Back when Lake Michigan was at low water levels, we got our Redwing 35
stuck in the Black River (South Haven, Michigan) when we wandered out of
the natural river channel. It was just a sand bottom but we were stuck
pretty good and nothing we tried was working. A rather large power boat
stopped and we were just going to throw him a line to let him pull us
off when a guy in an inflatable motored up and said "hang on, I'll get
you off". I offered to throw him a line and he just said "no thanks,
I've got this". He pulled the inflatable around to the bow and wedged
his bow under ours and goosed the throttle. We felt the bow lift up and
we immediately started moving backwards off the sand bar. He said he
has used the technique several times and it always works. It wasn't a
big inflatable and he only had about a 6 hp motor. We decided after
that event to pay the big bucks and get a slip below the bridge where
dredging is not an issue.
I have relayed this story several times and was even able to help a boat
using the same technique. It works!
Neil Schiller
1983 C&C 35-3, #028
"Grace"
Whitehall, Michigan
WLYC
On 7/17/2018 11:20 PM, Randy Stafford via CnC-List wrote:
I feel stupid saying this because it’s trivial, but there’s a sandbar
(actually submerged extension of a peninsula) in my lake that I’ve hit
with every goddamned sailboat I’ve sailed there, from a Coronado 15
dinghy with the centerboard up to J/22s and Merit 25s and yes even my
C&C 30 MK I. Fortunately the bottom is mud/sand so no damage is done
but it’s embarrassing as hell to get stuck there because it’s right
across from the marina channel, in view of a long dock with about 40
slips on it. That happens to be my dock and I know my dockmates sit
out there and watch people getting stuck and unstuck just for
entertainment. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started holding up
score numbers like in diving or gymnastics or ice skating. One time
when I got Grenadine stuck there I jumped in the water and tried
unsuccessfully to push her off as my passengers heeled the boat. I
had to get the park rangers to pull me off.
Another grounding story: one time chartering in the Grenadines, while
anchored at Saltwhistle Bay, Mayreau, we witnessed a 28-foot sailboat
run aground on some rocks on the south side of the bay, coming in.
The locals rushed over in runabouts to heel the boat by her halyards
and pull her off - perhaps a common occurrence with an easy payday for
them. Turns out the boat’s company was two young Swedish couples who
had sailed all the way from Sweden - down the North Sea, English
Channel, Bay of Biscay, Portugal and African coasts to Cape Verde,
where they turned west and crossed to the Windwards, only to run
aground coming into Saltwhistle Bay.
Cheers,
Randy
S/V Grenadine
C&C 30-1 #7
Ken Caryl, CO
On Jul 17, 2018, at 6:29 PM, Dave S via CnC-List
<cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote:
Sorry to hear about the grounding Gary. I guess
distraction/familiarity can hurt any of us.
Thanks for the reminder - for my commute tomorrow - where speeds and
risk are much greater. The boat can be fixed, am very thankful that
pride was the only human casualty.
Dave
Sent from my iPhone
On Jul 17, 2018, at 1:17 PM, Gary Russell <captnga...@gmail.com
<mailto:captnga...@gmail.com>> wrote:
HI Dave,
Don't beat yourself up too hard. I am told "There are only two
kinds of sailors... Those who have run aground and those who lie".
Thankfully, everyone is safe! That's the important thing. Good
luck with the repairs.
Gary
S/V Kaylarah
'90 C&C 37+
East Greenwich, RI, USA
~~~~~~~_/)~~~~~~
On Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 11:18 AM, David Knecht via CnC-List
<cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote:
It is a sad morning here and I need some help to drag me out of
my depression. This list is my support group, advisers, experts
and therapists. Or maybe you will kick my butt for being an
idiot and that could help as well. Aries had a serious
grounding on a reef on Saturday and is currently awaiting
insurance to start assessing the situation. We were barely
towed off the reef by SeaTow and the boat is on the hard at a
local marina. The damage is worse than I had hoped and better
than it could have been. When they were able to pull us off the
lip of the reef (tide going out, getting desperate) the rudder
hit the reef and bent the shaft, damaged the hull around the
shaft and pushed the rear tip of the rudder up through the hull.
The bottom of the wing keel is also chewed up from grinding
on the reef. That sound of hull grinding over rock is now
forever seared into my brain. South Shore yachts actually lists
the rudder on their site (thanks to the list for making me aware
of their C&C parts), and I am hoping there is nothing else
damaged that was not obvious. No one was hurt, except my pride
and confidence. Leaving the marina, I now have an appreciation
for the emotions of people who abandon their floating homes at
sea. At least I will hopefully get mine back.
I have gone over the incident a thousand times trying to
understand what happened and how I could have prevented it. I
thought I was hyperaware of all the hazards in the Fishers
Island Sound area and swore that I would never ground the boat
again after an incident with an unmarked reef during a race a
few years ago. I try to race with a priority of safety, fun and
speed, in that order. I almost always have crew who are not
sailors other than racing with me, which I enjoy, but takes some
of my focus away from other things. We had spent the day in a
long race all over Fishers Island sound. It was blowing 15+ and
we had worked very hard to get around the course and the last
leg was a straight downwind sprint to the finish heading due
North toward the CT coast. With 3 inexperienced crew I was
happy that we were in second place in our class and focused on
getting to the line. We crossed the line, then jibed over to
head back west to parallel the coast to our home port of New
London and had just taken a deep breath, congratulated the crew
when we hit the reef. It turns out that the Race Committee had
set the finish line inshore and just East of the single offshore
buoy marking Horseshoe Reef. I never saw (or recognized) the
buoy because it was behind the mainsail as we approached the
finish and I was looking for the finish line, not other buoys.
By the time we jibed, it was essentially over my shoulder. I
did not see the buoy until I looked around when we hit the reef
and realized where we were. A hundred yards inshore and we
would have been fine and a hundred yards offshore and we would
have seen the buoy and passed the correct side of it. I think
the Race Committee deserves some part of the blame for setting
the finish line in a dangerous location but certainly my lack of
awareness of where I was relative to dangers (of which there are
many in Fishers Island Sound) was the major factor. If I had
looked carefully at the chart at any point, I presume I would
have recognized the danger of the finishing area, but we were
closely following the lead boat and so our location was not an
issue until we finished. I was in familiar waters but I just did
not recognize precisely where I was in familiar waters. The
other boats near us turned East while we turned West so we were
not following anyone after the turn.
If anyone has any suggestions, comments or strategies to help
prevent this, I am all ears. A moments inattention is all it
took and it makes me concerned about several factors- age,
racing with non-sailor crew, racing in general. In our
Wednesday night races, we race around the same marks every week,
and it has taken time, but I now think I know every hazard and
am aware of where we are relative to them while also keeping on
top of the boat and crew. This was an area I have sailed in
many times but rarely race there. Also in terms of the incident
itself, if Seatow had not happened to be in the area and seen us
and we were not able to get the boat off the reef until the next
high tide, I have no idea what we would have done. I know I
have learned from other people’s disasters (always the first
thing I read when a new Sail magazine is delivered), so maybe
this will help someone else not have this happen or make someone
feel better about things that have happened to them.
Relevant to the issue of thinking you know where you are when
you don’t, if you have not read Laurence Gonzales’s book Deep
Survival, I highly recommend it. He talks a lot about the
psychology of visual perception of your local environment and
how it affects decisions. I think there are lessons there for
everyone, as many of the things he alerted me to I can see over
and over in everyday life and this is perhaps another example.
Dave
Aries
1990 C&C 34+
New London, CT
<pastedGraphic.tiff>
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the list - use PayPal to send contribution --
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every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal
to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
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every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal
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