Excitement At The Launch Ramp

[Kennneee]

A few days ago I took 2 young friends out for a sail on Lula.  Having young energetic crew is a wonderful tonic to an aging curmudgeon.  Julian is a professional pilot and Ella is a Marine biologist and experienced Etchels racer.  A competent couple for sure.

We headed out on Mission Bay in  San Diego and had my best sail yet aboard Lula.  I handed off most of the sailing to my young friends and we all had a fabulous time.

When the time came to head back Ella did a great job of sailing us up to a dock that is around 75ft ft from the launch ramp.  I went ashore, backed the trailer in the water and returned to the boat.  Julian went over to the trailer to catch us.  The wind had come up a bit by this time and was blowing strongly on the beam.

Giving good instructions is the responsibility of the captain.  On this task I could have been better.  I asked Ella to be ready to toss the painter to Julian as we approached the trailer and to be sure to retract the center board.  I decided to use the EPropulsion outboard to get us from the dock to the ramp.  The motor is mounted on the transom and the prop is barely deep enough in the water.  As we approached the ramp Ella pulled up the centerboard a bit early.  She was up at the bow before I realized we were now making leeway and would miss the ramp and possibly make an unwanted landfall.  I instructed her to get the board down.  She dropped the painter in the water and before I realized what was happening I heard Julian shouting from the shore that the painter was in the water.  I immediately stopped the motor and Ella ran forward to retrieve the line. By then it had run aft and wrapped around the CB without us knowing.  As we were getting close to shore I reversed the motor and and asked Ella to get the board up since the water was getting shallow. At this point the line jammed in the trunk and the board was stuck down and the painter would not come aboard.  With her weight at the bow the prop was not very effective which added a bit more excitement to the moment.  We managed to get Lula over to the dock and all was well except the board was firmly stuck in the down position.  No amount of tugging was going to get it up.  

What to do?  I knew I couldn’t get Lula on the trailer and had very few tools with me.  Ella was feeling bad as if it was her fault (it wasn’t).  After a bit of head scratching we managed to use the main Halyard to get the boat healed on it’s side and after a few attempts we got the painter out of the well.  I was a happy guy at this point.  Lula was flooded with water and I learned that my hatches need a bit of tune up as they leaked badly.  As with many of these unwanted challenges something good comes out of it.  A simple fix of better gasketing will correct the hatch problem. Better to have found out near the ramp then out in the middle of the bay with lot’s of water in the compartments after a capsize.

So, the takeaway for me is with even the best of crews clear instructions are essential.  Never assume everybody aboard can read your mind and intentions.

 Arrrrrh, another tale to tell when I get my peg leg and eye patch.  The eye patch comes this week after cataract surgery.  The peg leg is not in the plan.  Ken

[Nick C]

Just sounds like a normal shakedown cruise.  

[AmosSwogger]

Sounds like using the main halyard to get the boat on its side worked well.  Good idea.

[Andy B]

We've all had our share of comedy of errors.  My family kids me about my "hey, grab that thing and move it over there.  Not that one, the one by the other thing.  Hurry up!" language on the boat!

[Designer]

Ken,

 

Thanks for sharing the gaffs as well as the perfect sails. Now that you brought it up you have given us permission to dump on you.

 

It definitely was not your crews fault. She was attentive and trying to be as good and helpful as she could be. She was familiar with a larger boat, not realizing how these light dinghy hulls have no lateral plane with the board up and slip sideways and go out of trim when you move forward. Next time she will ease the board up more slowly.

 

It is impossible for the skipper to foresee every thing that can go wrong, especially as you are just learning the boat. While it might be argued that it was not really your fault. The fact remains that as owner skipper, the buck stops with you. On the positive side there appears to be no damage so there was no foul.

 

You will not forget this for a long while and keep some board down for as long as you need in the future. The reason that we do the rope leading edge is to be able to leave some board down longer than we would normally dare because we can scrape on the bottom without hurting it. On your boat with a handle on the board is is very easy to judge how much board is down. If I am driving I prefer to control the board myself as I can judge how much leeway I am making versus how far I have yet to go and how deep I judge the depth to be. If I see the handle move I know exactly how deep it is and raise the board some more. 

 

If I am sailing in and discover that I am coming in too hot. I leave the board down and use it as a landing brake.

 

Murphy is always in attendance ready to catch us when we screw up. To help prevent a line around the prop or jamming the centerboard I use the dinghy braid that you have on your sheets because it floats. You might have noticed it on Carlita and the OB20 when you visited.

[Oyster]

I don't read anything that your should worry about.  Airplane pilots gets tested all the time in simulators  so they can sharpen up their skills and response times when abnormal stuff happens.  And you do need some battle scars on the next paint, to get this behind you. Now you can relax and just enjoy your boat without a worry. 

[Reacher]

I have to disagree with Designer. I think it was entirely the fault of the crew. The crew's very presence caused Kennneee to alter how he normally would have executed a competent docking. It put the boat at risk. Best practice is to have the crew swim ashore while the skipper lands the boat.

[PadrePoint]

7 hours ago, Designer said:

If I am sailing in and discover that I am coming in too hot. I leave the board down and use it as a landing brake.

