1000 Ways To get Hurt

[deepblueln]

Don't get part of yourself between boat and dock (or other boat, or much of anything). The boat WILL win. And your hand or foot will be outcome dependent on how close the nearest hospital is.

[jackdale]

Right now I am in the hospital dealing with a pseudomonas water borne bacteria that I seem have picked up in May via a small wound on my foot.

One of the joints in my little toe became infected and had to be removed. I am off my feet and the water for some time.

More time to post to CF.

[JPA Cate]

Ironic that life forms as small as viruses and bacteria can cause so much trouble. Hope you get better quickly.

Ann

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by scoobert

on my way home from where i bought the yacht i smashed my head 8 times the first day on the boom, then i stopped counting... why oh why are they at the top of the companionway steps???

Because you didn't use the traveler to move the boom to the side. Why anyone keeps their boom centered when the sail is down is beyond me. That's like putting a sign on your back saying Hit Me.

I call boat injuries "boat bites" and usually come back with one or two each trip.

[zeehag]

stu--i yard my boom up with topping lift until it isnt gonna maim what few cells my brane still owns......works well and keeps tarps tented nicely....

[mrohr]

Blood before breakfast. When younger that was my experience as I tried (and usually succeeded) in muscling every task before thinking all through. Nowadays there is much less mayhem using techniques outlined above.
Falls are usually the biggest felons and Mark J has suggestions that we all should follow.
As you move about your craft there should be something secure every step that you can grab so that one can go to any location and find these handholds in the dark when heeled over and be especially alert to areas topside where they may be lacking. If you do not have that monkey tail that V. Vagabond discusses ,then at least act like one as you move about.
Burns are fairly common too and equally dangerous,I once had a boiling pot pitched onto my bare calf in totally flat water when underway and unaware of a high speed ferry passing nearby.Luckly there was a cooler nearby with melted ice water that kept the pain down and even though the skin turned black there was no scarring.
Offshore, the cook (usually me) should consider working with bib foul weather trousers to minimize these hard lessons.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by VirtualVagabond

+1
On the boat underway you're usually and instant amputee... only 1 hand to do stuff with, the other holds on....
If only monkeys had become cruisers we'd probably never lost our tails
In a gazillion years cruisers will have reversed evolution and grown them back

But our natural colour now is 'bruise' in all it's shades from black through purple, bit of yellow...

The advice on focusing when getting on and off the boat also applies to dinghies at a dock... particularly with any kind of swell.

DON'T try to load up to do less trips from the cockpit to the galley and vice versa. Do more trips... you know you need the exercise anyway

Vic

I put netting on both boats. On the first, it was to catch the headsail if I needed to lower it from the cockpit so it wouldn't go into the water.

On this boat it's all netted including movable PVC gates that can be closed when underway. It has an interesting advantage when loading the boat, because you can put lots of things on the catwalk forward and aft of the gate opening and know it won't fall into the water.

As for the exersize, though, my new MD told me I don't need to get any more exersize -- and he said he hardly ever gets to tell anyone that. "Messing around with boats" is really good exercise!

[mbianka]

NEVER jump off the boat onto the dock. When I was living on board in New York I'd see boats coming into the face dock and often see one of the crew who attempted to jump often end up flat on their backs or doing an unintended leg split. Painful just to watch them do it.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by zeehag

never wrap any lines around your hands as you will lose the appendages wrapped when the line tightens, which it will...know of folks in this situation....
as for ladders--isnt only thing one can slip off to break backs or whatever---i didnt fall on or from ladder--i fell on the slickly varnished sole a previous owner had slickly shined for selling boat...varnished soles are bad news with wet feets...

I actually know someone that happened to. On my blog I made it a guy because it just sounded unbelievable as a woman, and another safety issue that's "taboo" was ...

that she was drinking.

All she wanted to do was re-tie the dinghy they were using to get to an island on a July 4th -- got the wrong line wrapped around her ring finger, it tightened, and took her finger right off. I've seen plenty of sailors with part of a ringer off, but hers is right up to the palm of her hand, although that may have been the surgical result, I don't know.

i know someone else who fell backwards going UP his companionway. He was really lucky he didn't hit his head on something in his cabin, but he didn't.

Guess what he's been doing -- drinking. Heard of a number of cases where a person missed a step between the boat and the dock after drinking too.

None of these accidents were while underway, the kind of thing we worry about with a slippery deck in a rough sea.

[s/v Beth]

Jack, I hope you get better quickly. Listening to all the injuries does make me feel better, I am just about to go sailing again (passagemaking). As for the OP, I can just say that the water is a foriegn enviroment for man. We must treat it like we are in outer space and everything can kill, just like Mark said.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by jackdale

Right now I am in the hospital dealing with a pseudomonas water borne bacteria that I seem have picked up in May via a small wound on my foot.

One of the joints in my little toe became infected and had to be removed. I am off my feet and the water for some time.

More time to post to CF.

OUCH! Sorry you're going through that!

But that made me remember something that a woman who belongs to my sailing club and who happens to be a doctor told me -- that if I ever scratched myself on a barnacle, to see my doctor to get on antibiotics right away.

So I just put "barnacles and bacteria" into Google, and found this report from a doctor who cleans the bottom of his own boat and what he went through, just what to watch for, etc.:

Infection from barnacle scratches

[JazzyO]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

So I just put "barnacles and bacteria" into Google, and found this report from a doctor who cleans the bottom of his own boat and what he went through, just what to watch for, etc.:

Thanks, I learnt something today.


Onno

[Kenomac]

Another injury time bomb is the loaded winch... which should be shown respect like it's a loaded gun.

They appear so harmless... the wind picks up, you decide to ease the jib or main.... you release the sheet, then.... BANG! You'd better let go in time before you loose your fingers.

[Paul L]

Give powered windlass's lots of respect. I had a crew member completely rip off his pointer finger at the knuckle on the windlass while bringing the anchor up. Not pretty. He accidental pressed the wrong button.

[Andrew B.]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

Because you didn't use the traveler to move the boom to the side. Why anyone keeps their boom centered when the sail is down is beyond me. That's like putting a sign on your back saying Hit Me.

I call boat injuries "boat bites" and usually come back with one or two each trip.

Have you considered writing a instruction book on the proper way to sail. Your way to nice, but a good editor will take care of that...

Thanks to your expert opinion I now know what scoobert did wrong, but
nothing at all about how you manage to get "one or two...boat bites...each trip" Care to share a specific "bite", or two.