We had the remnants of tropical storm Noel "blow" through the North East yesterday. Our E38, although wintering in a new marina was tied in to concrete docks with 20+lines, 10 fenders and liberal use of chafing gear. She did just fine. Driving around yesterday we found two sailboats washed up on the shore in northern Narragansett, just north of the URI Bay Campus. The first was a nice salty looking old ketch, approx. 32ft, with wood spars, etc. This boat I had seen all season and admired it. The owner had left her on a 24lb Danforth, 30ft of chain, etc. in a anchorage that was completely exposed to the 40-50kt North winds that were predicted and experienced. She didn't have a chance. Lying there on the beach she narrowly missed two large rock breakwaters and came to rest on mainly pebbles and sand. The damage looked minimal and I over heard the owner speaking of having her hauled back into the water tomorrow. Why he chose to anchor and not poach one of the 15+ moorings right where he anchored...... It gets worse. 200yards farther North up the beach, just North of the EPA pier we could see a large double spreader rig, layed over up on the rocks. No sand there, all ledge and boulders. Walking over to it showed it to be a Santana maybe 38-40ft. The entire port side was stove in from the large rock it was laying on. It was a nice boat, windlass, ST winches, average maintenance, etc. I climbed around on the rocks to the bow to see if I could determine why it was on the beach. The remnants of a mooring pennant circa 1975, sun damaged, frayed and obviously parted.
What I cannot figure out is this: Its the end of season here in RI. There are so many empty moorings, empty slips, sheltered harbors, etc. Why would anyone just leave a boat out in such an exposed location? "Free" moorings are there for the taking in this case some under a mile away. No one would begrudge a boat owner that poached a mooring to escape a storm like that. Many, many marinas have plenty of space and the rates are very reasonable this time of year. If you have to ride a storm out on an exposed mooring then why not at least add a decent pennant or two? They're cheap enough. Its just heartbreaking to see nice boats get destroyed because the owners are clueless. Such a shame. RT
What I cannot figure out is this: Its the end of season here in RI. There are so many empty moorings, empty slips, sheltered harbors, etc. Why would anyone just leave a boat out in such an exposed location? "Free" moorings are there for the taking in this case some under a mile away. No one would begrudge a boat owner that poached a mooring to escape a storm like that. Many, many marinas have plenty of space and the rates are very reasonable this time of year. If you have to ride a storm out on an exposed mooring then why not at least add a decent pennant or two? They're cheap enough. Its just heartbreaking to see nice boats get destroyed because the owners are clueless. Such a shame. RT
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