lesson learned.

[paulkayak]

In the spring I took our Mac26S out of storage and put it into the garage for some work. The centreboard and rudder were rebuilt and three coats of Barrier paint were drying on them while we were off for 2 weeks camping in our vintage VW camper. Thursday night we returned home and the wife wants to bring the Mac to her brothers camp on the river outlet of a local lake for the weekend where her entire family is camping. Friday morning I started early getting the boat together and back on the trailer. Friday at 10pm I come back into the house with almost everything ready but still have not started the motor this year. I should have put a pen and paper by my bedside because every hour I got up and went to the kitchen to put something else on the list of must do in the morning.
Saturday I got to the launch and with the brother in-law and stepsons help and everything went well and the motor even started once I put that emergency shut off pin back in. I motored over to the dock and had lots of help tying off the boat. It was hot as heel and not even a breeze. At the dock I reattached all the shrouds and backstay (mast was totally removed for work on boat) and raised the mast with the mast raising system because there is a bridge 200m up stream between camp and the lake. No big deal right. The book and the video make bridges look easy. When we get close I just drop the mast and raise it again on the other side.
The breeze is forecast to increase to very light around 4pm. Fantastic I really wanted to get out for a shake down in light winds. Than we can have the kids and adults that are less comfortable shuttled out for a sail in a nice gentle breeze. No go there is an activity for the kids in the area at 6pm and no one wants to miss it. So I have no one to help me set up and give her a gentle shake down. The winds are forecast to be 20km/h late Sunday morning and building. Not bad sailing weather right. But not for first shakedown of the year.
Thankfully my 11 year old nephew wanted to take me out and show off his new fishing boat and motor. Once past the bridge I notice that the lake was not right on the other side of the bridge as I was told but another 1.5 km. Oh! And there is a high voltage power line crossing the river just before the lake. The wires looked like we would pass under with mast up but why take the chance.
Change of plans. I will take the boom off the mast and secure parallel on the mast so we will have more room in the cockpit for the almost 2km motor. And the wife and I will motor out get the sailboat ready to go and than call the brother in-law and he will bring out passengers. I also gave the speech to the kids that what I say goes and if you argue with me about anything you will be put back in shuttle boat and returned to camp. Should have stuck to my guns on that one.
Sunday morning we have everything ready to go and the wife is sitting in the boat with the 4 year old grand daughter.
This granddaughter is very close to her grandmother.
The wife gives me this, "She does not want me to go with out her."
She is also wearing a swim assist toy flotation water-wing thing.
I ask,"where is her life jacket?"
"This is what they use," She says.
"Is it a certified flotation device."
"No! It's all they have and that's what they use in there boat."
I save you from reading the next 3 minute conversation that ensued. But I need to learn not to use the forceful voice with the wife and just say no in a nice way. Because it turned into two egos fighting. I held my ground.
The wife went up to camp and found a life jacket that from a distance looked like it fit.
The sailing should have been canceled right there on the fact that my main helper wanted to argue with me and on a nonnegotiable fact. Everyone must have a certified life jacket.
Also I had planned to motor out to the lake set up with just the wife and myself onboard than have passengers shuttled out. But my plans got vetoed and we were now waiting for more kids that are coming with us than not coming than others are coming but if he is going I want to go too... I think you get the idea.
That went on while I am sitting in the hot sun on the river in the Lea of the breeze for about 1/2 an hour. I had not noticed that the breeze was building. Well we finally get underway.
I had stated that if any kids are onboard there must be one adult to care for them and one competent adult to help me set up. That got vetoed as well. Now we are leaving the dock with myself the wife and 4, 6 and 11 year old! No adult helper to look after the kids on board except the person that I need to help me set up the boat.
