When Things Go Wrong

[John R Smith]

When things go wrong . . .

For some reason I've been reading a lot about shipwrecks recently (the long dark winter evenings, I suppose). Here's one from our Cornwall County Council photo archives -

http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/Council-Services/Images/The_Cromdale.jpg

The barque Cromdale (registered at Aberdeen) was wrecked in 1913, without loss of life, off Lizard Point, when trading between Chile and Falmouth.

The Lizard is an evil place for shipping, as you can see. Tidal races and overfalls strech three miles south of the headland.

Now then, how about some first-hand experience from the Forum members. Have any of you folks ever lost a boat? Had to abandon ship? Had a near miss, even? Give us the benefit of your cock-ups and let us all learn something in the process (after all, we're not shy about our mistakes in Lulu, as you know) ;)

John

[skuthorp]

I once cartwheeled a Jolly boat in a squall with two 6 year olds on board and both crew on trapeze. She was a mess when we raised her but a we repaired her if I remember rightly.

[Russ]

Many years ago a buddy and I had an old jon boat that we would go fishing in. The motor was stiff to turn so letting go of the motor was sort of like auto pilot. One early morning we were heading out to our favorite spot on the other side of the river, him in the back of the boat me in the front. Somewhere near the middle of the river he came forward to move something. This caused the bow to go lower in the water but not too bad. Luck would have it that a wave caught us just perfect. The boat submarined in about a half-second with the motor still running. Lost all of our fishing gear, boat and motor. One second riding along, the next we were swimming for shore.

[Tom Lathrop]

Had any number of capsizes, some spectacular and some mundane. A few big time broaches and a few dreaded "death rolls" with the boom and keel up in the air for a time. Guess that qualifies as a real "cock up". Been seining for shrimp with the spinnaker on occasion. Never a serious wreck and try to stay off lee shores. I'll try to enjoy those from my rocker and leave the pile ups and wrecks to hardier souls than I.

[Dave Hadfield]

I've abandoned canoes more than once, but never permanently. The first time was on the maiden voyage of my 17ft wood-strip Prospector. I was solo canoeing about 150 miles NE of Winnipeg, Manitoba (the bush, the middle of Canada) when I decided to leave my camp and go fishing. Needing an anchor, I tied (smugly) a killick hitch around a rock and cast it in and dropped a baited hook and line over. Then I soaked up the warm spring sunshine and might've had a nap while fish amused themselves with my dried-up old minnow. Later, sun-burnt around the face, I moved into the bow to pull up the anchor. The canoe had no other load in it. Its design is heavily rockered. When I put all my weight in one end, the other end rose up like a draw-bridge. The portion remaining in the water was about 7ft long and 12in wide. The C of G was airbourne and climbing. As I gave the line a tug the canoe went over so fast that I practically woke up underwater.

She had a long bow-painter. (I had at least done some things right.) I grabbed this and thrashed my way to the shore. The water had been under ice 3 weeks before, so it was a quick trip. (My arms were a blur, the line was in my teeth.) I climbed up on the rocks, shivered mightily for a while, and contemplated the nature of stability.

A cup of bush tea and I was warm again in no time, cleaner, and much, much smarter.

[Scott Rosen]

Lost a mast while racing once. No injuries. Just the humiliation of having to be towed in. I don't have to sail for a living, so I have the luxury of focusing on safety first.

[Andrew]

While practicing the accidental jibe manoeuver in stiff winds a year ago, managed to send our 15' daysailor under. We righted her and she sailed right back under (the sail wouldn't drop). Next we broke the CB trying to right her again. We drifted into the shallows of a small island and bailed her out and then found we'd lost the rudder. Luckily the islands owner happened to ferried us back to Sleepy Creek.