This is worth my remembering. 

[Kennneee]

Well, keeping the dumping coming.  Good advice on the floating line.  I have seen lines fouled in props many times and have always been pretty careful on that front.  It happened to me once in a hurricane and I didn’t blame my then wife:). That said, maybe that is why we are not married anymore:).

I do agree that the buck stops with the skipper.  No amount of yelling and berating of crew is helpful or wise.  I never thought of the CB as a brake but it is another trick to have in the bag.  My biggest concern with the CB is hitting the metal of  the trailer.  

Reacher, should the crew swim ashore or possibly  use the floating line attached to them and have them act as a sea anchor off the stern?  I guess whatever works.

Thanks for input guys.  Nice to have ideas to keep Murphy from having his way.  

[Andy B]

I am assuming the CB was down because the wind on the beam was making leeway?  Otherwise there would be no reason to have it down while motoring?

 

I have the luxury of a relatively sandy beach next to the launch I use most frequently.  In windy conditions I just point for the beach and then get out and wade the boat over to the trailer.  It's so much easier than trying to angle for the wind and coming in to the trailer and dock at speed on a diagonal.

[Reacher]

Kennnneee, Thanks for relating the experience. Launch ramps are an endless source of entertainment and I have provided my share over the years. Centerboard not down, rudder not locked down so it floated up, ghosting to a gentle landing when a big gust comes out of nowhere, etc.

 

Advice I heard long ago was to tell the crew not to reach out with a hand or foot to fend off a landing. Let the boat take the bump. And tell the crew not to jump for the dock.

 

What I need help with is getting the mainsail to drop cleanly to the deck. The last quarter gets hung up and continues to catch wind when I'm trying to glide to the dock. That's made for a couple of scrambles.

 

Oh, and tell anyone who wants to help not to grab the foot of the mast when lifting it up to step it.

[Steve W]

5 hours ago, Andy B said:

I am assuming the CB was down because the wind on the beam was making leeway?  Otherwise there would be no reason to have it down while motoring?

Andy, having the board down even just a little makes motoring much easier and predictable. The center of the boat becomes a pivot point which the thrust of the motor allows really quick control. On WildCat, I rarely motored without a leeboard down. The weight of them meant it wasn't super important which one, but given a choice it was the leeward one. WildCat had the windage of the two masts and at least the little bit of sail and since she was pretty light and long, I always found this necessary. 

 

Skeena has even more windage. And she easily glides sideways. I've rarely motored 5 feet when I realize she's crabbing a bit sideways and a bit of board makes her behave.    

[Kennneee]

Anchorages and launch ramps are ARE a great source of entertainment. We all get a chance to add to the show occasionally.  I always say that the one thing I am a master at is fixing screw ups since I have had lot’s of practice.  I have been mentoring a few budding woodworkers and I try to instill in them that making mistakes is nothing to be ashamed of.  Learning how to climb out of them is what defines all around skill in my book.

I almost always wear a light weight dry suit when I sail.  It is part of my cold water paddling kit.  Loading and unloading Rosie and Lula on the trailer is so much easier when getting into the water is easy and comfortable.  The day that I described above was a rare time when I didn’t have it on.  All of these tips are great input and I think we all find some pearls of wisdom that will make us better watermen and women.

Come on guys, lets expand this thread to include more “exciting” tales of terror at the ramp or on the water.  We won’t tell anybody if you share.

I got my cataract surgery today.  They say I will feel younger.  I can hardly recognize myself looking in the mirror.

[PadrePoint]

My disaster in one of my earliest Avocet adventures last summer… a comedy of cascading errors leading to an utter failure of sailing.  I regard it as a funny episode. 

 

[Don Silsbe]

Long ago, I was told that sailing is hours of boredom interrupted by moments of sheer terror.  That’s part of the fun.

[gray duck]

I always keep the painter = to the boat length to prevent prop issues

[Kennneee]

Gray Duck-I think that is a good way to go. I am now using  a combination of your method and Grahams. Since my “excitement” was mostly caused by the painter jamming  in the CB trunk.  I have a shorter length of nylon line with a loop spliced to my stem head and another loop spliced to the trailing end.  When I want a long painter (throwing to someone on shore) I tie a length of floating line to the painter.  That is essentially what I had been doing except that the long length of line was nylon and didn’t float. 

Ken

[Dnjost]

 would love to hear how you "tune up" your hatches.  I made made a similar discovery about the integrity of the cockpit hatches during a mundane bottom cleaning.  Next project once it stops raining on Cape Cod.  

On the bright side, my new mast head float should help to keep us vertical and out of Davey Jone's locker.  

[Hirilonde]

5 hours ago, Dnjost said:

 

On the bright side, my new mast head float should help to keep us vertical and out of Davey Jone's locker.  

I doubt it will do that at all.

 

[Kennneee]

David-I replaced the gaskets with slightly thinker and softer material.  Haven’t tired to test them yet but I think it will likely do the job. I can now see the imprint of coamings on the gasket material when I open the hatches.  A good indicator that there is a seal.

Ken