Doing something to save money and it goes wrong

[mikefp60]

What have you done to save money that ended up costing you big $$$$ instead?

I'll start……..

I would string my water maker filters on a line and trail them behind while under sail to clear them out a bit. I can get 3-4 times life out of them by doing this. Savings: Around $15.

Until………..

I forgot to bring them on board as I brought her up to a mooring. Giving it a little blip of reverse brought the line right into the prop. Stalled the engine and blew up the clutch that the line was trailing from. Then I got to dive the fouled prop in jelly fish infested waters.

Cost: $150 clutch and a couple of minor jelly fish stings. And a small amount of pride as this was witnessed by 4 crew members.

And I can top this one if this thread gets some traction!

Over to Y'all! Top that!

Mike
S/V Vivo

[jongleur]

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. I'm sure
I've done something similar, but
can't think of any instance right off.

[Sea Dreaming]

I dont have one related to sailing but still think of this incident as a cautionary tale not to over think things.

I took a jewelry class once. We were given some options for our final exam. I chose to make a simple band ring in copper because I didnt have money for silver. My design was simple because it was a beginner class. Any way..
I worked really hard on my ring. It took me days to make.
Feeling really good about myself and work I waited patiently for the teacher to show off her own work during class. I was sure she would praise my perfect ring. But, as she was showing off her work she pulled out a copper ring that she had cut from copper pipe.....by the way her pipe ring was the exact size of mine!

Class...250.00
Copper sheet 10.00
Saw, blades, mallet etc 50.00
Copper band ring total: 310.00
Learning experience priceless!

[SV DestinyAscen]

A former mooring mate wanted to save money by homebatching his own "copper coat" - he had to get his boat lifted/sanded/properly coated with real anti-foul within 6 months.

[Stumble]

It was t me, but when I worked at a boatyard a guy paid for us to install his generator. But not to do any of the electrical hookup because we were all crooks and we're trying to screw him on labor charges. Two weeks after installing it he came back and had us fix all the damage... Apparently he had hooked the DC side of the generator up to the mast as a ground and every component of the rigging had corroded, including the mast itself.

All totaled I think it was around a $50,000 fix.