Last weekend it was blowning good so I decided it was the perfect opportunity to get a little experience. Managed Ok out in the straits, rounding up several times and one or two careful jibes. Returning to Sleepy Creek thinking I'm the Boss now, I realized it's low tide (read very narrow channel) and I'm heading into the wind's teeth. Tacking back and forth making slow but definite progress, thinking I'm giving the smokeboaters in the marina a good show of sailing prowess (sp?) when the CB catches bottom just as I begin a tack. Dead stop, except for the inevitable progress of the mast toward the eel grass. At least I can get out and walk this time (still in the view of the marina though). To add further insult to injury, the island owner, whom I haven't seen since since the last dunking came along in his puttputt and offerred a tow. I accepted the offer and went back to our place and drank a couple of rewards together.

[Ian McColgin]

Let's see

- more groundings than I can count but mostly without damage;

- eight dismastings, starting age 9, some pretty stupid;

- small boat swampings galore when the race fever overcomes rationality and the weather is warm;

- a few death rolls

- surfing down onto a container or something really hard that started all the seams, made the interior look like a medeival cathedral of arcing water;

and my all time favorite

-surfing a dory ashore on Long Island a spectacular pitchpole, busted the rig and the bow.

So far, no human injuries and a lot of learning, all of which makes me less and less likely to have exciting moments.

But sometimes we learn from less frightful moments, such as

"The Loss of a Figawee Hat"

My shame, my horror as the wind blew hard,
So hard. I was sick when the wind caught the brim
And in that heartbeat your hat flew
Off my head, astern, to briefly swim
Before in water rough and wild and dank
We lost its sight and pray that painlessly it sank.

Had we but done overboard drills,
Were we prepared as sailors should be,
Were we that day sailing for more than cheap thrills,
And trying not to toss our bowels upon the sea,
Perhaps we'd have sprung in action toward
That momentary, plaintive cry, "Hat overboard!"

But no sooner than we'd known it'd flown,
We're sorry, in that sickening sea it drowned.

[Andrew]

Ian, your poem reminds me of an incident that occurred while sailing in one of our small lakes near by. I was wearing a tweed hat I had recently gotten on a trip to Isle of Harris earlier that summer. True to the poem a gust came along and lifted the brim and it flew over the sterm. In a trice my lovely bride jumped overboard, fully clothed (she had bought me the hat), and rescued it. I in turn had to rescue her. We now refer to this as the "hat overboard manoever"

[ 03-14-2002, 04:30 PM: Message edited by: Andrew ]

[Andrew]

Ian, your poem reminds me of an incident that occurred while sailing in one of our small lakes near by. I was wearing a tweed hat I had resently gotten on a trip to Isle of Harris earlier that summer. True to the poem a gust came along and lifted the brim and it flew over the sterm. In a trice my lovely bride jumped overboard, fully clothed (she had bought me the hat), and rescued it. I in turn had to rescue her. We now refer to this as the "hat overboard manoever"

[Andrew]

Stop Hal, stop.....

I think the forum is lowing its mind.

[Wild Wassa]

Bravo Skippers, and very bad luck.

Some of the recoveries, are as impressive as JRS's save in "Epoxy is Crap". This was a very good save in a life threatening situation.

Consider this please. When you are retiring from competitive sailing, do not save, for your last race, a 'career payback'. Healthy venting for the sailors, but unhelpfull vents in the boats. I can say this. I fix the dings in dinghies. A comment from a very concerned tradesman.

I'll be back, I just can't figure out where to start. I'm going back through my 360's from CB stalls at the moment, and torn sails, and MVA.

I would like to remain anon.

