What is the most stupid thing you have ever done on your boat?

[FrontBaby]

It's nice to have company:
-Left with intake seacock closed/burned out impeller? CHECK
-Ignored charts in 'familiar territory', run aground? CHECK
-Left dock with shore power still plugged in? Oh, yes.. CHECK
(sailboats only)-Allowed main halyard to wrap around steaming light while underway in 6' seas, No way to raise main for four hour trip? CHECK
-Dropped tools/parts/screws in water while working on things? CHECK, CHECK and CHECK!

 

[HopCar]

As a teenager I had a 16 ft single engine Bahama dinghy. One day I was out in the bay with a friend when there was a loud thump, the engine raced and the rudder jammed.

I dove over the side and saw the propeller had slid back and jammed the rudder.
I was able to push the rudder aside and pull the shaft the rest of the way out.

Think about what I just said and imagine what was going on inside the boat.
My friend was screaming “Put it back, put it back”.

To make matters worse, we were towing a string of Optimus Prams back in from a race. This string of prams had been part of a longer string that had come loose from their original tow boat. I offered to bring them in. The kid in the nearest pram was over from England for the race. In a very proper and incredulous English accent he said “Your shaft is broken? I think we can just sail in from here.”

I don’t know what he thought of American boaters, but I don’t think he was impressed.

 

[skipperguy]

Only once

Anchored in well sheltered Lagoon Pond on Martha’s Vineyard. FAILED to set the anchor by backing down.
My only excuse was it was dead calm at 4pm ! Who knew wind can blow anytime ????
Morning came and I noticed gulls WALKING near our trawler. BAD SIGN ! When wifie noticed the door to the head was sticking, she asked “are we aground ?”
She’s such a smartie !!! (Oh yeah, our cabin floor was off level too.....)
Call TowBoat US, limped home in shame & $700 for rudder straightening.....

 

[MurrayM]

Well, aside from buying a more than century old, 64-foot, 40 ton Dutch Sailing Barge in Fort Lauderdale, and then motoring it up the ICW to Saint Augustine (when I had never as much as rowed a dinghy before), nothing much comes to mind.

For sure, I banged-up a few fuel docks and scraped-up several bridge abutments in the process, but with minimal damage and no loss of life.

At about this time next year, I should have had her re-rigged and ready to sail along the eastern seaboard. All I need to do in the mean time is learn how to sail.

You do not sound like a person who tippy-toes to the edge in Life

 

[dhays]

You do not sound like a person who tippy-toes to the edge in Life

Very well said. That had me chuckling to myself. Jacques, I admire your sense of adventure. Something tells me you will do just fine (or possibly fail in a spectacular and entertaining manner). Please keep us abreast of your progress.

 

[dennisspain]

Love this thread!
While doing routine maintenance on my FL and using my middle finger as a dipstick I concluded that I needed to add coolant.
Having none on board I went into town picked up a gallon and stopped for lunch and a beer.
On my Albin there is a beam supporting the hatches that runs the lengthy of the engine. The beam blocks your view into the coolant tank hence the digit dipstick.
Undid the cap poured about a third of a gallon, reused digit stick, no evidence, poured another 1/3, and still no evidence.
A dim bulb lit. Yes I had put 2/3 of a gallon of antifreeze into the crankcase.
I also have a rock story and a floating taco stand story, but enough about me who is next?

 

[exmaggiedrum]

How not to leave a dock

This was on our sailboat back then but it would have been the same with a trawler. Lund BC has a little marina that is pretty exposed to the west and there is a lot of fetch from that direction. Tiny place and they have a couple of big dock floats between the strait and the few finger piers. We were tied to the inside of one of the floats with our stern at the end of one. The one behind that was not lined up and it was out another 15 feet so a little "nook" there. The place was packed and there wasn't a lot of room to maneuver to get off this floater dock and the finger piers and a small boat directly in front of us.
Well, we were tired of waiting and a brisk wind was trying to blow us off to the finger piers. But we had our trusty Ford Lehman 80hp motor and a MaxProp which would bite real hard. We had about 6 people helping us as we had to get the lines thrown off and then gun it to get around the little boat in front so our bow wouldn't hit. We planned everything and the dock guys were all seasoned and knew what to do.

The problem was I didn't cinch up the dink behind us close to the stern. It was behind our stern about 15 ft on its drag line/bridle. So we turned the wheel hard over, the lines were thrown over, and I gunned it. It would have worked perfect too except the dink got caught on the end of the dock behind us and the line held us back until it snapped.

