Calling All Idiots!

[CatNewBee]

Well, when you are on a passage on the ocean there is no professional around to help you either, so learn to fix your stuff yourself asap.

[Stu Jackson]

I've had "others" work on my boat twice. Once shoulda been enough! OK, I know my limitations, and replacing the standing rigging was one of them, so I had "the yard" do the standing rigging and install my new ProFurl unit. A month later the top swivel wouldn't come down. I called the yard and they took two days to find the rigger and send him over. As he's standing on the bow pulpit looking at the swivel, he says, "The a$$hole who put the screws into the extrusions didn't use Loctite!" Since he was that very same a$$hole who did the work less than four weeks prior, I figured I had two choices: 1) push him off the bow pulpit; 2) let him finish the repair. #1 would have been so much more satisfying, but it would not have gotten the repair performed.

The other time was when a yard monkey was installing a new exhaust riser (before I learned how to DIY) and he insisted on a loop of hose from the riser into the muffler, when I told him (as his customer) that I wanted him to use the hump hose which I had right in my little hands. He prevailed and a week later I had to replace the loop of hose with the hump hose because the loop was rubbing against itself and was already halfway through the wall of the hose.

I have been fortunate (knock on wood) that since those events back in the fog of time I have never since had to resort to having to allow someone else to "work" on my boat. I have the skinned knuckles to prove it, too!

I agree with the sentiments, logic and humor of the OP. Good stories, all.

Only YOU can care that much about "your baby."

And the point made about how easy information is now available compared to even just a few years ago is truly staggering. Gee, how'd anybody get anything done DIY before the internet? And YouTube...don't get me started.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Well, when you are on a passage on the ocean there is no professional around to help you either, so learn to fix your stuff yourself asap.

Or get it fixed before you leave.

Yes, you should probably know how to change out a water pump or light bulb and how to determine if a fuse is blown before leaving the country but what many boaters don't realize is, It often takes a skilled trade person with years of training to diagnose or perform repairs, modifications or new work.

Not too long ago there was a thread on this forum where someone stated that they didn't understand electricity but they were completely rewiring their boat. Their question was about what size wire to use from the battery to the breaker panel.

To me, having spent my career in the field, this is a person who clearly should not be rewiring a boat. Yet, several people gave him (conflicting) advice.

You have to know your limits. Many people do not. If you screw up painting your boat, it will peel. If you screw up wiring your boat, it might burn or it might electrocute you or someone you care about.

[GTom]

Lesson learned: do a thorough survey before paying for a boat from the bottom of the keel (groundings - can happen to a 3months young boat...) to the top of the mast! Regardless how old it is...

[SailingFan]

Originally Posted by atoll

or left the dock forgetting to disconnect the shore power cable

Save

[Pelagic]

The only people who never make mistakes.....
are those who do nothing!

[SailingFan]

I have seen some pretty amazing poor examples of boat repairs on other folks' boats over the years, and in some of the power boats I have purchased there were minor to substantial issues that had to be resolved, but in the end, any of us can have a brand new, never been rained on boat and have need to do an emergency repair on a maiden shakedown to get home or to range of SeaTow before washing onto a lee shore. Well, not me, but only because I cannot afford a new boat... But many other people...

At the end of that trip, the owner must ensure the repair has been completed properly (without sufficient education to know what a good repair to that particular system actually is in some cases), and many owners of brand new boats buy them as such because they don't know the hassles of repair (and they don't want to learn them; these folks also purchase new cars for the same reasons).

Sooner or later, that person is either going to have to make a jury rig or they are not using the vessel (because it is probably impossible to use a vessel that is loaded down with a brand new double of every onboard component along with the tools and materials to enable fabrication and installation of repairs). Marinas can take up some slack, but often, repairs get put aside, and things go downhill rapidly from there.

As such, all of us, sooner or later, will eventually do something outside our experience because we are in a pinch to do anything else for a system we have not yet encountered or developed experience to make such repairs "pretty" even in the odd case they are still sufficiently "effective" to survive the event in question and reach port. When such happens, we are going to either learn from it and do the repair better next time, or we are going to leave the situation and sell the boat (if lucky) and someone else learns from our mistakes (I believe that this is what is being complained about, no?) if the repair is substandard.