Again I should have canceled. But all the work I had done to this point. And the ego!
When we get out to the open water the wind has built with gusts into the "should I reef" level but the base wind was nice. But I am still dealing with my ego a pi$$ off wife and kids on board so I had not noticed the gusts. We get the mast up and sails on.
Did I mention that the lake is very busy with power boats and a sailboat let alown a 26 footer is a rare sight so all the power boats want to buzz by to have a look while I am on the foredeck setting up. One guy putting out a 2 foot wake passed with in 15 feet of us as I was trying to raise the main. Some people can be so thoughtless.
All this time the wife's attention is split between the boat and the kids. When I asked to have the main pulled in and shut off the motor she pulled the main in until the sheet was not slack but the main was still flogging and shut off the motor and yelled at me that she could not steer. I get back into the cockpit and all the kids are in the cockpit as well.
Ok now we are under sail and trying to head upwind with a very nice breeze with gusts heeling us to about 45 deg. If I was out sailing myself it would have been fun but we now have 2 kids that are frightened. I try to reduce the heel in the gusts by relieving pressure on the main but than the sails flog and that scares the kids as well. This is when I clue in that the life jacket my wife found for the 4 year old is way too big. I order the kids out of the cockpit and under deck and call for the shuttle boat to come pick up the kids.
While waiting for the shuttle to come I notice the play in the rudder increasing. Some how In my haste to get the boat together I had forgotten to tighten the rudder bolt and the fibreglass hole in the rudder was getting bigger and I was concerned that we may loose the rudder. Now I am trying to steer using mostly the sails and using the rudder less. Always wanted to practice this but not there and then. With the main in one hand, fore sheet in the other, and the rudder in my other hand. I know, I thought I only had two hands as well. I could have let the wife handle one but it took a very coordinated effort between the 3 controls to keep pressure off the rudder and still hold course.
So to make matters worse it seems that when I was sanding the centreboard and rudder down in the garage some dust must have gotten into the foresheet cleats and they were not working that well and would let the sheet slip if you did not hold pressure on them. I wanted to stay under sail so we could heavetoo to reduce pitching when transferring the kids into the shuttle boat. What I was doing was working to keep the pressure off the rudder going slightly up wind so I just kept going. I also did not want to try turning down wind and get to where we would need to think about taking down sails with kids still onboard.
The shuttle arrived and we heavedtoo and the transfer was very easy and safe.
Once we were with out the small kids we turned down wind and headed home.
We made good time down wind and as we approached the mouth of the river I dropped the jib than we turned into the wind started the motor and dropped the main. All went well. I removed the boom and dropped the mast with lots of time to spare before going under the high voltage wires. Although the the wife was starting to get concerned.
Now we are under motor and heading down river with current and wind at our back. But the rudder is now so loose that it is just flopping around like a fishes tail. Just pull it out of the water and all will be good right.
Things can't be that easy. Some how the up haul had been cut and and we could not pull up the rudder. With the motor in neutral drifting down wind and down stream I climb down the boarding ladder and using my foot I lift the rudder out of the water I put a rope through the bottom drain hole of the rudder and tied it off out of the water.
We are back under motor and heading for the dock. I have always motored with the rudder down but one good thing about the day is I learned how easy it is to motor with the rudder up.
We have about a 1.5 km left to go under motor. Nothing else could possibly go wrong. Well I then start hearing a miss fire on one cylinder. It was almost like some force was saying "don't relax yet." But the miss fire did not go any further and it even cleared up as we approached the dock.

