D'oh!

Moderator: GreenLake

D'oh!

Postby Marv Irwin » Tue May 05, 2015 9:04 pm

Greetings to the collective,

This brief note is confessional! I hope that sharing will result in some degree of relief from my acute embarrassment.

The story: Our DS was launched over the past two days and was resting gently along side our dock on the shores of lovely Black Lake, Ontario by 3 PM today. This year's deployment has been the best ever....the water was high so the boat slipped effortlessly off its cradle. My new tabernacle made the mast a piece of cake. Even the two coats of hull polish had seemed easier than usual for this arthritic old guy. I was feeling smug! In preparation for a planned sail tomorrow morning, I decided to do the once-over this evening so I would be cleared for take off bright and early. The check list went wonderfully....until the last item: make sure the center board is operable. And this is where my story gets confessional. As hard as I tried, I could not get that cursed handle to move. I even sat with my back against the mast stub and used my leg muscles....but no movement. I undid the screws holding the handle against the gasket. Still not movement. I panicked. I used some colorful language. I now had two choices....overwhelming brute force....or undo all my launch activities and put the hull back on shore to careen and look for the source of the jam.

And then the First Mate sauntered over and nonchalantly inquired: "Did you take the locking pin out?"

End of confession....

Regards,
Marv
Marv
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Re: D'oh!

Postby TIM WEBB » Tue May 05, 2015 9:51 pm

Now go and say your 5 hail Mary's ... ;-P
Tim Webb
1979 DS2 10099 The Red Witch
(I used to be Her "staff", in the way dogs have owners and cats have staff, but alas no longer ... <pout>)
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Re: D'oh!

Postby Alan » Tue May 05, 2015 10:03 pm

Gee, that's never happened to me.

Well, there was this one time when the boat wouldn't steer no matter what I did, including fighting it with the motor, and my crew asked "Did you lower the centerboard?"

And the time it wouldn't come off the trailer, not matter what I did, and my crew looked at the underside and said "the centerboard is down" and lo and behold, pulling the boat back forward with the winch, and pulling the centerboard up, made me look like the launching whiz I usually am.

Other than those incidents, nothing like that has happened to me. But there's always this year... :lol:
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Re: D'oh!

Postby TIM WEBB » Tue May 05, 2015 11:40 pm

Marv mentioned checklists, and there is one embedded into my brain - rule of threes before launch: bilge drain plug in, mooring drain plug in, autobailer drain plug in. Then, motor up, rudder up, CB up ... ;-P
Tim Webb
1979 DS2 10099 The Red Witch
(I used to be Her "staff", in the way dogs have owners and cats have staff, but alas no longer ... <pout>)
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Re: D'oh!

Postby jeadstx » Wed May 06, 2015 3:11 pm

I'm guilty of forgetting to put the drain plugs in when launching, more than once I'm afraid. Not only will the boat not launch off a trailer when the board is partially down, it doesn't load well with the board down either.

John
1976 Day Sailer II, #8075 - Completed the 2011, 2012, and 2013 Texas 200
1952 Beetle Boat Swan Catboat
Early Rhodes 19
1973 Mariner 2+2, #2607 - Completed 2014, 2015 and 2016 Texas 200
1969 Day Sailer I, #3229
Fleet 135; Canyon Lake, Texas
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Re: D'oh!

Postby GreenLake » Wed May 06, 2015 11:46 pm

Board down seems to cause little trouble (DS1). The keel rollers will just fold it nicely for me, if I forget; but if the board isn't locked in the upright position, it can get itself wedged in the trailer on launch, that's always interesting. Esp. if the boat jumps off the rollers while launching (or I've even had it shift on the short ride to the launch-- once I lost a pin from the bunk swivels, boat launched sideways).

Drain plugs. I appoint the youngest crew as drain plug monitor. If they forget, I'll set them bailing while I slowly pull as much of the boat out of water as I can, with it hanging partially off the trailer...

