...second off, an advisory tale... I was out on Sparrow on the mooring yesterday afternoon (lovely and sunny but a chuffing freezing wind direction!) finishing off some last minute paint jobs as I'm hoping to get out for the first sail of the season on Monday (stay tuned as they say), when I was disturbed in my endeavours, by a muffled shout... looking up, I could see that the chap on the boat next to my mooring had fallen in while trying to get from his (new to him) boat to his (new to him) tender... thankfully he had a life jacket on, and also thankfully he had a boarding ladder as there was a strong'ish current through the moorings, and I was 50 yards away, and it's April...
...he was fine, cold, very wet, but OK.. lost his handheld GPS, and now has a long session getting the outboard going (which was attached to the flipped tender), but I suspect he considers that to be a fair exchange... I'm not the RNLI (so it ain't my job to lecture or advise), but clearly the lifejacket he was wearing helped, he was also lucky one of the club rescue boats was also around, as he didn't have oars for the now righted tender (and he was cursing himself roundly for it)...
... there but for the grace of God go I, but for me the lessons I took away were
- I'm going to put a change of clothes in a bag somewhere on the boat, and
- get that boarding ladder fitted soon as I can
I read somewhere that most sailors drown transitioning from big boat to little and vice versa, so the LJ is already worn every time I go...
...oh, and if you're relying on a donk on the tender don't forget your oars...
Had to laugh - windex is still up there.. but spot the problem... and no it's not the leaning tower of Pisa effect.. LOL... I'm really not safe with a set of tools...
Steve, I've got a method of transitioning from dinghy to boat and vice-versa which has worked well with no dramas. It's on my blog here: http://theskintsaiilor.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/how-to-board-from-dinghy-easy-way.html I don't unhook from the boat until I'm sat in the dinghy ready to start rowing.
ReplyDeleteI used to used the jammer on the side of the cockpit, but I've since changed to using a loop in the painter on the dinghy that loops over the winch instead. It's a bit more secure.
As for the windex, were the markers pointing to the rear at the start and have moved since, or did you have a bit of brain fade when fitting? :-}
Hi Mark - good to hear from you.. yeah basically I do the same.. I'm a 25 year windsurfer and it's ingrained in me to always keep weight, and more importantly feet, central.. I never step to the sides of a tender... when I transfer from boat to tender, it's foot in he middle and hand on the opposite gunwale to balance.. Anyhoo, how's the boat? ready for new season?
ReplyDeletePS. Windex was correct when it went up... I suspect I didn't tighten up the bolt holding the stand hard enough.. :o)
ReplyDeleteSteve, Sprite's not ready yet. She needs a bottom scrape and clean first. Once thats done she'll be ready. I've a few more jobs to complete as well. Once they're done I can take all the tools off that have been cluttering up the cabin for the past year.
ReplyDeleteI'm determined to get these jobs done this year to move things forward rather than stagnate.