Every trip I do something stupid, what about you?

[sunshinecoasting]

Now I know that a lot of you guys leave your boats in the water for a whole season but where I live its sailing season all year, I live 20k's from the water so I trailer and setup every trip out, for this reason I only go out when I have at least three days up my sleeve. So whats this thread about? Well I have at least one stuff up each trip and hurt myself at least once each trip, often related to setup or takedown, I am usually on my own and in too much of a hurry, here's some examples.

Left a brand new 100 piece Stanley socket set on cabin roof once on trailer and drove boat home. Never saw them again.

Fell in open hatch while retrieving anchor and bashed my shin enough to bring tears to my eyes, suncream was to blame, it couldnt have been stupidity on my part.

Tore a gash in my stomach on seat hinge when trying to pull up swim ladder while under way.

Fell off cabin top landing bum first on life line staunchon, nearly impaled myself, this one was really serious, should have gone to hospital but didnt. Never step down on to gunwale from cabin when under way, boat dropped in to wave trough leaving me in mid air until gravity took over, I was on my own at sea, lucky for me I landed in agony on cockpit floor and not the ocean, dumb, dumb, dumb.

Hit head on cabin slide roof at least 26 times every trip, I just dont learn.

Raise keel when entering shallow water but forget to undo rudder ropes and break ropes, I use lightweight sacrificial rope for this very reason, cheaper than rudder repairs.

The list goes on and on, yet what is it that makes me desperate to go out again as soon as possible?

So what is some of the stuff that has happened to you?

[dlandersson]

Me too. I like to spend the first few weeks going out by myself in order to "shakes the bugs" out. I'm always forgetting something or hurting something at first and don't want the kids/guests to see. I'm half-assed decent by the end of the summer.

[yukonbob]

Hit head on cabin slide roof at least 26 times every trip, I just dont learn.

x2

Dropped the boat in this weekend...couldn't figure out why it wouldn't get off the trailer until I reaized I left the bow eye attached and forgot every piece of canvas except the mainsail cover which was still on the boom. Guess we'll just have to go back this weekend to finish...darn

[budgates]

Something seems to happen every time out though not always my fault.

One big thing that was my fault was when I first bought my Hobie Cat. After launching the boat and parking the truck I noticed that she was floating awfully low in the water. That's when I realized ... The Hobie-18 has what I would consider a problem with the design. In order to install or remove the rudders you had to remove the bilge plugs. That's right. You guessed it. I forgot to replace the plugs before launching the boat. Fortunately the hulls have foam to keep it from sinking but the amount of water they held added a lot of weight. The boat sat so low in the water that it made retrieving it with the trailer quite difficult. As I was winching the boat onto the trailer it slid off the side of the rollers onto the steel bracket which gouged a hole in the fiberglass about an inch wide and 3 inches long. Needless to say that whole trip was ruined. It's a good thing that fiberglass is easy to repair.

[Gazmn]

Now I know that a lot of you guys leave your boats in the water for a whole season but where I live its sailing season all year, I live 20k's from the water so I trailer and setup every trip out, for this reason I only go out when I have at least three days up my sleeve. So whats this thread about? Well I have at least one stuff up each trip and hurt myself at least once each trip, often related to setup or takedown, I am usually on my own and in too much of a hurry, here's some examples.

Left a brand new 100 piece Stanley socket set on cabin roof once on trailer and drove boat home. Never saw them again.

Fell in open hatch while retrieving anchor and bashed my shin enough to bring tears to my eyes, suncream was to blame, it couldnt have been stupidity on my part.

Tore a gash in my stomach on seat hinge when trying to pull up swim ladder while under way.

Fell off cabin top landing bum first on life line staunchon, nearly impaled myself, this one was really serious, should have gone to hospital but didnt. Never step down on to gunwale from cabin when under way, boat dropped in to wave trough leaving me in mid air until gravity took over, I was on my own at sea, lucky for me I landed in agony on cockpit floor and not the ocean, dumb, dumb, dumb.