Second trip, I snapped the bow eye on retrieval. At the time, that situation exceeded my experience rating. Now I know to wrap a rope around the mast.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: D'oh!

Postby K.C. Walker » Thu May 07, 2015 9:36 am

Checking overhead for wires and limbs before driving around with the mast up should be on everyone's checklist. :oops:
KC Walker, DS 1 #7002
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Re: D'oh!

Postby jeadstx » Thu May 07, 2015 11:58 am

I learned the lesson about wires and mast height when I was in college. Pulled my Dad's Mariner out of the water. Looking for a flat place to drop the mast I hit a line. Snapped the mast in half. Needless to say it wasn't fun telling dad that I broke his boat. I always watch for wires (and tree branches).

John
1976 Day Sailer II, #8075 - Completed the 2011, 2012, and 2013 Texas 200
1952 Beetle Boat Swan Catboat
Early Rhodes 19
1973 Mariner 2+2, #2607 - Completed 2014, 2015 and 2016 Texas 200
1969 Day Sailer I, #3229
Fleet 135; Canyon Lake, Texas
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Re: D'oh!

Postby GreenLake » Thu May 07, 2015 2:17 pm

K.C. Walker wrote:Checking overhead for wires and limbs before driving around with the mast up should be on everyone's checklist. :oops:

Indeed (also useful while sailing in canals :) ).
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: D'oh!

Postby Swashbuckley » Sun May 10, 2015 8:28 pm

There was the time when going fishing at a high country lake, I launched the boat off the trailer and left my wife holding the bow line while I drove the mile to the car/trailer parking area and walked back...to find my wife dutifully holding the bowline to a boat sitting on the bottom of the lake with all my fishing gear floating away. :shock: Of course there was a small crowd of onlookers also dutifully waiting for my return. :oops: The drain plug was still attached to the retaining line I had installed recently to prevent its loss while trailering. She will no longer hold the bowline when we launch any of our boats. Just one of my many boating adventures.......
"Tiny Dancer" #6816
Learn Something New Every Day
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Re: D'oh!

Postby ChrisB » Tue Jun 02, 2015 8:59 am

Since we are holding confessional of sorts on this thread, here is my story from this past weekend. The West Coast Trailer Sailing Squadron had a gathering on Lake Tarpon (Tarpon Springs, Fl). I had never been to this ramp before and I arrived after most of the group was already there so I was one of the last boats to launch. The parking lot and ramps are surrounded by a ring of live oak trees so I was careful to thread the mast between the tree branches on the way to the ramp. I got past the trees without incident and the parking lot widened. There was a stand of live oaks on the far side of the parking lot that camouflaged a powerline crossing the parking lot. It was a dark powerline against dark trees. Most of the other boats that day were cat rigs and they got under the wire but my mast caught the line between the shrouds and the top of the mast. Fortunately, the mast did not bend. The load did manage to bend the spreader bracket and it snapped the heads off the chainplate bolts. The wire had slid the boat partly off the trailer (sideways) and when the bolts let go, the boat came the rest of the way off the trailer and hit the pavement. I really thought I had done serious structural damage to the boat. After I winched the trailer back under the boat I did a quick look and saw nothing obvious. I made a quick trip to West Marine for new chainplate bolts and managed to bend the spreader bracket back into serviceable shape for the day and I was on the water for the day. I drained no more water from the bilge upon retrieval than I usually see (1-2 quarts).

Back home, I flipped the boat to do a close inspection for damage. I really can't find anything that looks like it was caused by the fall from the trailer. For the most part, it has the chips and worn spots in the gel coat that come from the hull being 35 years old. These "plastic classics" really are built like a brick outhouse. New spreader and spreader bracket will be ordered from D & R today and while I have the boat flipped, I'll patch and fair the chips and worn spots with Marine Tex. My pride took a bigger beating than the boat on this one.
Chris B.
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