the worst sailor

[Lawdog]

The worst sailor I ever met had to be the owner of Windcheater, a 62 foot Gulfstar motorsailer with 106,000 lb displacement, during the 2002 MS Regatta, sailed in Portland Harbor, Maine. This is the largest sailing event in Maine with close to 300 vessels participating. I was sailing my 29 foot Ericson sloop, Enterprise, all 8500 lbs. of her, having just rounded the outer harbor mark while racing in the cruising division. Heading downwind at about 3 knots on a port tack with another sailboat close by my port beam, I noticed a beautiful 62 foot sailboat, with only its main up, and obviously under power, heading inbound in the channel. At this point, I was not concerned, as the boat appeared to be under control by her crew, and was still about 300 yards astern and to starboard of my vessel. However, after a few minutes, my crew and I became very concerned when we noticed that the Windcheater wasn’t altering to starboard, or slowing down, but still heading at us on an overtaking collision course at probably 8 to 9 knots. As another sailboat was close abeam to port, I could not alter to port, and certainly did not want to alter to starboard, directly into the path of Windcheater.
As the offending boat drew closer, my crew and I dropped our cold beers, and began shouting, then screaming, at the overtaking vessel, to alter course (among other things!). Just then, we noticed that the only people on board the offending vessel was the owner, who was sitting well away from the steering station, and out of the cockpit, and his wife and young daughter, who were sitting on another bench seat behind the doghouse, facing aft. His vessel was on autopilot! To say that we were shocked at this situation would be a gross understatement.
Rather than turn his autopilot off and turn his vessel away, the owner began swearing at us, telling us he had the right of way, using the “f” word repeatedly; and incredibly, continued on a collision course, not even moving to the helm of his vessel.
Although I had no place to turn and avoid the impact, I did manage to steer away slightly at the last second, to minimize the impact into a glancing blow, while yelling at my crew to dive to the decks and hold on! The owner’s wife aboard Windcheater then calmly said to her husband: “Honey, you hit his boat”, which prompted him to immediately jump to his helm, and turn his vessel hard to starboard. This unfortunately caused his boom to swing across his deck, snag my starboard shrouds, and pull my boat off course and onto its beam end, getting the deck and rail awash, before his boom snapped loose. So much for placing first or even second in my division. The boom snapped free with a loud bang, and my vessel shook violently. Hearing this huge bang, my crew and I all looked skyward simultaneously, expecting to see the rig smashing down on top of us. Fortunately, these Ericsons were made really well, so nothing drastic happened, other than we lost our beers, got wet, and were in shock. We all took a breath, and then I gave new orders to immediately open some more cold beers! We were trying to comprehend the incredible incompetence and stupidity of the people aboard Windcheater.
We saw the Windcheater maneuver in a circle to starboard of us, then cut us off ahead, but avoiding a collision this time, while the owner continued to give us ‘half a peace sign’ with his finger, and swear at us again, claiming that he had the f---en right of way! Amaaaazing.
After the incident, I obtained estimates for the damage, and then was forced to file suit in Federal Court, as the owner refused to give me his insurance company name, after I managed to track him down in Boca Raton.
Finally his insurance company settled with me before trial, but not in a friendly or sympathetic manner one would expect. His attorneys were accusatory, demeaning and outright nasty, for no reason at all.
Here is the current vessel website search from the Coast Guard: http://cgmix.uscg.mil/PSIX/PSIX2/VesselSearch.asp and here is the website for the MS Regatta held annually in Portland, Maine. http://164.109.176.246/MEM/event/event_page.asp?p=17157&e=8669

If anyone is up this way and wants to sail in a relaxed and fun way this summer, send me an email, and I’ll see what I can do.

Neal L. Weinstein
Enterprise
Old Orchard Beach, ME

 

[Martin King]

Weekend warriors

Neal,
I would never describe a motorsailor as beautiful-particularly something
like a Windstar. Neither fish nor fowl, they are plain ugly in my book.

It has always amazed me that you need a license to fly a plane or
drive a car yet any lubber with enough cash can purchase and
operate a boat-no questions asked. I find powerboaters in general
to be pretty clueless about rules of the road, how their wakes
impact other boats, docking, on the water etiquette, etc. etc.
My boat was hit in the slip by such an incompetent clod only days
after we had managed to bring her back from Mexico without incident.
Like you, I had to track down the SOB and force him to pay for the
damage.

Regards,
Martin

 

[gareth harris]

Congratulations on winning your case. Only by doing that will such people think about respecting the law, if not other people. I am curious - did the lawyers ever explain why he thought he had right of way?

