Curmudgeon ????? - Being prepared before leaving the dock

Curmudgeon ????? - Being prepared before leaving the dock

Is it me or are there too many people who get “surprised” once away from the dock and end up with stuff thrown all over their salons and galleys because of . . .

I’ve recently seen far too many videos of people, some apparently experienced with a decent on line following, who suddenly find themselves With lamps, canned goods, dishes, and other bits and bobs all over the place when “surprised” by weather, wakes, rip tides, etc.

Do most of you try to secure loose items before or right after shoving off? How can anyone not expect to have stuff thrown around while cruising even on calm sunny days?

So tell me, does your formal or informal check list include securing loose items, furniture, etc and checking to see that all locking cabinets and drawers are secured? In the past 3-4 days I’ve been amazed at what I’ve seen so called experienced boaters experience. Yes, we miss the occasional item, etc....

Rant off, but the question still stands - do you secure loose stuff and doors/drawers before or as you are undocking more or less without exception?

Our usual "leaving the dock" plan does not include securing things that might bounce around because we usually only cruise around 9-11 kts and the boat doesn't bounce around.

We up the ante if we're going to get on plane. I let my wife know that we're getting on plane. She puts things away, lays breakable stuff on the couch, etc.

When she has put all the breakables into places where it can't fall over she calls me on the radio and lets me know.

Our departure checklist includes “securing the interior”. The few times we’ve broken an interior item were when we left on an easy, short cruise only to be tossed by a tanker wake.

I am constantly amazed by how little things move about on our boat. Admittedly we cruise in SE Alaska on the Inside Passage with little boat traffic to create wakes. Our boat has a rounded chine and, although she rolls, it's not a snappy roll. In 14 years of cruising 4-5 months a year I don't think we have ever had anything slide over the fiddles on the shelves, table or counter. We have had a few drawers and galley doors open from pitching, but no losses (all could have been locked). In our raised wheelhouse I occasionally (once a year?) have to cinch down the helms chair to the padeye to make it more stable. As I mentioned, we do have fiddles and we do use non-skid on the shelves. We also try to avoid going out in winds over 15 knots especially with big currents. However, we have been caught in winds of 25-30 knots with 6-8 chop.

Tator

Yes to the secure loose items. Venture past the inner harbor and the wakes will find any item you missed. Once we're offshore habit kicks in and things are put back in the right place after use. Glass on the boat is verboten to the maximum extent possible.

Depends on the weather forecast. If there's the least bit of concern in the forecast, we stow things that can fly about BEFORE leaving the dock. Most importantly, the Nespresso Pixie machine ;-)

Underway..... glass coffee pot goes into the sink
Listen for the shifting of the pots and pans.

Never leave a ripe avocado on a paper plate when going out the inlet!

Made that mistake once. It launched and made a god-awful mess.

Loose stuff goes in drawers, the sink or on the deck when rough offshore. We've gotten better at prepping since the avocado incident.

My philosophy through 3 liveaboards was if when in normal use it didn't have a spot to sit securely for normal days including huge wakes....then it didn't belong or stay aboard.

Sure maybe a half dozen things that were easy to toss some place safe...like a knife set into a sink ( I should have made a holder that was attached somehow).... but most things live in a stored place.

Now, that didn't mean the boat was ready for a long offshore passage....but I never do those..

Most cruisers/liveaboards I know tend to not keep things "lines off ready"...so if they get anything other than a "slow pass wake" when underway....they get angry because of the cabin they now have to clean up.

Greetings,
Got "caught" twice many years ago. SOP is similar to above. Loose stuff stowed, cabinets/drawers/fridge etc. latched and secured. Loose bits in sink. So far, so good.

We always secure the boat, but exactly how much varies a bit depending on conditions. At a minimum, all drawers and lockers get locked, and anything that's not on non-skid gets put away.

We always secure the cabin before departure. Fridge latched closed, any non-attached items stowed unless they're known to survive a decent bit of pitch / roll without moving (we do have a few that meet that criteria). I have dumped a few plates out of a cabinet once or twice due to nasty wakes at anchor though. Unfortunately, my sliding cabinets don't latch closed.

True confessions - the avocado story - I t’s our BBQ sauce in a Rubbermaid container story. We each thought the other one of us stowed the container in the fridge. Not. Left out on the fiddle-less solid surface counter. Big boat wake in the San Juans and a loud thud. I found spots two weeks later in places I could not imagine a splatter could reach.

For us the lessons learned were in protected areas within the San Juans and Gulf Islands in the PacNW. A 4788 has a very soft chine and likes to roll if not at an off angle to wave action. Larger wakes, if not properly anticipated (“Hey! Turn off the autopilot and steer!”) can cause quite a bit of roll and the subsequent surprises. Consequently Patti does a “secure items” walk thru Before all but the shortest legs. Simple insurance against the “oh sh*t” moments. Much easier than cleaning up or worse, having to replace an item or repair damage.

