Should have lost my mast today, I am so stupid

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by odeapt

when my goddamn tiller breaks OFF!
.... and NOW the winds pick up A LOT.

ROTFLMAO!

That's the funniest story I've read for ages!

It's like that old adage about falling off a horse: get back on immediately!
The stuffing box leak won't sink you. So go out today for a quick motor around the block and show your boat who is Boss!


😊

[svfinlandia]

Originally Posted by odeapt

So I expect absolutely no sympathy for what happened today, because I am a retard and made a horrible decision. I have had 2 sailing lessons now, still don't know what I am doing.

Believe me, I've done much worse! Some here will remember the story of me losing my whole rig to a bridge, so I won't repeat it. I don't really wish to dredge up the memory again anyway.

You done good! I was in a marina inTitusville, Florida a couple of months ago and some guy went left the slip with a crew of two aboard. He lost his engine in flat water on a calm day before it was even out of the marina. No danger at all, but believe it or not he actually called a MAYDAY. A couple of other cruisres went out in their dinghy and towed him in.

AL, S/V Finlandia

[Wallaby]

Skip the sailing lessons. Go crew on a boat, preferably someone who knows what they are doing. Just don't tell them you are accident prone.

[alexanick]

Your public profile shows you haven't made any friends yet. I think you just made a whole bunch of new friends. Count me in. Yes, you did something stupid. I say that because it takes someone who has also done stupid things to recognize it. As the saying goes, "Welcome to the club". Glad your safe.

"You can teach a person how to sail, but you can't teach them why"

Ken

[wsmac]

I appreciate you sharing this... especially since I'm new too and trying to go over my boat to find issues before I go out sailing.
.
I have not had my boat surveyed yet... will do so once I haul her out later on.
.
Glad you got it all sorted out and got back safe!
Definitely a lesson you won't get in sailing classes I bet!
But I agree with those who say don't be so hard on yourself... stop running yourself down... that's likely to be a precursor to giving up on sailing all together!
Instead... frame the story as a"Damn look what happened to me! Luckily I held it together enough to get back safely! Really opened my eyes on sailing though!" or something like that?

[Skipper Bob]

Plenty of other posters here have said how well you handled the situation. A few suggested that you should fix up your boat before going out again. I agree to both points.

However, contrary to what some posters said I would urge you to get more sailing lessons, experience and certifications. I like the RYA system, where you advance from Competent Crew to Day Skipper to Yachtmaster. Once you learn how to handle a boat under sail on a fully crewed yacht, first as crew, later as skipper, you can then gradually reduce crew size until you can confidently handle a yacht single-handedly in a range of different conditions.

My 2p.

[Diesel Bill]

What doesn't kill you makes you "SMARTER" I made so many mistakes I must be a genius.

[Cheechako]

Murphy is always on board. Check everything twice, then rebuild it anyway.

[carlheintz]

A couple of things: you survived a cascading multiple failure event. Congratulations.

We all dread that unexpected failure event, but it happens to most of us at one point or another.

Secondly, you kept your head, did what you needed to, remembered your training, and made it back in one piece. Admirable.

Thirdly, you learned some really valuable lessons. From now on, I bet you will inspect that boat pretty carefully before going out. People think I am paranoid, well, maybe, but experience is a good teacher. Before I embark, even on a gentle sail around the mark and back, I go over the boat as if I were going to cross an ocean. I've found some really critical stuff doing that ( like the seacock that was frozen, a defective bilge switch, and a serious fraying in a halyard) Takes only about 15 minutes, but gives me some peace of mind. You'll develop a routine that will go quickly as you check out every system.

Finally, the exhilaration of sailing is slightly enhanced by realizing that what you are doing is just a tad bit dangerous.

[Nightsky]

New turnbuckles will turn easily by hand. Once you have tightened the stay to desired tension, use ss bailing wire on the turnbuckle to prevent it loosening off. Under the right conditions that turnbuckle can completely unscrew if it is not properly secured, leaving you with a stay flinging around. I have had this happen to me and learned rather quickly to always secure them with bailing wire.

[Sailorbob8599]

This suggestion is for anyone new to sailing.
If you want to learn how to sail well sooner, get yourself a sailing dinghy. Something about 10 ft. long will do the trick.
I built two (2) Mirror dinghy's for my kids many years ago and turned them loose in the harbor on the lake. They quickly became very proficient sailors and have since taught their own kids to sail in the same manner.
The logic being, most dinghy's are very tender. When you make a mistake, the dinghy will usually let you know either by flipping over or dumping you in the water and of course, the moment you lose control, the dinghy takes over and is not going anywhere. I don't know of any dinghy that would sail away from you with no one at the helm.
I chose the Mirror dinghy because it's designed to be rigged and sailed, either as a Cat-boat using only the mains'l or, as a Sloop using both main and jib. This allows the novice sailor to start out sailing in the Cat mode, progressing to Sloop mode when they feel confident to handle both sails. It only took a couple of days for that to happen with my kids.
Building one dinghy takes about 100 hrs. building two simultaneously only took an additional 60 hrs by repeating every operation. That's because the first one is the learning curve so it takes slightly less time to repeat the operation.

[wsmac]

Originally Posted by Sailorbob8599

This suggestion is for anyone new to sailing.
If you want to learn how to sail well sooner, get yourself a sailing dinghy. Something about 10 ft. long will do the trick....

I've been hearing that for a while and I can now say I wholeheartedly agree!
I have sailed Hobie Cats a little bit, but after having been on a Laser and next weekend start sailing class on a Coronado 15, I have no doubts I'll be buying a small vessel like one of these.

They're fun, sail just like others have said they do, and I have choices of which body of water to sail in as opposed to my H28.5.
Like you, Sailorbob, I hope to get my girlfriend's kids out in the small boat to see how they take to sailing.

It seems that several members of the local Yacht Club own Lasers and sail them regularly in addition to their larger boats.

[Steve Bean]

This experience can be a wake-up call for all of us. As we sail along, or even at home, we can ask ourselves questions such as: what would I do if the main halyard parted right now? If the starboard upper shroud chainplate failed? Etc. Re: learning from mistakes of others, try searching for "Lifesling case histories." It's about a lot of MOB events, with or without Lifesling use. Anyone have a Lifesling and never unpacked it or practiced MOB recovery?

[kmacdonald]

Originally Posted by odeapt

I get the main up, and start to unfurl the jib... when my goddamn tiller breaks OFF! (picture below) due to being rotted out. NOW the winds pick up A LOT. the boat starts to heel, and it feels like Im going to capsize, I am eventually able to stick the other end of the tiller in to take control of the rudder.

One thing I didn't notice while all of this happened was that I guess my forestay and intermediate forestay loosened, because somewhere in the chaos the chainplates for the boomkin broke! (i think that's what its called, on the stern).

my roller furling is arched because of how loose the forestay is, I could turn the turnbuckle by hand on the intermediate forestay, not normal right? But yeah when I kill the engine, I now hear my bilge pump is on. I eventually find that the stuffing box is leaking a bit. So now im thinking, great, my boat is going to sink.

Nice boat. Sorry about your bad luck.

[doublewide]

You did fine. Saved your boat. Learned a lot. And most impressively, you are brave enough to tell others about the experience. Good on you.

In the friendliest possible way, and for all who may read this thread, may I suggest that we all learn henceforth to avoid the "R" word? It used to be acceptable, and many of us still think it in times of stress, but the learning-disabled are offended by it, and rightly so. Let's relegate it to the past.

With kind wishes
doublewide