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Weird story...


Levi900RR

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So I'm tied up to my dock last weekend just hanging out with my wife and daughter waiting for another family to meet us before we go out. There is a pretty stiff north wind so its blowing straight in at us. I'm fiddling with the stereo, my wife and daughter and just chilling in the main cabin / on the sun deck reading. I have been watching this dude who lives a few camps down sailing a ~13' catamaran out into the wind and back to his beach. Seems like he knows what he's doing as I watched him come about pretty close to a few moored boats. I keep my half my eye on him cause I've been thinking about getting a little sail boat to keep at the beach for days like this one.

So he starts kind of making his way over to our dock.... now he's close enough that I'm pretty positive that he must be coming over to say hi or something. So I give him a wave and say hi. He doesn't respond and now he's getting real close. I fight ALL my instincts and say to myself. "Don't jump in and play defense on your boat, this dude knows what he's doing. Don't be a psyco..." So I just let him do his thing. About 90 seconds goes by and I glance back up. He is 10 feet off my bow and CLEARLY out of control. I stand up and I see he's trying to come about right in front of my boat / dock / lift.

In an INSTANT he capsizes and the mast SLAMS down across my bow. It was one of the loudest crashes I've ever heard. Now I let me instincts take over. I'm yelling at him "What do you want me to do? How can I help you?" The dude is totally silent. Says NOTHING. So I jump off the end of the dock (about chest deep) fully clothed and drag his stupid boat off mine and out 100 feet or so with him hanging onto it. After we get away from the dock he goes "let me see if I can right it" So he gets it back up and starts to sail away. He turns around and says to me in a calm soft voice "sorry if I scared you" and I yell at him. SCARED ME???? I JUST HOPE MY BOAT ISNT SMASHED! And off he goes. Never said anything else. I thought maybe he was just getting his boat back to shore and that he'd come check on us? NOPE. Never looked back just ran away like a child. BTW this dude was probably 60 years old.

Short story is my boat is fine, I have no idea how but I found a little tiny scratch on the grab rail up front and no other marks. I inspected the bottom side of the bow area to make sure there were no cracks etc... I got to thinking though. My 5 year old is in the bow are ALL THE TIME. If she was up there she would probably be dead. That mast was big and came down so hard...

Lesson learned, trust your instincts on the water people :biggrin: I should have jumped in 2 minutes earlier caught his stupid boat and shipped him back to his beach. Luckily no one was hurt.

  • Like 4
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Crazy. Glad to hear everyone & the boat are OK.

Sailboat owners are a different breed altogether. The day you have a conversation with the guy, I'm sure you will be surprised.

Early this spring we had our annual HOA meeting. We decided to raise our slip fees from $400/yr to $500/yr. And that the 2 Hobie Cat owners who keep their 16' cats on the beach should be paying too. Both guys have kept their boats there for free for years now & did not object one bit. But then they both removed their boats from the beach altogether. Go figure. Neither one have had their boat back down on the beach since.

A few days before one of the Hobies was moved, we had a freaky wind storm blow thru the lake area. It was a nice day & it only lasted about 10 minutes, but had a couple of gusts around 40+ mph. It got under the trampoline & threw the boat up & over the neighbors dock, breaking a chair & a railing. Of course the neighbor was furious. But they decided to come after the HOA for damages. I told them it had nothing to do with the HOA & was the Hobie Cat owner's responsibility, especially since he did not have the boat secured down at all. Come to find out he didn't have any insurance either. The guy was actually defensive about it, saying that no one secures a Hobie Cat or has insurance on one. We had to ask around to other neighbors who owned Hobies & only a few actually have either. :Doh:

Edited by Bill_AirJunky
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After the fireworks show we were headed back to the cabin in pitch black. We were tying the boat when we heard a crash. Drove the boat over to investigate and a man and his wife had driven the boat into the shoreline and beached. I pulled them off and it was handled in very much the same way. Didn't even say thanks really. Just waved and they were gone. Maybe drunk? They were around the same age maybe late 50s

Edited by Lance B. Johnson
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Hey sorry bro, I was out for a sail and my AARP buddies bet me I couldnt look totally helpless, crash into your bow and just sail away without even so much as a raised fist from you....

  • Like 2
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I have owned and raced catamarans my whole life. they are super fast, fun and can be dangerous with someone inexperienced at the helm. I have gone over many times in heavy air. That dude should have apologized for his stupidity and stayed more than a mast length away from everything. Bill, I would never ever leave my cat on a beach over night without securing it to the ground. I have a 3' steel sand screw that has held through a tornado. the Hobie owner is responsible for the damage.

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My only funny sailboat story involves my parents lake neighbors. They have a little sailboat (hobie I think). And we were coming back from the bar at the end of the lake, wind blowing like crazy. See the sailboat with nobody on board an ropes hanging over the side drifting really low in the water with the wind just hammering the sail. Went to investigate, found nobody near it and then realize that it has a severs hundred lb hunk of concrete at the end of one of the ropes.