Don't feel too bad...on almost every USCG deployment I made...the first set of heavy waves sent dozens of sets of cheap Navy china to the decks.


Breaking in the "kids"......even the pros have to work though common errors.

Yes, we definitely had a checklist protocol for securing things before leaving on any open water or otherwise extended cruise, a more rigorous one for offshore, or for snotty conditions on bays and sounds. The stabilizers and size of boat made wakes and the like pretty much non factors. We had this protocol pretty precise after a couple of quite literal shakedown cruises, including a couple items that needed some modicum of permanent securing. This part of pre-departure prep took about 5 minutes, if that, depending on how much loose stuff we had left out.

We don't have much loose on the boat. A couple of lamps is about it. The TV is strapped. The boat came with two bar stools that are now in the house! The things that tend to get tossed around are the things I have out for the trip, my camera, binoculars, chart book. Which are usually beside me at the helm.

When on the ICW and rivers we don't usually stow for sea. If I see a large wake coming I flip the stabilizers and she handles them well.
Everytime outside, we go through the boat and stow the lamps and put an extra d-clamp of the fridge freezer. Even though the FF has lock clips they do tend to bounce open in heavy seas - when you lose the contents of your FF all over the galley floor in seas you learn a very quick lesson.

Interesting point about bar stools. I have a pair on my boat, but with very heavy, weighted bases. And they sit on carpet. So as long as there's not a person sitting on them to make them top-heavy, they're very hard to tip. The previously mentioned cabinet-dumping rolls aren't enough to move the stools. Based on tipping the stools around by hand, I'd estimate that it would take around a 30 degree roll to tip one, maybe 20 degrees of pitch where the movement would tend to be fairly sharp and momentum may tip it.

We try to organize the boat in such a manner that it doesn't require a large amount of effort to 'secure' things to begin with. Everything is stored and/or secured in such a way that the boat is relatively ready to make way in calm conditions immediately and in rough seas in about 5-10 minutes.

Our readiness consists of securing hatches, securing anything that is loose on counters, a few toiletries in the head. I also lash the cooler on the deck.

Still we have been in very rough seas and, after anchoring, found the couch and coffee table on the other side of the salon.

Another thing we learned. Our lockers around the boat and on the galley have those two-position push button locks. It is critical to have them pushed in to a true lock not just the popped-up closed position, as then they can work open.

We always secure everything before engine start. You can get waked early on a trip.
Most things are always secure but some items are moved to unsecure locations when at a dock. At anchor is depends on the location.

It is a boat after all so everything that can get tossed around will.

Greetings,
Mr. rs. Bar stools? Isn't that what Davey Crockett used to step in?

Underway? Secured for sea, period.

We always secure everything before starting the engine. My wife and I have a routine where we each have certain areas to secure.

We have latches on all drawers and doors, large items like microwave and stereo are permanently strapped down, loose items in sink or on the setee. We don't have too many loose items to store.

Years ago when we had the 34 Mainship, we were caught out in Georgia Strait in a blow. We were driving from the enclosed flybridge and were unable to climb down the ladder to go below from the violent motion. We tacked for 6 hours to get from Nanimo to Eggmont. We found every drawer, cabinet, closet was flung open and contents thrown onto the floor when we finally got into calm water.

Learned our lesson.

So far so good. We always turn into wakes, even medium ones, and have pretty much everything on "non skid". Yes we do a cabin check before departure, but have minimized what has to be secured. No stabilizers.

If all else fails, blue tape the doors shut.

Boating out of San Diego, weather is not much of an issue, but wakes are. The Sicilian always secures everything prior to leaving the slip. Our sundeck trawler is prone to rolling in a beam sea and we cannot alter course when on a Predicted Log bluewater contest, which means, "hold her Newt, she's headin' for the barn!"

We maintain a 15 minute rule- we keep the boat ready to leave the dock within 15 minutes of an impromptu decision to leave port. So, this means that we keep things stowed/put away and the boat remains uncluttered of gear adrift.

Decorative items are secured using museum putty or "Joe's Sticky Stuff"

https://www.amazon.com/Set-Shop-Joes-Sticky-Stuff/dp/B00EECHMC4

Works for us!

rgano said:

Underway? Secured for sea, period.

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That's my approach as an old sailor told me many years ago, "boats are designed to experience movement of 10.0 on the Richter scale, daily and should be secured for that event." Our boat is set up to take no more than 5 minutes to secure it properly.

OldDan1943 said:

If all else fails, blue tape the doors shut.

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Blue tape works great. All you're trying to do is keep an object from getting any momentum. Likewise latches and hooks don't need to be particularly hefty at all, unless you have content inside that can build up momentum to crash the gate, so to speak.

I just now remembered that our 44 Tolly had a great hull design (Quadra lift) and was very stabile *EXCEPT* that when it corrected or righted itself from longitudinal axial movement (rolling) it did so very quickly. 44s are known for noticeable “snap roll” and boy did we learn that the hard way! Things didn’t just slide off of a counter, they were launched!