I had to go to court with a boat yard last year, I won, but it was a lot of time and effort, and time watching grown men lie through their teeth (until they got into the court room itself). So my sympathy on your experience.

Gareth

 

[mark reed]

Neal,
I can certainly sympathize with what happened to you. I was overtaken and struck by a fast-moving 52' powerboat nearly 20 years ago while sailing in my 27' Nor'sea in a heavy fog. We were dismasted (the starboard chainplate was completely sheared off) and disabled, 15 miles from the nearest land. The other "skipper" was down below at the time of collision, with his boat on autopilot and his 9-year-old son "on watch" in the completely enclosed flybridge. He refused to render aid (my wife broke 3 ribs), but did radio another boat to tow us to port. I was able to convince the Coast Guard to cite him on 5 counts of negligent operation, and his insurance paid for $20k worth of repairs.
The only funny aspect to this incident was that we had just bent on a new mainsail the week before. When the sailmaker came by to see how it was doing, he saw our boat without its mast and assumed his sail had somehow malfunctioned!
Needless to say, for a few years after this incident I cringed whenever I saw a powerboat headed in our direction!

 

[hodo]

today's pb experience

I know not all pb operators are clueless, but today,as we were backing a friends Valiant into the travel lift, one who had been idling ,decided it was time to back out of the slip and leave. Despite our cautioning him,he said he needed to leave NOW. His propwash pushed us into the travel lift straps and cables,and with some fast fending were able to keep from tearing off the new wind vane. He ignored our yelling (civilized), and then just sat blocking the fairway for almost 10 minutes before putting the hammer down to leave. Boy, were we impressed.Maybe it's the carbon monoxide.........HODO :eek:

 

[Art Mullinax]

Close encounters

I read your article with interest as we have had several close encounters with power boaters in the ICW. They don't seem to realize (or care) that when they come off plane the boat makes a gigantic wave that rocks and rolls a sailboat, washes the bank away, and beats up the boats tied to the docks.
I noticed you referred to him as a sailor. Maybe sometimes we use this term to often. Most of the sailors I know are respectful of their fellow boaters and they are respectful of the environment. They appreciate a fair wind and calm seas and seem to be more in tune with themselves and their surroundings. The Gulfstars, Morgans and other boats in this category are like the Greyhound bus campers. They pull into a quite secluded campsite, put up their satelite dish, start the generators, turn on the AC and call it camping!!! This guy told his buddies he was out "sailing" - motor running, a mainsail up, the autopilot on and no one responsible on watch.
Art M.

 

[Seth]

Powerboat scares

Amazing stories all, and sadly, as Martin says, all too common.

Just to add something to this thread, WATCH OUT FOR POWER SQUADRON knuckleheads!

In my experience in SoCal, New England, the Chesapeake, and Chicago, these guys are some of the worst, most ignorant boaters you will find.

They are usually pompous, self-important buffoons-wannabe cops, and the like. The seem to enjoy motoring through sailiboat races, attempting to stop sailors for things like life-jacket checks, etc. I have seen them damage sailboats due to incompetence in maneuvering, and especially watching them try and dock their twin screw stinkpots-truly amazing!

Remember they have ZERO legal authority, and if approached by one(unless you know the guy and he is OK), instruct them CLEARLY to stand clear, and if they need to speak to you, to do it over VHF..

Of course, this is a generalization, and some of these guys are decent, good, and competent. To those few I apologize, but stay clear of most of 'em!

S

 

[Emerald]

This is a good thread to read and digest. Seems we have had some very similar experiences. I wasn't racing this past fall, but on a mission to bring Emerald around to be hauled (early December on the Chesapeake, cool, but not frozen yet). As we were headed entering the mouth of the South River, I noticed a large (50+) foot "sailboat" gaining on us. Don't know what it was, but big, center cockpit, Gulfstar like, but it wasn't. We have lots of shoals on the Chesapeake, and the entrance to the South River is no exception. As I watch this guy approaching us, I realize that we are on a complete collision course, and if I don't budge, he's either going to hit us, or drive us into the beacon marking the channel. With some disbelief and anoyance, I made a major course change to get out of his way. As he goes powering by us at what must have been near max, I realize the @##$ is sitting there reading a lousy book, has the boat on autopilot, and doesn't even raise his head to look at us as he passes - passes in the spot that would have crashed into us if I hadn't moved. Really makes you wonder sometimes.