Hit head on cabin slide roof at least 26 times every trip, I just dont learn.

Raise keel when entering shallow water but forget to undo rudder ropes and break ropes, I use lightweight sacrificial rope for this very reason, cheaper than rudder repairs.

The list goes on and on, yet what is it that makes me desperate to go out again as soon as possible?

So what is some of the stuff that has happened to you?

A defensive driving mindset is assume all other drivers are idiots & watchout for them... Defensive boating mindset is like that but assume you are King in Idiot Kingdom

So: respect that you can kill or get killed doing something you should be deriving pleasure & enjoyment from.

Rule 1- Wear a PFD. While I have the inflateable ones, auto & manual. When I'm alone, I wear a regular, real, but comfortable vest. Zipping may be optional, but it's on.

2. Floating & waterproof phone & vhf on my person. In case the boat goes on without me. (See rule #1)

3. No peeing off the backstep, Period. Ask many a missing solo fisherman... Designate a well marked "Big Gulp" cup & don't drink from it by mistake

4. Minimize my cabin top maneuvering. I found out ocean sailing can be like being in a bounce castle. Anticipate & Setup @ dock or mooring before heading out.

5. Float plan filed or give someone notice & Find a buddy. Even if u have to rent one... Come on, u can find Someone who wants to go out


My stupid things:
1. Not checking motor before untying, unhooking.

2. Hard grounding by not checking the chart. Doh!

3. Typical launch & retrieval follies. It's always entertaining watching either or. Learn from others mistakes.

4. Always try & read the road or parking lots ahead to make sure you have room to maneuver you & the monstrosity you're dragging behind you or looks of admiration & envy will turn into howls of laughter at you

- Safe Boatn'

[FishyFabs]

Tried Leaving a slip while still connected to shore power.

[Starscream]

Tried Leaving a slip while still connected to shore power.

Done that

Left a brand new 100 piece Stanley socket set on cabin roof once on trailer and drove boat home. Never saw them again.

Hit head on cabin slide roof at least 26 times every trip, I just dont learn.

Done That

Hit head on cabin slide roof at least 26 times every trip, I just dont learn.

x2

Dropped the boat in this weekend...couldn't figure out why it wouldn't get off the trailer until I reaized I left the bow eye attached and forgot every piece of canvas except the mainsail cover which was still on the boom. Guess we'll just have to go back this weekend to finish...darn

Done that. What scared me was that I realized that by putting the boat in reverse and trying to get off the trailer, I was essentially trying very hard to pull the towbeast into the water. I am very careful now that I realize in retrospect what a disaster that would have been.

Took the towbeast out the other day to shake the rust out, and although I unhooked the chains and the charger, I somehow forgot to unplug the trailer light socket. Well, it unplugged itself pretty quick.

See my post about sailing without ballast.

Last year I let the centerboard down at a dock that I thought I knew, in the dark. Didn't check the water level. Board went down and stuck in the mud without me noticing...took a second in the morning to realize what was happening after I couldn't back away from the dock. Had to use the winch to get the board up. Water level was three feet lower than the last time I was there...no tides, just lower water in the river.

Once when parking at my slip I thought I had put the motor in neutral so I hopped off to tie up. Nope, not in neutral.

And so on. Ad nauseum.

The key is to learn from your mistakes and try to make each one only once. When it comes to stupid mistakes, there are those who have, and those who haven't yet. Although I'll bet that second group is pretty small.

[sailboatmike]

Gee and I thought it was just me

Last time out I thought I had it licked and had the perfect no stuff up trip out, went and got the trailer, jumped in the car, started driving from the car park back to the ramp to retrieve, all the time congratulating myself on my first and only perfect trip and feeling pretty smug.

Didnt notice the fence pole and cut the corner a bit fine, ended up smashing in the trailer mudguard and pushing it back on the trailer wheel to the point the wheel wouldnt spin. That required my to use my trailer winch to hook around the guard and pull it off the tyre so I could put the boat back on.

