Thread: A cautionary tale.....

Originally Posted by chad

Plus, the centreboard wasn't in and I whacked him in the nose as I rammed it through the case whilst bobbing up and down. Some lessons are learnt the hard way!

I usually just yell at my crew, a belt in the nose seems a bit harsh. What was the name of your boat again, Bounty?

All good fun
Mike

Howdy Chad,

I did once sail with a guy called James when I was at Uni. James is now a top notch environmental lawyer (on the side of the angels).

James went a little bit further than that.

We were sailing Lightweight Sharpies (20ft skinny racing dinghies) and he wondered ... what would happen if he did a headstand in the spinnaker launcher on the tip of the bow.

Well ... the spinnaker was up after all.

You know how some people like to toss a raisin in the air and catch it in their mouth?

With James you could put him at the other end of the sailing club hall during a regatta and throw raisins at him at a velocity meant to cause pain. And he would reliably catch them in his mouth. We earned a lot of beers from visiting clubs that way, even if it meant we had to buy Sultana Bran for the club breakfasts.

He was immensely strong too. The Uni of NSW has a long thin campus and there is a covered walkway that goes about 2/3 the length of the campus. We were walking one day as a group and James said "hold my backpack". We didn't like his tone so no-one moved quickly .. so he said dammit and put the backpack on his back and jumped up and hung from the edge of the covered walkway. Wow.

Then he travelled with us hand over hand hanging from the edge of the walkway the length of the campus.

But James met his sailing nemesis.

He took some cute girls out on one of our Uni Sailing days in the Club Hobie cat and decided to fly a hull in the middle of the harbour. Sydney harbour is pretty busy with commercial traffic moving at high speed and they fly little orange diamonds which mean that they don't have to give right of way to sail.

So James is flying a hull and the girls are squealing (they were new that year) and James notices that there is one of big Manly Ferries coming up real fast ahead and it is going to pass real close.

So James cleats the mainsheet so he can wave back at the crowd on the ferry. They are really close ... anyone else would be feeling the danger now and thinking of tacking out of there.

So James is flying a hull, mainsheet cleated, waving at the crowd on the ferry the crowd of weekenders are all crammed on the rail of the ferry waving back and pointing, Mums, kids, maiden aunts in floppy hats ... crowds of teenagers smoking surreptitiously ... normal crowd. Ferry is closing at about 18knots, the cat is doing 12 The girls on the cat are squealing ...

And a gust hits.

The cat starts to capsize.

Everyone on the ferry rushed over to the rail to watch the fun and is crowding the rail

The cat is going over ...

and the mast tip lands on the rail of the ferry which prevents the cat from capsizing.

The combined speed of the boats is 30 knots (60kph) ... so the mast tip is sliding along the edge of the crowded rail at that speed. The little kids and grannies that were waving a second ago are now hitting the deck as the mast tip whizzes toward them at high speed, mums, prams, dropping sandwiches and thermoses and ciggies ... everyone is hitting the deck to avoid the deadly mast tip as it whizzes along the side of the ferry.

Mayhem is a kind word.

Then just as the ferry passes, the Hobie mast runs out of rail and does a gentle capsize.

James uncleats the mainsheet as it goes over. Then rights the boat and sails it in.

The two cute girls disappear off to Get Dry and Tidy Up. I saw them drive out of the other end of the parking lot.

All in all, it was quite a successful Uni Sailing Club "Introduction to Sailing" Day.

So ... a cautionary tale of a sort.

Be very careful about who you go sailing with!!!

And probably Chad, if your friend waits until the centreboard is IN then next time the result might be more successful!!!

When the wind is light the Olympic 470s have mast climbing competitions. They ARE going to capsize ... but the trick is to see how high you can get first.

Sounds like you are having fun!

MIK