The Dumbest Thing I Ever Did While Sailing
Who us? Nah, we’ve never done anything like that.
We were looking at some past issues of Latitude 38 when we came across some stories from July 2002. There’s always a lesson in them.
Ken Brandt wrote:
“One of the first things I learned from my dad was that in times of panic you should let go of the mainsheet and tiller and your sailboat will head up to park herself while you collect your wits.
“During my teens, I was enjoying the freedom of escaping to Long Island Sound in a borrowed Sunfish on a summer vacation. Sailing downwind in light breezes a half mile offshore, I had the daggerboard on the deck, when a swell tipped the boat and the board slid off. I hesitated a split second while imagining my options. I didn’t think I could sail upwind to the board without it in its trunk so I dove off to retrieve it knowing my boat would park herself and wait for me, right?
“With the daggerboard in hand, I turned to swim for the boat and was horrified to see it sailing merrily away — it had no board for the sail to pivot around, which would have allowed it to park! Luckily, an adrenaline-fueled swim reunited me with my ride. Ever since I have always been sure to wear flotation.”
Michelle Slade wrote:
“The dumb thing that happens to me regularly on a boat is that someone asks me to pour cocktails.”
Seventeen years later Michelle wrote last month’s story on Rob and Andi Overton, and has a feature coming out in the January issue on Monday about Bill and Melinda Erkelens.
Got a sailing gaffe you want to share? Like us, probably not. Or maybe you really do. If so send it here. We’ll have a few more on Monday and Friday next week.
Dumbest thing – I was at Catalina island, single handed sailing, with my Columbia 28. And was maneuvering to pick up a mooring buoy in a remote location (no other boats around). Backing down, the inboard engine suddenly died and to my horror the dinghy painter had wrapped the prop and shaft. Naturally, no wind and the vessel is only about 100 feet from the beach while the current is taking us into the beach. “Whoopee”. I had enough sense to stay on boat and throw out the bow anchor which luckily stuck immediately about 50 feet off the beach. Lesson- don’t ever use polypropylene line for a painter. The product does not float and will entangle submerged objects (i.e use nylon or Dacron).
In the 1980s, I co-owned a Santa Cruz 27 which we sailed out of that harbor. We were on our boat off of Santa Cruz with three guests one fine day when we decided to return home. Between us and the goal was a kelp forest with much floating on the surface. We figured “Hey, this boat has a heavy keel, so she’ll cut right through” and we attempted to do so on a close reach. Nope. The boat rounded up immediately and but we were able to recover by tacking around and quickly going back the way we came and then sailing AROUND the kelp. That was dumb, but it also ignored some basic issues about respect for marine life. Double dumb.