The good news is I learned a lot of important lessons and no one died or was injured. And you will be happy to know the wife and I are talking again.

[budgates]

Wow! That sounds like quite an ordeal. I'm sure glad that everything and everyone is alright. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[Obelix]

That was some adventure, good thing everyone came out unharmed.
It seems to have been a somewhat complicated arrangement in the first place, with kids getting shuttled out after departing the launch area. You did absolutely the right thing to insist that an approved flotation device for every person on board is needed.
Would I have canceled the trip and listen to the disappointment in an already heated atmosphere?
In the view of some, you may have done right or wrong but frankly I don't think I would have quit either.

Obelix

[topcat0399]

ooof!

I think I would have left the kids ashore for the first sail.

Thanks for your honesty and all of the gritty details.
The next trip will be better I'm sure.

[fishheadbarandgrill]

I'm tired just reading about it. Glad it ended without incident.

Bob

[Interim]

Wow. Great tale, and well-told.

The thing about being a lobster is that the water starts out nice and slowly warms up. By the time you realize you're being cooked, it's too late. Same with sailing. Bad situations can evolve in a string of seemingly unrelated issues.

Glad things turned out.

--jf

[arknoah]

Thanks for your story. Happy that everything worked out okay.

I remember the first outing with our Mac 25 with guests on the boat: two of my son's best friends, my son, my wife and me. It was already a trying day trying to control tacks, etc., especially since I was such a newbie. While this was going on my wife, who was getting hot, decided to unfasten her life jacket. Well, that was my excuse to say that we were going in. Call it ego, or whatever, but I just wasn't budging.

I know, childish on my part: in some ways, it was just the last straw for the day, and happily, we are still talking, and she is enjoying heading out to sail more and more as the years go on.

[Interim]

I am lucky in that my first mate wants no decisionmaking responsibility on the boat. Part of what makes it relaxing for her. She will do tasks, and runs the jib, but will not challenge anything. I guess that could go bad, if I'm making a wrong decision.

However, when my daughter bought me a "Mariner's Rule" T-shirt (Rule #1: The captain is always right. And I'm the Captain), she pointed out that only applies when we are on the water.

--jf

[Russ]

Good story and lots of lessons. I'm sure you have gained much from this along with all the grief.

I prefer no guests on first sail of the season. Especially little ones. Way too much stress.

When winds were high, I would have called it all off. Mixed crew, high winds not good. Not sure leaving canvas up during transfer is wise either. Lots can go wrong. Wind change, catches sails and who knows. It doesn't buy much and adds a lot of liability. Plus the sound of flapping sail freaks people out. I would have put little ones below, got admiral to help drop sail, then bring 'em back up for transfer off boat.
It's good to start with admiral knowing she may be the boss but you are the captain and your in charge of decisions.

Most important...still speaking with wife.

[dlandersson]

Nice observation. My first few sails of the season are just me - I know I'm going to make mistakes while I'm getting "back into the groove" so to speak.

Good story and lots of lessons. I'm sure you have gained much from this along with all the grief.

I prefer no guests on first sail of the season. Especially little ones. Way too much stress.

When winds were high, I would have called it all off. Mixed crew, high winds not good. Not sure leaving canvas up during transfer is wise either. Lots can go wrong. Wind change, catches sails and who knows. It doesn't buy much and adds a lot of liability. Plus the sound of flapping sail freaks people out. I would have put little ones below, got admiral to help drop sail, then bring 'em back up for transfer off boat.
It's good to start with admiral knowing she may be the boss but you are the captain and your in charge of decisions.

Most important...still speaking with wife.

[paulkayak]

Thanks for the comments.
Just to clarify it was not my first sail this year just the boats first sail. I am on the water every chance I have in my DS16 on the lake right out my door or the beaver I pull with the VW(Canadian cottage class dinghy). In hind sight I will alway give the boat a shake down before I go anywhere with anyone again. Seeing as I have a launch down my street I have no excuse not to. It is so close that I could have the mast ready to raise before I leave the driveway.


There seems to be a bit of question about transferring passengers with sails up. It is not just with sails up but also heaved to. Short description is When heaved to your foresail pushes you backward and your main pushes you forward and the rudder holds the boat angled almost 90 deg to the wind. This steadies the boat and if set right give you just a bit of heel to the boat and holds it steady and prevents rolling in rough seas. No sails flapping and the boat is steady as a rock. It also gives a sheltered from the wind where the smaller boat can raft along side. I would never want to try rafting up with another boat in any substantial wind with out sails up and heaved to. I practice heave to every time I go out. Even for a day sail. That is what I usually do when I practice man overboard drills. (The queue for a impulsive man overboard drill on my boat is "dam! my hat!") That is actually how I drop my main when out in my DS16 on the lake I live on. I have even practiced rafting up with friends at home with the DS16 so I will be very comfortable if I need it in a emergency. Like this weekend.
If you have never tried it you should.

[Russ]

It is not just with sails up but also heaved to.

You have an S which I believe is a better balanced boat with less freeboard than the X/M so this probably works well. Obviously this worked best in your situation and makes sense.

My main concern was with a mixed group of people, keeping an eye on tiller and sails is stressful for me. I'm always worried something will change (someone will trip on a sheet letting it out, helm will swing around) and then the situation is different. The S/D sails very well as a normal sailboat. This is a bit more tricky with the X/M especially if a gust hits.