-David
Independence 31
Emerald

 

[Geoff Johnson]

Here's my PB story. A few years ago I was in a transient slip at Pilot's Point Marina in Connecticut when I heard someone on the dock say "so and so" was about to take his boat out. People, I kid you not, started to bring their lawn chairs for the show. Soon a man and his wife in their infirm 70's climbed aboard their large trawler in a slip across the channel from me and started to back and fill their boat out of the slip using only fast forward and fast reverse. I was standing in the cockpit of my boat and as soon as he got turned around and had me in his sights he gunned the engine and hit the one foot diameter piling next to me (2 to 3 feet away) with sufficient force to bend it back at least a foot. Fortunately, the flat cross bar of his anchor hit the piling dead on or he would have veered off to one side. I was caught like a deer in the proverbial headlights. He finally got going and as soon as he was out of sight I departed before he could return.

 

[chrism]

I'll chime in...

July fourth, a while back, our engine died. Couldn't get it to start no matter what.

There were a lot of people onboard, so he had those who didn't know what to do on a sailboat get on the power boat of a friend. I'm going to include a chart to tell the story better...

Point a) We enter the harbor hard over, doing the best we can to stay in the channel, the boat is hard over with a reefed main.
Point b) We are overtaken by a lobster boat.
Point c) The lobsterman cuts us off, then slows down to tell us to "stop showing off"
Point d) The man cuts us off again, at which point the friend with the powerboat speeds up to the lobster boat captain that Warbonnet has no engine. Receives the bird instead (and it wasn't a seagull )

What a great guy. At least the lobsterboat is moored in our harbor, and we know who he is.

I also threw in the location of our mooring, just to show the finagling that had to be done.

 

[Sven]

one finger on the horn

Sailing into and out of MDR (6000 slip capacity) a critical piece of safety equipment is the horn. We always bring it out with the life preservers, VHF scanner, GPS and collision compass.

I've only used it once in anger and it woke up the Hunter driver who was too busy entertaining all his friends and it kept him from ramming us. There have been several other times when we were sailing along with my finger firmly on the button in anticipation of dread.

It may not make the clueless do the right thing, but it is likely to at least get you witnesses if needed.




-Sven

 

[Mikebat]

These sites allow USCG documented vessel lookups and return the owner's home address, if known. Might be useful for similar circumstances, where you want to track down the owner. But for some reason, Windcheater's owner's home address is not shown. My personal info is shown, if you lookup my vessel (1167255).

By name: http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/commercial/landings/cg_vessel2.html
By number: http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/commercial/landings/cg_vessels.html

 

[Mikebat]

Sailing into and out of MDR (6000 slip capacity) a critical piece of safety equipment is the horn. We always bring it out with the life preservers, VHF scanner, GPS and collision compass.

Yep - returning from Catalina Nov 2003 with my bareboat sailing class in the schools' Catalina 36, a Deerfoot nearly ran us over at the entrance. His 50+ foot boat must have drawn 8 feet, but he just charged right on in at about 7 or 8 knots under power, cutting real close to the breakwater. I guess he had lots of faith in the people who place the shoal bouys.

 

[Bob in Va]

Another angle

As we all know, not all those who own sailboats are sailors. A couple of years ago I was taking part in my club's annual "Race to the Pub" - a 5 mile race from Pelican Point Marina to King's Point (VA, not NY) Marina. For this race we use a "reverse handicap" start, so each boat starts on its total handicap for the distance, and theoretically all boats will finish in a dead heat at the line, which is the row of no-wake buoys at King's Point. It never happens, of course, but on this light air day five of us were ghosting along, line abreast, about 15 yards from the buoys, each trying to eke out that last 0.01 kt from his boat to beat the others across the line - truly a potential photo finish. I was the left-most boat, had caught the others from behind, and felt I had just a little more momentum than they in the dying wind. Suddenly I heard the unmistakeable sound of a diesel approaching from my left quarter. Looking back I saw a 28 foot sloop, all sails down, motoring at near hull speed and approaching rapidly, clearly heading for the same inlet. Several barely legal young folks on the bow had obviously had a couple too many and were singing/shouting/gesturing tastefully as they went by. The skipper gave us all a polite wave as he demonstrated his skills by passing close to port. His wake hit my boat first, rocking it, destroying sail shape, and causing us to just about stop. It did the same to the others, but by then they had crossed the line. So we went from potential first to fifth in a few seconds. Meanwhile the "sailor" looped back out of the inlet, apparantly intent on doing damage elsewhere. Actually, I think to this day he has no idea he did anything wrong.

 

[soup1438]

As we all know, not all those who own sailboats are sailors.

Ain't that the truth; there are a LOT of people who won't hesitate to use either their inboard or a kicker...

I've a friend... all right, he prefers power boats, so that might not seem like much of a friend... but we tease each other... I tell him I prefer to bend the wind but all he does is break it with a stink-pot. He rallys back with "rag sailor" remarks...