So of course our bow couldn't clear the boat in front of us and with the engine full power we managed to hook our anchor on his stern railing and it pulled the railing off all of the stern and most of one side and bent the other a fair bit.

The skipper and his brother had just started a two week outing and we managed to mess up their boat enough to scuttle that. I was so embarrassed and upset. We stayed overnight then and tried to help repair it enough to get it where he could go somewhere. There was a little railway there but no boatwrights. We tried to use a come-along to pull enough of it straight and allow him to get home.


He wasn't as upset as I thought he would be as he was expecting a big payday from our insurance company. He said he should be able to fix what we broke plus add a bunch of near gear he wanted.

So years later I still have egg on my face. And we always cinched up the dink tight to the stern when leaving anywhere. Like all of you, there are other stories but this was one of the worst and nobody got hurt.

 

[porman]

Last Summer, cruising the Broughton Islands in British Columbia. Pulled into Alert Bay and it was time to change the oil in the engines. I had anticipated having to do this and brought everything I needed for the job, oil, filters, and empty oil jugs. Started draining oil from the port engine with the oil exchanger. Went to change the filter. Where are the new oil filters? Why do I have 6 fuel filters and no oil filters. Oops. Oh well, I will change the filters when I get home. Poured oil into the port engine and drained the oil from the stbd engine. Checked oil level in the port engine. Why is it overfilled by a lot? Looked at the oil exchanger mounted on the aft bulkhead. When facing aft, the right side hose on the exchanger goes to the engine on my left. The left hose goes to the engine on my right. I drained the stbd engine when I thought I was draining the port. By the way, I have changed the oil on this boat many times before. Still OK though, I brought plenty of oil. Drained the port engine. Went to add oil. Why is there no seal on the new oil container? Why is the new oil dirty? Why did I bring 6 gallons of used oil with me all the way to Canada? I had just enough fresh oil to almost fill the two engines and make it to Port McNeill to buy more. There is also a used oil dump there where I got rid of all the dirty oil. No use taking it all the way home, right?

 

[Northern Spy]

Ok. That's pretty funny!

Last Summer, cruising the Broughton Islands in British Columbia. Pulled into Alert Bay and it was time to change the oil in the engines. I had anticipated having to do this and brought everything I needed for the job, oil, filters, and empty oil jugs. Started draining oil from the port engine with the oil exchanger. Went to change the filter. Where are the new oil filters? Why do I have 6 fuel filters and no oil filters. Oops. Oh well, I will change the filters when I get home. Poured oil into the port engine and drained the oil from the stbd engine. Checked oil level in the port engine. Why is it overfilled by a lot? Looked at the oil exchanger mounted on the aft bulkhead. When facing aft, the right side hose on the exchanger goes to the engine on my left. The left hose goes to the engine on my right. I drained the stbd engine when I thought I was draining the port. By the way, I have changed the oil on this boat many times before. Still OK though, I brought plenty of oil. Drained the port engine. Went to add oil. Why is there no seal on the new oil container? Why is the new oil dirty? Why did I bring 6 gallons of used oil with me all the way to Canada? I had just enough fresh oil to almost fill the two engines and make it to Port McNeill to buy more. There is also a used oil dump there where I got rid of all the dirty oil. No use taking it all the way home, right?

 

[OldDan1943]

Ok. That's pretty funny!

 

[Group9]

We were in our Catalina 42 sailboat, heading to the Bahamas and only five hours into the trip. It was a beautiful Sunday and we were passing by a popular sand bar filled with boaters under full sail on a beam reach. I was looking over at them, thinking how cool we must have looked to them, when I ran up onto a smaller exposed sandbar (that I had only pulled my center console onto a few dozen times for picnics) at eight knots.

Two hours later, we were able to resume our trip.

And, even worse, my wife broke her toe on the spinnaker pole fitting on the deck running forward, and had to deal with that for six weeks until it healed, on our trip.

 

[Slowmo]

My embarrasing moment came not on our cruiser but on the 21' Wellcraft we keep in Lake Tahoe. The Wellcraft has a 60g+ fuel tank and we use maybe 30g per season, so refueling isn't top of mind. We took some friends out to run down from Tahoe City to Emerald Bay, about 15 statute miles. The guage was reading over 1/3 when we started so I wasn't worried. My mistake was that I hadn't run the boat below 1/3 before. As we came back I learned that last bit isn't as big as I thought. We made it in on fumes and now I keep her over 1/2 all the time.