I don't like that situation much either, but as I too have fallen into that particular hole on occasion over the decades I have to admit that I have been a fool now and then (hey, just being honest, here). The result is that I now overthink everything to the nth degree (those who read my posts here know that) and I tend to take all comments quite literally, even when they are not meant to be read as such. Call it overcompensation if you like? I have always had literal thinking tendencies, this experience just reinforces them, I think.

So, to each his or her own, but if I can get my vessel inexpensively enough that I can actually do the work to get her going and actually use her, I am not going to get too ruffled about stupidity of prior owners, I will just pass on the boat or purchase knowing that I will have to unscrew something that was intentionally (but through ignorance) screwed up, such as the situation where the PO removed all my running rigging and installed blocks on the mast step without bedding them properly, necessitating my new job of dropping the mast to redo the step in the coach roof and install the running rigging over again, leading to having to entirely retune the standing wire, etc...

Besides, who else are you going to laugh at, if nobody else tries to leave the dock without removing an accommodation ladder (or boarding plank, as the case may be) first, untying a random cleated line, or before starting the known cranky engine in a fast moving dockside current? How many lose their cellphones and car keys over the side, fall overboard because they misjudged distance or height differences, or make impromptu use of solar powered path lighting units in an emergency to create an anchoring light on a sailboat? (hint on the solar....)? Those lights work danged well, too, by the way, as emergency interior, handheld repair lights, or deck lighting, when the batteries are dead... Would not have learned that without a dead battery and a couple of those lights along because I always wondered if I would find use for them... Redneck fix and it works better than a flashlight (no battery needed and only a buck if you somehow lose one over the side, but most of all, they can be tied on a line and hoisted over the spreaders for an emergency anchor light if you don't have running rigging for a halyard to run it all the way to the top of the mast).

You bet, there are some winners out there, but they make life fun for the times we are bored and need entertainment (except in the times that WE are the winners...)

[john61ct]

True competence is a rare treasure, and in this industry tends to get attracted to where the big money is.

Those who would even consider DIY are usually living in a very different world. . .

[hafa]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Those who would even consider DIY are usually living in a very different world. . .

That would be those of us who live on tiny islands in the middle of the Pacific. Here, you generally have two options: 1) Do it yourself ~or~ 10) It won't get done.

This extends to areas outside boating as well. As a result, my attitude towards those with "qualifications" becomes more dim over time. I'm much more interested in one's capabilities and gauge competence on examples of work done.

[barnakiel]

I am here, i am here!!! Who called me?????

I am the one who had the boat before you!!!!!!!

;-)))))
b.

[Training Wheels]

No no, it was me!!!

[Obi Wan]

Then please, you two, tell me why you assembled the fuel sender upside down...

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by hafa

That would be those of us who live on tiny islands in the middle of the Pacific.

Yes, different world indeed.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Obi Wan

Then please, you two, tell me why you assembled the fuel sender upside down...

It was him. No not that him the other him.

[lifeofreilly57]

I must be an idiot, all the boats I've owned, except for my current boat were auction, bank owned or insurance auctioned boats.
I'm lucky in that I was a skilled tradesman before getting into fixing and repairing my own boats.
I have seen some very creative "fixes" by previous owners that probably had something to do with the string of events that eventually put the boat into the hands of the insurance company I bought them from.
Now I just assume I'm going to completely rewire, replumb and redo any boat I get, it's easier and cheaper in the long run then trying to repair whats there.
One boat previously owned by an airline mechanic had sections of wiring with lamp cord butt spliced into critical wiring harnesses, must of been why it ended up on a reef at night in a well marked channel. I never did find out which airline he worked for, which still haunts me to this day every time I get on an airplane.
My current boat is now in my back yard being refitted, yes I missed this season, but when it goes back in next spring it will be completely rewired, all deck hardware and ports rebedded, all plumbing redone, motor rebuilt and electronics replaced. The rigging is 3 years old but has been fully inspected anyway.
It's so nice when everything on your boat works correctly, and when it doesn't you know exactly where to look and how to fix it. With the information available these days it's hard to fathom how you couldn't do most work yourself, there are books, sites, videos and tutorials galore, so if you don't know, it's just your own intellectual laziness.
Common sense is not that common.