So, I realized... a *real* sailor will work hard to "stay on the rag as long as possible" (to add to double entendres).

I dunno... there's just something ego-boosting in harnessing an elemental force of nature to do your bidding...

 

[windjunkee]

OK, OK, I have to share my story.

Back in 1986 I was living in San Diego, and had hooked up to crew for a man who was doing a multi-year south pacific voyage on an Island Trader 38' Ketch. As we were working toward the departure date, I was also working as a waiter at the San Diego Yacht Club.
One fine, sunny afternoon, there was a capacity lunch crowd on the large deck outside at the club. There were numerous boats tied to the guest dock, one of which was at least a 60' powerboat stern-tied to the dock.
Quite obviously, after a few too many cocktails for lunch, the skipper took the helm The boat was cast off and had drifted perhaps 10 feet off the dock. The skipper, looking to impress the capacity lunch crowd, gunned the twin engines as he took off ... however, the engines were in reverse.
He launched the boat backwards into the guest dock, crushing several of the planks and rattling the entire deck with enough force to knock people out of their chairs, knock tables over, and remove most of the glassware and tableware from each of the tables not knocked over.
Talk about a lunch bill on that one.

 

[Tom Plummer]

Several years we were transiting under sail in about 14kts of wind from Sidney, B.C. to Ganges Harbor on Salt Springs Island. We had turned the corner and were running wing in wing down the bay when we heard a lady scream “Mayday Mayday our mast is broken and our engine won’t work” From the volume coming out of our radio I knew she had to be close so I quickly scanned the area for demasted boats and found none.

The Canadian Coast Guard responded to her call and attempted to have her go to 22A but, she didn’t know how to change the channel on her VHF. She said she was close to the furthest out little island going into Ganges. This was just about exactly where I and the wife were located. There was only one other sailboat in the vicinity and it was not dismasted in fact both the main and the jib were up and drawing. I had the wife contact the Canadian CG on 22A and give them our position and get permission to talk to the lady on 16.

I asked the lady to look directly in back of her boat and see if she saw a sailboat coming straight at her with a big Viking helmet on its sail. She shouted into the radio yes I see you. On 22A we apprised the CCG who had been listening that the boat was defiantly not dismasted, it did not appear to be taking on water and that its engine was running. We also told them we were 5 minutes from the boat and offered to render assistance. The CCG asked them to advise them of the status of the boat as soon as we were along side.

Here is what we found, the couple on board had just bought the brand new boat and this was their maiden voyage. The sails were up and the engine was running in gear wide open yet the boat was making no headway. Our depth sounder indicated that we had plenty of water under the keel. I got them to stop the engine and drop their sails as I rowed over in the tender. As I came up on the stern of the boat I saw a line running straight aft from the back of their boat and jammed against the std side of their rudder was the float for a commercial crab pot. When I asked them if they had seen the float they answered oh yes we were using it as steering practice and they proudly announced that they had hit it several times.

When we notified the CCG of the situation the owners of the pot must have been listening because it sure didn’t take them long to show up. I recommended strongly to the owners of the boat that they take some lesions before they went sailing again.

 

[CaptnNero]

Which way to the slip ?

Ok, this is an old thread but I saw the collection of mishaps and just have to add something I witnessed.

A few years ago I was on deck putting on the sail cover late in the day at the end of a gorgeous Labor Day weekend. I watched as a 30 foot twin screw power boat idled by with a family onboard. He had the second to last slip before a connecting pier between our pier and the next one. When he slowly passed his slip I looked away. Then I heard the full power roar of his engines. Wondering what that was about I looked up just as the boat started to climb over the connecting pier. It got up to about a 45 degree angle before he cut the power. There was a lot of noise from the snapping planks and joists of the pier, followed by the sound of gushing water as the connecting pier water main broke.

The power boat slid back down level into the water. The skipper muttered something and then the little boy next to him began screaming. I went over to assist. The boat wasn't taking on water and fortunately no one was hurt. The skipper's words were a bit slurred as he told me that the transmisson must have just broke, though he was able to put it in reverse and complete the back in to his slip immediately.

In the aftermath the water and power to H dock had been severed, and the connecting pier which was the only access to H dock no longer was passable. It had only one joist and a few 45 degree angled planks connecting the two docks anymore.

When I found the security guard at first he didn't believe me. It was interesting to see his mouth drop open as we drove up and he took in the scene, complete with a small water geyser and a small crowd on H dock standing at the new abyss trying to figure out how to get back to land.

The next season that boat was gone.