What's the Worst Thing You've Ever Hit?

[jeanathon]

Went for my 22ft boats maiden voyage with little experience after 3 months of working on her. Took a friend and his family along in some very light air. After cruising around at a quarter knot with all sails up I was going to drop them off at the end of the landing (no motor on my boat). As we were a few feet off a pb reversed and stuck his stern out past the dock by a foot. He smiled and waved while I smiled, cursed under my breath, and veered off.
As we came around for another pass the wind freshened from a nearby Tstorm. Still carrying full sails(didn't think) we were coming in a little hot and I asked my friend to man the dock line. He didn't know to use the cleat on the dock instead he attempted to use the tried and true tug o war stance. He almost succeeded, but since the wind was still freshening he went for a swim.
I did another go around while he climed back up on the dock. This pass we were really moving when I told him I would go around again. Hmm maybe it's time to drop the jib.... unbeknownst to me he had reached out and grabbed the starboard jib sheet in an attempt to rescue his family from a perfectly safe speeding sailboat. I registered the splash and figured what made it, but not that it was connected to my boats sudden penchant to turn to starboard while I had the rudder hard to port. While I am staring at riprap along the shore directly in front of me I realized that my boat is not suicidal, she just doesn't like knuckleheads trying to barefoot ski next to her. Since I did not have an oar within reach to brain the human torpedo next to the boat I braced everyone for impact on the rip rap. Fortunately at the last moment my EX friend at this point found some footing and gave another college try on the tug o war stance. It slowed us and turned us more so we ran aground on the concrete landing rather than the rocks. After checking for damage, deboarding my friend's family, smiling and cursing under my breath my girlfriend and I were anxious to take advantage of the wind. We set off to check out a nearby island on the otherside of a questionable bridge. Since I had been unable to find out the height of the bridge I was ready to turn back if need be.(guess I should have told the now exgirlfriend At the last moment I saw that the bridge was too short by a foot or so. Coming about the mast contacted the bridge when we were at the bottom of the U turn. Some impressive screeching and groaning with a bit of heel and we were undamaged and safely headed away. Now it wasn't bad, but running aground and running abridge within 20 min must be some sort of record, and I honestly don't know if running into the sky is preferable to running into the ground. But it was a hell of a first day skippering a sailboat!

[S/V Blondie-Dog]

Striking a coral head while sailing into the glare of a setting sun was indeed the worst thing I ever hit while under sail. It scared the crap out of me.

I had pulled up anchors late one afternoon off of Nichols Town, Andros Island, Bahamas after being advised by a local that I ran the risk of being boarded later that evening if I didn't depart by nightfall.

A number of locals had already started to congregate along the beach and all reportedly had a predilection for what he described as the "white lady"...

"White Lady" meaning that white powdery stuff that was commonly used by many to powder one's nose back in the day when the Miami Vice tv series was in its hey-day.

Needless to say it was a relief of sorts to eventually sail on back to Morgan's Bluff and later drop a hook for the evening. And it also goes without saying that it was a good thing that I happened to be sailing as slow as possible while attempting to avoid the coral heads.

I did dive on the boat the following morning to inspect the hull. It looked as if a large cat had scratched the heck out of it just below the water line.