I eventually got the boat back on, feeling a lot more humble and nowhere near as smug

[mrron_tx]

Well , I'm sure there must be a limit as to how long a post can be....so I will just say been there done most of those things......and I sadly add waking up in the V.A. Hospital because I forgot My COPD inhalers and ran out of air... And yes..... I now keep 1in My pocket , 1 in My truck & 2 on board Dauntless ....1 on the pedestal and 1 in the galley Ron.

[IslandMac]

Knock on teak - we haven't done anything stupid in our Mac26M yet, but only because we haven't launched her for the first time yet. She's in the driveway, getting spruced up for the beginning of our first season with her.

Having said that, in our other sailboat my "stupid" was wearing Birkenstocks instead of my boat shoes, and one fell off when I was boarding. The captain was good enough to retrieve it for me. Good thing they float.

Now, the captain gave me a good laugh. Each time he wore his inflatable PFD, he'd leave the little tab hanging where I was sure it would catch on something. I told him over and over that he was certainly going to be in for a surprise when it inflated when he wasn't expecting it. Sure enough, he was tossing a line and it grabbed onto the tab. Captain said "I thought I was going to die!" when that thing inflated on him! Of course we had to make a trip to Cabela's and spend money on a new canister, but at least he listens to me now... well, about "that."

I am making note of the things mentioned here, so hopefully we will be prepared. Thanks for the chuckles and the advice.

[sunshinecoasting]

Ha ha, I still feel stupid but at least I have plenty of company, here's one I forgot to mention and it too was pretty serious, it actually wasnt related to boating exactly, it related to wind and stupidity on my part. I was at anchor and repairing a rudder rope while sitting on floor in cockpit with feet in transom, seat was up, strong cross wind hitting port side, seat safety c able was not attached and seat was blown over on to my head, knocked me out for a few seconds, daughter was on boat with me luckily as I was 20nm from home, didnt crack my skull but did bleed, a lot, MAKE SURE YOU SECURE THAT CABLE ON YOUR SEAT TO BIMINI OR LIFE LINE, it hurt for 2 weeks.

Oh and funny enough, no, I can rarely find someone to go sailing with, yes I do wear my inflatable vest when out on my own and I do register with coast guard before leaving, and never pee over side, I love the challenge of doing that while under way in a 2 meter swell.

[kadet]

I am older and wiser now and ration my stupidity to every second outing now

[Neo]

You kidding.... On my last return trip I winched the boat onto trailer, still full of ballast! .... Winched it up too high before I realised what was wrong .... It took 20mins to get the trailer out of the water (by progressively towing and emptying the ballast, up the ramp).
Exhausted, I drove through the car park and manged to break my mast on an over hanging tree .... and it came CRASHING to the ground.... missing a car (with 2 occupants) by 2 meters!!

That was Feb 1st ... I'm still trying to get all the repairs completed ... BYW parts arrived today so should come good soon

So whatever you've done so far ... breath a sigh of relief


All the best.
Neo

[kurz]

ok my best one:

Here in Switzerland we have to go testing the trailers FULL LOADED (every 2 years...), so they can se how good the break ist working.

So put the on the trailer, passed the weight station...

As the weight was too hight and the trailer was bending quite a bit the official measure the tongue weight... It was so high I was even not allowed to take the trailer home with my car. Had to park immediately in the yard.

It took me quite a half an hour to realize that I forgott to empty the ballast tank...

[Baha]

Okay, my turn...

1. Tried to recover my onto the trailer. It kept getting stuck-a real head scratcher-UNTIL I discovered my daggerboard was not all the way up. I did this two different times.

2. Was so busy putting up my main that I did not notice my daggerboard sliding into the mud.

3. Left my battery selector on the one that was not charged and went sailing. Got into a bind that I needed the motor to get out of. It, of course, did not start. Smacked right into a moored boat's anchor hanger. Missed a window by about 2 inches.

4. Bent the boat key over and almost broke it off.

That's all, for now...