[ 03-14-2002, 06:47 PM: Message edited by: Wild Wassa ]

[John B]

We dropped a rig once. It was stressfull. Not as stressfull as the fact that had it been 10 minutes earlier, whilst surfing down 4 m seas in shallowing water( coming up to GT Barrier Island) and then gybing for the passage... had it been then , the boat was gone for sure. A fitting failed.
The most prolonged and most worrying thing that happened to us was probably the same thing that happened to the ship. We rounded Cape Brett up north and the wind died. There was a swell still going from the previous few days of bad weather and it just worked us down towards the rocks. We had no motor then. I got in the dinghy and held her up for 20 minutes or so until a breeze came in. It wouldn't happen to me now because I'd give it much more offing.( and we have a motor)

[TomRobb]

Improperly secured forestay on our old plastic sloop. 10 yards from the dock. Full view of everyone :rolleyes: Down comes the rig in slow motion as I leap forward to stay its fall yelling for my young son to grab the tiller and try to avoid the breakwall... oh the shame of it :eek:
Worst of all, no one to blame but me :(
Oh, and managed to tack into an overhanging tree limb once trying for one long leg instead of two short ones... :rolleyes:

[ 03-15-2002, 02:32 PM: Message edited by: TomRobb ]

[PilotArt]

Late 60's or early 70's, my younger Brother was on the way to Mexico (from Florida) in a French cold-molded 23'CapHorn.

Helmsman got too close to Cuban Coast, ( :( inside the reef) a coral head woke everyone up with a big hole in the hull. They stuffed it with a pillow and beached her.

Sunrise, they walked up the beach then a trail and came upon a Cuban Army Post. The Cubans recovered the boat, repaired the hole (for all the cash they had) and sent them on their way. smile.gif

Ten days after I got the KingsCruiser, we (both boats) went out in a windy day, within an hour we were both deMasted and returning through the drawbridge at Ft Myers Beach. There was an Irwin 33' on his way out who saw the two of us redface.gif (in our sorry state) and turned around for his dock.

[Church of the Holey Wooden Boat]

...then there was the delivery captain who tried to motor his 60'? maxi sailboat through the Spa Creek (Annapolis, MD)bridge (drawspan, 10 foot clearance)during rush hour. Guess he thought the bridge would open for him....

[Hugh Paterson]

Lost most of my mast sailing off of Antigua in the 80's just as it turned dark one night. Went scudding downwind/current still doing 3 knots while trying to step a jury rig. Got the boat going and managed to head for land with steerage way and no more, my choice of landfall was dictated by where I could point her. Picked a likely point when we saw lights on a nearby beach
which turned out to be the island of Barbuda. The Gap in the reef had me worried, dodgy approach, no manoeuvrability, no bloody engine, and an inexperienced crew (she was STUNNING though). We got into the bay and anchored, still in the pitch dark and went to bed shattered. If you had seen my face when I woke up and saw the rocks and gap in the reef that we had come through the night before. Big enough for a rowing boat, the locals just could not get their heads round the fact that I had come through this "keyhole" and did not think we could get back out. Some nice fella was watching over us that night, I am still trying to figure out how we got away with it.
P.S. I now like engines smelly or not :rolleyes:

Shug.

[cdragon]

A fibreglass story-but a good one no less...A few years ago in the Manhasset Bay Fall Series, October, sailing one of the brand new hot rod Melges 30's from Buddy Melges and family in the midwest-small kite up blowing about 20+, the little boat going faster and faster 11,12,13,15,16 knots! Completely under control and I thought wow! this is great, we're gonna hit alt least 20 maybe 25 today!! amazing, incredible,cool - BANG - I looked up thinking the runner had exploded and the rig was going when we sort of stopped and rolled lowly over to starboard, kept going-most of the 9 person crew falling in the cold water, when I realized that the keel had busted off, it was cold, and I was not going in the water. I was haning off the lifelines about to drop in the water when I swung up and she turned turtle.
No one hurt (save the reputation of the Melges 30) and spent the rest of the day with a couple of guys and two boats righting her enough to get her inshore into calm water and then righted her and brought her into a yard and hauled her with a travel lift. Lost a few sails, but it was a generally exciting day-proud to say that I never even got my shoes wet!!

[oceangoddess]

Now I know this is really pathetic...

