variety to their foods. Besides whats wrong with baked beans, pot noodles and a good Frey Bentos tinned pie?

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Nostrodamus

I will be fair here. As long distant sailors the French are brilliant and there are few better. The problem they seem to have is leaving or coming in to anywhere. I don't think that is included in their syllabus.
In a year in France we found the sauces they make wonderful but there was not a huge variety to their foods. Besides whats wrong with baked beans, pot noodles and a good Frey Bentos tinned pie?

to quote Charles De gaulle........and here is the skippers dilemma.......

"“How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?”

[DolphinBuddy]

The first time I went aground on the ICW I hailed the Coast Guard! Because I didn't know better.Tow Boat U.S. heard that call too and came to the rescue and got those kids in uniform off my back and my boat and me to safety. The time to hail the Coast Guard is if you are at sea sinking, on fire. or dead in the water far out at sea or under siege by pirates.

[anacapaisland42]

Originally Posted by Nostrodamus

Did you manage to find three French people who could actually sail?

Oh Nostrodamus, the French have some fine sailors
BUT
it is oft quoted in the Caribbean that:
"the English outfit their boat to go sailing BUT the French go sailing to outfit their boat" :-)

Bill, of Cygnus, a 1973 Challenger 32.

PS
Our most idiotic and stupid mistake is getting too excited about coming in to a new harbour and running hard aground with a tail wind and waves pushing us further and further finally necessitating large power boats pulling us off using halyards at the masthead.

Had a funny side though, wife jumped overboard to try to turn bow, busy treading water until she realised that she could stand up.
Would have been even funnier had she remembered to take the cell phone out of her pocket :-)

Good experience for Isle Juventud in Cuba though when in a similar circumstance (though on uncharted sand bank) as soon as we ground to a stop put engine full hard astern and eventually blew a path out backwards with some rudder wiggling.

[soverel]

Usually some of the people allowed onto it.

Sent from my HUAWEI-M931 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Escape - Linda]

We hit a submerged tank in the middle of the ICW in North Carolina. VERY inadequately marked, grrr!! But the information was available on Active Captain and we overlooked it. <sigh>

[Mutt]

I was new to boating. On a 35 ft. gasoline power boat I was not familiar with I asked the fuel attendant to fill it up. I didn't know most of the screws for the fuel level sender were missing. Also forgot to do a sniff test. After a couple hours trip and anchoring the boat, I noticed a strong fuel smell. Looked down in the bilge and there was an inch of fuel floating around down there. Turned off the battery switch right away. The fuel smell was too strong in the bilge to manually pump it out, I would have passed out. I called for help from a tow boat on my cell phone and had the boat towed back to the marina. I left the hatches open for a week for the gas to evaporate. I told no one at the marina. I learned to never ask the attendant to fill up a boat and to always to a sniff test before starting an engine.

[wgewaldii]

Years ago, anchored & invited aboard a couple's boat (they were British), after a couple of drinks and friendly conversation, my cousin and I thought it was a good. idea to light up cigars (and we all were below!). What were we thinking? The last straw was when my cousin dropped the lit end of the stogy on the sole. The wife finally spoke her mind at that point. :-(

[RickDelaune]

Not remembering to open the thru hull on the engine and then on the genset at a different time. Twice !!! Holy Crap Batman !!! Don't do that anymore. Now I place a note on the engine box door to remind me NOT TO BE STUPID!! Ouch !!!

[pesarsten]

With a full complement of friends on board I attempted to tow the dock with my shore power cord. I regained the illusion of competence by placing the blame squarely on my guests!

[rbrentp]

Coastguard/most idiotic thing: trusted marina crew. Sixty miles ssw off Georges point Florida.marina had fixed hydraulic steering by adding brake fluid. Filled second gas tank with mahogany colored gas.
Dead calm no steering,no gas. Called coast guard. Are you sinking? No. Do you have food and water? Yes. Call us back when when things change. I am now obsessive in triple checking.