 

[Moby Nick]

Forgot to check the fuel shut off for our Volvo-Penta MD17-C before starting - - -

for the first time (just a short trouble-shooting run) last season. Had a quest aboard who has an Albin-25 "project" going. Motor started reluctantly and ran crappy, so the check out run didn't last long. Discovered the shut off valve was already "shut off" when I wanted to stop the motor, so I opened the valve. The motor ran much better, so we departed again for the "real" trouble-shooting run.

 

[Wayfarer]

for the first time (just a short trouble-shooting run) last season. Had a quest aboard who has an Albin-25 "project" going. Motor started reluctantly and ran crappy, so the check out run didn't last long. Discovered the shut off valve was already "shut off" when I wanted to stop the motor, so I opened the valve. The motor ran much better, so we departed again for the "real" trouble-shooting run.

That was just a test to make sure the fuel shutoff valve was working properly. Mission accomplished!

 

[latravcha]

There is a boat ramp that I launch at during hunting season that is out in the middle of nowhere. It does not get much use during the middle of the week.

A few years ago I decide on a Wednesday that it would be a great morning to take off of work and go hunting. I head to the this boat ramp and I was happy to see that no one else was there so I would have the woods all to myself. Well I sat in the stand until just after lunch and head back to the ramp. I park my skiff with a 40 mercury tiller steer on the bank and back the trailer into the water using my Toyota truck with a standard transmission and a iffy parking brake. I then get in the boat load it onto the trailer and let go of the throttle and the truck starts rolling backwards. I immediately give it throttle and the truck stops rolling, but every time I would let go of the throttle the truck would roll backwards. I tightened the tensioner of the throttle all the way down so i could keep the truck from rolling back so I could run to the front of the boat jump out and jump in the truck. Nope this did not work because the motor torque would cause the motor to turn full right when I let go of the tiller handle which did not provide enough force to keep the truck from rolling backwards. Well I had 2 options run for the truck and hope I could make it to the truck before it was in the water on sit there and figure something else out. I ended up sitting there holding the handle for over 2 hours before someone showed up to make an afternoon hunt and help me pull the boat out of the water.

 

[wkearney99]

I ended up sitting there holding the handle for over 2 hours before someone showed up to make an afternoon hunt and help me pull the boat out of the water.

Ok, are we tallying votes for the thread winner? Because I'm casting mine for THAT one! That's hilarious.

And somewhere out there is a guy with a story starting with "so there's this guy sitting at the ramp in his boat with his engine rev'd up..."

 

[danderer]

30 years or so ago my wife and I borrowed my folks Pearson 323 for a week. it was based on Narragansett Bay and so we planed to spend time at the Vineyard, Cuttyhunk, Block Island, etc. I’ll admit I didn’t know the boat systems all that well, but I did know it had an Atomic 4 (gas). I’d spent plenty of time with that engine on other boats.

One morning we’re coming up the channel in Oak Bluffs. Nice day and there is lots of traffic heading in and out. Right behind us coming in is the ferry.

Just as I open the cockpit locker to get the lines ready a SCREAMING siren goes off on the boat. No idea what it is—far too loud to be an engine alarm. The only thing I can conclude is that my folks had installed a gas sniffer alarm (those were coming into vogue then) and it had been set off by gas fumes. Which meant we were in a floating bomb.

No place to pull out of the channel. Couldn’t stop without getting run down by the ferry. In my head I hear the tick-tick-tick of the bomb about to blow.

We’re towing an inflatable on a 50’ line. I grab the line and pull the dinghy alongside and yell at my wife to get into it. Without much argument she does and I let go of the painter, towing her behind the boat. Hopefully at 50’ she’ll be ok when this thing blows.

We’re still under power moving forward. As soon as we reach then end of the channel and I think we have enough momentum to reach the mooring field I kill the engine. We coast into the field and I grab ahold of another boat (unoccupied) on a mooring. I then look for the fume detector (does it have an indicator telling just how bad the situation is?) Can’t find it. Finally locate the siren and it all makes sense.

While my wife was making breakfast that morning I noticed a couple unlabeled toggle switches under the companionway. I flipped them back and forth to find out what they did — evidently nothing. I guess I left one or both of them in a different state than I initially found them in.

They were part of a homemade burglar alarm system my father had built. I evidently armed it. And there was a trigger on the cockpit locker hatch..

So we entered Oak Bluffs with a siren screaming and my wife looking befuddled being towed in the dinghy behind. Got some looks I'm sure.

