A mate of mine contcted me to see if I was off sailing this W/E as he was going to Windermere to get his boat off for the winter.
Later I found out that he was sat in the pub at Waterhead planning to sleep in his car as the boat wasn't on the mooring! One mooring strop was broken and the other one had come loose, the boat was missing.
The Warden is pretty good at contacting folk if boats are recovered from odd places so I assume that my mate is going to find his boat ashore in the morning, hopefully unharmed, as it's only come adrift today. Or he might be sleeping on it tonight as last I heard he was going to the Wardens jetties to see if the boat is there allready.
I think I feel a trip to Windermere coming on, it's been 4 weeks since we were there, and it's better than housework is a trip out for the day.
Lost on Windy mere? You are taking the proverbial. How long does it take to drive round the lake & find it? Even boats lost off a mooring on the sea are generally found ashore somewhere nearby. There ain't no tide, so what was the wind direction? It can't be that hard.
The Admiral Benbow was found this morning when it got light. It was aground on some rocks but thankfully remained dry when pulled off the rocks by the Lake Warden.
It may seem trivial to some folk, but I wouldn't fancy turning up to my boat to find an empty mooring no matter where it is, on the sea or a lake. Folk tend not to think straight either, the worst case (stolen or sunk) is the one that seems the most obvious at first.
I hope the damage to the rudder isn't too bad and the scratches on the hull are only superficial, it could have been worse.
Fair doos, I was rather flippant. And I have had a heart stopping call to say my own darling had come off a mooring in a NW'ly storm wind over tide.
It was many years ago, but I still remember the stress. Fortunately, although unable to get to her myself (work committments) I had a colleague able and willing to salvage her for a suitable claim on the insurance.
In the end, I was happy with limited damage & no costs, insurance was happy to minimise their liability & my colleague was content with his two days pay for 2 day's hard graft.
Please also accept my apology for my flippant comment. You are quite correct - if I turned up at my ponton and my boat wasn't there I would be devastated. Glad that it was found OK, and apparently with no more than cosmetic damage.
No sweat men, it was a dark windy night so I don't think much effort was put into looking. Not that it's easy to get at the lake shore from landward round the north end of the lake, and rowing about in a dingy looking in the dark wouldn't have been too attractive either.
My mate hasn't been sailing long and is still learning about trimming sails and stuff. I don't think it helps that The Admiral sails like a brick! The pic was taken on a beam reach, my main was right out and I still overtook him effectively just on the jib. Still, a day on a bad boat is better than a day at work.
I've had this happen to me - shackle on the mooring strop of my previous boat broke at the south end of Largs and the coastguard found the boat at the north end.
Not funny.
I've often thought that there must be a method of setting up the anchor to automatically deploy if the boat comes off the mooring and starts to drift - even a simple tripline should do it.
I think the moral of the story, gentleman is to keep checking your equipment - especially the dangly bits that are often getting wet and being pulled about.
The idea of the tripwire is quite good - could a mini GPS such as car manufacturers use be deployed in case the boat stays too far?
lady_stormrider wrote:I think the moral of the story, gentleman is to keep checking your equipment - especially the dangly bits that are often getting wet and being pulled about.
The idea of the tripwire is quite good - could a mini GPS such as car manufacturers use be deployed in case the boat stays too far?
Ah but if your dangly bits are brand new at the beginning of the season, man enough for the job, and STILL the long hard straight bit (that you insert in the hole in the curvy bit and screw up hard) breaks in half, then there is no way to forsee the problem! (unless you get it x-rayed before using it).
We ARE talking about the same thing here aren't we - shackles?
Well I can report that with the QE2 running aground in sympathy, the Admiral is now safely home on her trailer. There are quite a few scratches to her gel coat, but her dangly bits are all under cover now.