Turns out they left the sail up at anchor in front of their place because it looked so beautiful. They failed to notice when the wind kicked up and were lucky it didn't make it to a deeper part of the lake.

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Hobies are fun

Crashing into other boats, not fun

Add the two together and you have a bit of a mixed day.

I had my friend's Hobie out once. Dumped it and lost my emergency paddles. An I/O came over past, thought to make sure I was alright. Stopped, took my paddles and took off. There's all types out there....

  • Like 4
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Hobies are fun

Crashing into other boats, not fun

Add the two together and you have a bit of a mixed day.

I had my friend's Hobie out once. Dumped it and lost my emergency paddles. An I/O came over past, thought to make sure I was alright. Stopped, took my paddles and took off. There's all types out there....

:rofl:

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Crazy. Glad to hear everyone & the boat are OK.

, we had a freaky wind storm blow thru the lake area. It was a nice day & it only lasted about 10 minutes, but had a couple of gusts around 40+ mph. It got under the trampoline & threw the boat up & over the neighbors dock, breaking a chair & a railing. Of course the neighbor was furious. But they decided to come after the HOA for damages. I told them it had nothing to do with the HOA & was the Hobie Cat owner's responsibility, especially since he did not have the boat secured down at all. Come to find out he didn't have any insurance either. The guy was actually defensive about it, saying that no one secures a Hobie Cat or has insurance on one. We had to ask around to other neighbors who owned Hobies & only a few actually have either. :Doh:

even if he had insurance the insurance company would likely have said it was an act of nature and wouldnt have covered the damage. I know this because I had a metal carport-type cover over my camper. I had the cover anchored down but a freak 10 minute storm came up and blew the cover off, up and over a tree and another camper and landed on top of the 3rd camper. The insurance company wouldnt cover the damages to my cover or the damage to the other guys cover (2 pieces of tin- minimal damage to his. mine was a total loss). I felt bad and was going to give the guy cash to buy the new tin and have it replaced. After I hired a crane to move my cover back to the ground I explained to my neighbor that any damage by the storm was not on me but any damage that may occur from my getting a crane and moving everything would be on me, so I wanted to go over what we were doing. My neighbor all of a sudden turned into a old DB. I said ok, didnt give him any cash and never looked back.

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even if he had insurance the insurance company would likely have said it was an act of nature and wouldnt have covered the damage. I know this because I had a metal carport-type cover over my camper. I had the cover anchored down but a freak 10 minute storm came up and blew the cover off, up and over a tree and another camper and landed on top of the 3rd camper. The insurance company wouldnt cover the damages to my cover or the damage to the other guys cover (2 pieces of tin- minimal damage to his. mine was a total loss). I felt bad and was going to give the guy cash to buy the new tin and have it replaced. After I hired a crane to move my cover back to the ground I explained to my neighbor that any damage by the storm was not on me but any damage that may occur from my getting a crane and moving everything would be on me, so I wanted to go over what we were doing. My neighbor all of a sudden turned into a old DB. I said ok, didnt give him any cash and never looked back.

We actually talked with our insurance broker (State Farm) and the Hobie Cat owners insurance company (Safeco) about this. I think the difference is that the boat is a mobile vehicle & needs to be secured in order for it to be considered influenced by an act of God. If it's not secured, it's just negligence on the owner's part.

But in comparing our situation to Levi's, I was just pointing out that he may find that the sailboat owner's philosophy on boater's responsibility & whether or not he has insurance may vary a LOT from other's.

Edited by Bill_AirJunky
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I would almost guarantee this dude had no insurance. There were no registration stickers on his boat. I actually might call the cops on him the next time I see him out. Not because he's not registered but because he's dangerous.

  • Like 2
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Officer - "Huh?"

Me - "Yes sir, a jerk is on the bay"

Officer - "There's a ton of jerks on the bay every weekend"

Or: Officer - "Huh?"

You- "Yes sir a jerk is on the bay"

Officer- "Who you calling a jerk, pal?"

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Hobies are fun

Crashing into other boats, not fun

Add the two together and you have a bit of a mixed day.

I had my friend's Hobie out once. Dumped it and lost my emergency paddles. An I/O came over past, thought to make sure I was alright. Stopped, took my paddles and took off. There's all types out there....

Obviously, since you were OK you had no need for those silly paddles anymore, now did you?

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Whats wrong Levi? Didn't you know that power has to yield to sail?

Perhaps he thought that meant at all times. My take is he's just a noob and whenever something happens to him it's always someone else's fault. I'd say he's done this before...

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Whats wrong Levi? Didn't you know that power has to yield to sail?

Perhaps he thought that meant at all times. My take is he's just a noob and whenever something happens to him it's always someone else's fault. I'd say he's done this before...

And sadly, will do it again.

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