 

[wkearney99]

Heh, learned that carbon monoxide detectors will trip when voltage drops too low. As in, "we can't help any more, you're on your own!"

This was not fun at 3am, bare-assed-naked, needing reading glasses and half-in-the-bag after MANY pitchers of margaritas, trying to read the tiny EFFING type they used in the manual...

Couldn't make a different beep sequence for that, nooo.... same as "CO POISONING, GET OUT!"

 

[Taras]

I remember the time 13 of us got on a Catalina 40’ sailboat for a weekend (bachelor’s party). Well needless to say, the black water tank filled up quickly....in fact it was super full.
When we got back to the marina to turn the boat in, my buddy leaned over the deck fill cap to the black water tank to pump it out. Yep, you guessed it, a volcano of poop right in the face from all the pressure����

 

[OldDan1943]

I remember the time 13 of us got on a Catalina 40’ sailboat for a weekend (bachelor’s party). Well needless to say, the black water tank filled up quickly....in fact it was super full.
When we got back to the marina to turn the boat in, my buddy leaned over the deck fill cap to the black water tank to pump it out. Yep, you guessed it, a volcano of poop right in the face from all the pressure����

Ah yes, and never cycle the ball valve on a submarine crapper when the sanitary tank is pressurize to blow the contents to sea. LOL
You do it and you will clean it up.

 

[rslifkin]

Reading a few of these stories absolutely confirms my practice of immediately checking for water flow after starting the engines, generator or turning on an A/C unit. All but 1 or 2 times I've seen a "no water" issue, it's been right at startup, not a failure after it was already running.

 

[OldDan1943]

I am still alive so there is a real chance I will be able to do something even dumber. SMILE

 

[Seevee]

Wow, some of these stories are actually funny.


Also did the pressurized poop thing.... covered my wife, dockmaster and me.
I wasn't popular that day.

 

[Mischief Managed]

A couple of weeks ago I was docking in a transient slip in Boothbay Harbor, ME. There was no wind or current and docking should not have been a challenge. I had just got lined up and was about to start backing in, but wanted to have a quick look behind me to make sure everything was OK. When I turned my body to the right, my left hand bumped my zero-effort electronic throttle/shifter into full throttle reverse on my port engine. Things went from easy to really challenging in an instant. Fortunately, I got it under control without damaging anything but it was pretty horrifying to see that massive cloud of gray/black smoke as the boat started rocketing backward into the slip.

 

[LFOD]

Great thread; there is a fine tradition in Naval Aviation called "True Confessions," wherein a squadron mate stands-up during an all officers meeting and fesses-up to whatever it was that they felt guilty about. Everybody had a laugh at the guilty party and everybody silently swore to never be that stupid. I'm certain it saved me from many errors.

There are great points here I will take to heart whenever I end up getting a boat.

 

[rgano]

A couple of weeks ago I was docking in a transient slip in Boothbay Harbor, ME. There was no wind or current and docking should not have been a challenge. I had just got lined up and was about to start backing in, but wanted to have a quick look behind me to make sure everything was OK. When I turned my body to the right, my left hand bumped my zero-effort electronic throttle/shifter into full throttle reverse on my port engine. Things went from easy to really challenging in an instant. Fortunately, I got it under control without damaging anything but it was pretty horrifying to see that massive cloud of gray/black smoke as the boat started rocketing backward into the slip.

Exactly why I replaced a similar throttle on my Pilot with cabled connections and Morse shifter.

 

[Mischief Managed]

Exactly why I replaced a similar throttle on my Pilot with cabled connections and Morse shifter.

I love the throttle/shifters and have no plans to replace them. I just need to be less clumsy.

 

[Xsbank]

Bought the boat...

 

[rgano]

I love the throttle/shifters and have no plans to replace them. I just need to be less clumsy.

I was unhappy with mine because in this smaller vessel it was placed such that the kind of accident you and I almost had was going to be a constant threat. I just could not avoid hitting the lever.

Secondly, it required a big control box and a separate battery in the very cramped engine compartment.

Thirdly, it complicated starting the main engine if its battery was dead.

Power was available from the start batteries, but that was another switch which is left on drained them. This happened when I went to bring my new-to-me boat home, permanently souring me on the danged monstrosity.

I like technology, but on this boat, the added technology replacing proven manual cables (which had proven 100% reliable for decades in my trawler) was a ridiculous overreach.

 

[Gulf Comanche]

Love the Morse controls, the best.