A close friend had just returned from 6 months with the Mosquito Indians in Nicaragua (who are living in the mangrove swamps while trying to avoid being anihilated by the powers-that-be (i.e. the gumint) and was trying to get used to urban life again after the backwaters.

So I, being a gentle soul, took her out for a quiet cruise down the very last arm of the Fraser River south of Vancouver. A gentle night indeed, in my newly restored 26' Atkin sloop with a cute little 6hp Palmer gas engine.

Unfortunately I made a bit of a sharp turn into the slough, on a fast falling tide, and we spent the entire night at about 40 degrees over on the mud, right across from the local yacht club and the condo where my son lives.

Funny how people don't forget stuff like that - even ten years later...

[John Gearing]

Four stories, all in plastic boats.

One. San Francisco Bay. Night. No moon. Looking for the mouth of the slough at the head of which is the yacht club where docks this boat. No wind, so they are motoring. Trying to stay in the channel, they're proceeding under power from buoy to buoy (remembering "red right returning" etc.). The owner hands off the helm to one of the crew so that he may assist the rest of the crew in dressing ship. The new helmsman asks the course, since he has been busy dressing ship and does not know the course. Owner says follow the lights. Lights? Hell, she is headed for one of the most populated shores anywhere...there are thousands of lights and plenty of red and green ones to choose from! Pitch black of course. Helm makes repeated requests for all hands to render assistance in spotting the markers. No response from Cap'n or crew. Too busy flaking down and putting on sail covers. Suddenly helm can make out something looming dead ahead--the huge line of rocks and riprap that mark the shoreline! Three boatlengths to go. Shout a warning, helm hard over, full power. They get out of there. That did get everyone's attention. And on the next pass they made it into the slough.

Two. Another boat, another owner, same bay. Sailing down to Redwood City after a most pleasant day. Wind dead astern, seas gentle and following. She surfs at times. All's right with the world. Crewman with dreams of someday being navigator does some rough position finding with chart and compass. She's not in the channel. Chart says there might be submerged pilings hereabouts. Cap'n sez not to worry boys, there's nothing to it. 2nd mate standing in the companionway playing a guitar. We come down off the crest of a wave into the trough and fetch up HARD. Guitar man goes white in face and misses his chord. In less time than it takes to type this sentence they checked to see if taking on water and put her hard over and back out to deeper water. Dodged a bullet that day.

Three. Another boat, another skipper, same bay. Sailed onto a sandbar just N of the San Mateo Bridge. Couldn't sail off. Tide going out. So, dropped sail and made tea. When sandbar exposed debarked with folding chair and read on the "beach". Declined the Coast Guard's offer of a pull when they inevitably appeared. They thought him daft. Boat ended up on her side but she was a shallow drafter and floated off nicely when the tide came back in. He found the whole thing rather pleasant.

Four. Different boat, different skipper, same bay (approximately). Cap'n rents 28-foot sailboat for the day. One crewmember, new to sailing. Cap'n sets off without bothering to fill fuel tank. Way up in San Pablo Bay in the later afternoon the wind dies. No problem, just motor home. After a little while motor dies. Out of fuel. Bad news: they are right in the middle of the shipping channel, and there is traffic! Cap'n refuses to radio for assistance. Instead they spend hours bobbing around, a hazard to navigation if ever there was one, while tankers and container ships try hard not to run them down. Eventually Coast Guard shows up and gives them some gas. They return the boat hours late, much to the ire of the rental folks who thought they must be sunk.

[Gary E]

I have had my share of near misses while owning a sportfisherman off the New Jersy coast for 30 years or so but nothing compares to what this fellow went thru...as they say, close only counts in horse shoes and handgrenades....

http://www.lackofbrains.com/tugboat.htm

Gary

[Andrew]

I've seen that tug series before. Does anyone know the story behind it? Why didn't the bridge open?

[Donn]

Andrew... http://media5.hypernet.com/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=004303

[ 03-25-2002, 11:59 AM: Message edited by: donnwest ]