A tale of Woe, not all boater are as friendly as C-Brats

T

triehl27

New member
Last August I took my girlfriend by boat down to Anderson Island in Puget Sound. Being unfamilar with the harbor I ran into a mud bar and broke a shear pin in the prop. I rowed to the nearest dock tied off and began removing the prop to repair the pin. This lady comes along and stands over me while i'm hanging out over the lower unit. Apparently I was not quick enough to acknowledge her cause she started poking me in the ribs. She asked why I was on the dock? To repair a brkoen pin and We'd be moving on.
I went back to removing the prop, she asks "where's your burgy?, I said hang on a sec.
She starts poking me again asking where's your burgy? What's a burgy?
She says Obviously you don't have one, get off our pier! Alright let change the pin and we're outta here.
NO GET OFF THE PIER NOW! THIS IS ONLY FOR "XYZ" YACHT CLUB MEMBERS! GET OFF OR I"M CALLING THE SHERIFF AND HAVING YOU ARRESTED FOR TRESPASSING AND I"M GETTING MY HUSBAND TO THROW YOU OFF!

Ok so I throw the prop in the boat and push off to shore where I slog through the mud and rocks in chest high water to change the pin.

The woman and her husband watched the whole thing from their boat " and AFTER I had the prob back on and am slogging back to shore the husband asks "Gee you having engine troubles? You could have done that out here on the pier and stayed dry."
"Yeah I tried to do that and your charming wife threatened to arrest and or throw me in the water, So while you and your wife watched I froze my butt off and am cut up and filthy muddy changing the prop, but hey that's what boater courtesy is right, thanks for the hospitality?

I was hot, got in the boat and left.

I did email the "XYZ" Yacht Club and did correspond with them. The story they were told was I was tying off for the night. Yeah right. Really dampered the end of last season. It's really the first time I have come in contact with boating snobs. People that would allow other to be miserable in order to protect their pier.
 
now that sounds like it would be an interesting place for a C-Brat stop over....some folks are just _____ (fill in the blank)

Where's your burgee? you should have dropped your trousers and pealed of your drawers and chucked them under her nose :)
 
[/quote]Where's your burgee? you should have dropped your trousers and pealed of your drawers and chucked them under her nose :)[/quote]

Ken has this dainty little g-string of his he proudly sports on the bowrail of his boat for his burgee. :lol:

In all seriousness, let's hope this behavior is an exception. I think I would have invited her :bat
to contact the local authorities.

Don
 
Most yacht club folks I've come in contact with have been great people - they love boating just like we do. You'll find snooty types in all activites and groups (except C-Dory owners, of course). Too bad this snooty bit... er, woman, caused you inconvenience and hardship. It is admirable that you contacted the group to let them know how some of the members did NOT follow maritime law by helping another boater in need. It's likely that many of their own members feel the same way as you about Ms. Poke-In-The-Ribs.
 
Hey- lets call a spade a spade, name the club and the name on the offender's boat, the husband still shouldn't have sat in his boat and watched you without asking if you needed assistance, they are not really boaters, they are lounge lizards, who probably can't get out of their own slip. They sure did not follow Chapman's rules on good seamanship. Any yacht club is only as good as it's members (all new members are usually screened and then voted in by like minded members). Also they did not provide for you as a boater any safety or comfort in a situation that could have been dangerous and hazardous to you personally and your vessel. I agree lets have a C-Dory gathering at their docks!!! Rich
 
Invasion Plans??? :roll: Amphibious landing?? :tux Storming of the beach at happy hour??? :cocktail Count the jarhead head in!!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
 
I had a similar incident years ago with my first sailboat. I ducked into a slip at a reservoir in So Oregon to figure out why the kicker was misbehaving... We had inadvertently taken the slip of another boat, and proceeded to catch a significant amount of verbal abuse by the woman on that boat as they were coming in for lunch.

I apologized and got out of the slip as quickly as possible. The other boat docked immediately, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the old gal self righteously step off the boat and into 50 degree water.

Be patient... What goes around, comes around.
 
This story bothers me; I was mulling it over in the car while driving over the weekend.

I've been to Anderson Island (rental cabin), and like it a lot. We have friends whose family pioneered there 100 years ago. I'm familiar with the dock, but not with the club or politics there.

Anyhoo, my concern is with triehl27's (and our collective) knowledge of the law, yacht club protocol, and of course, the golden rule.

As a newbie I am learning in our USPS class that tradition, AND maritime law, -require- that one render aid in times of distress. This obligation is limited to one's equipment and expertise, i.e. there is no obligation to put one's boat or crew in peril. If you don't feel capable of rendering direct and immediate assistance, you may still be -required- to stand by until competent aid arrives, and to assist as possible, for example by relaying radio messages, etc.

Interpreted in this context, the woman on the dock may in fact have been breaking the law by denying aid! (Yes? No?)

I'm not suggesting she needed to fix the shear pin on Ponchita, but she certainly should not have made a difficult, or inconvenient situation WORSE through her actions. Depending on weather, physical condition, etc., slogging waist high through rocks and mud in cold Puget Sound water could indeed turn ugly. What if he slipped and hit his head on the motor? What if the boat drifted onto the rocks, or offshore, and the weather worsened?

Another facet of this situation is the -responsibility- of the skipper for the safety of his/her vessel, and his/her crew.

Did triehl27 (unknowingly) abdicate his responsibility by acquiescing to this unreasonable and potentially dangerous demand?

My real reason for this inquiry is this:

(A) Did Ponchita have a legitimate (and legal) -right- to be at this dock?
(B) Did Ponchita's owner -recognize- this right? (The woman obviously did not . . . . )
(C) If so, shouldn't triehl27 be knowledgable enough to assert this right, respectfully 'educating' her as to the appropriate course of action.
(D) If this failed, should he (as suggested) have 'invited' the woman to engage the authorities?
(E) If the 'local authorities' were equally ignorant, should he further attempt to 'educate' them as well? e.g. they should be informed that they assume significant liability by turning away a disabled vessel.
(F) Finally, did triehl27 have (or should he have had) a VHF radio available to seek help/advice/support from other nearby boaters and/or authorities?

Please don't misunderstand -- I am not 'blaming' triehl27 for this situation; the woman's behavior was unconscionable. In fact, the yacht club could have (should have) used this situation as a 'teachable moment' to rectify the situation/policy within their membership. And if this woman continued to defend her behavior, IMHO she should have been terminated from the club.

My intent is to contemplate this issue in advance: How should WE, as responsible skippers, respond when faced with a similar situation?

iggy
 
Ok I handled it wrong, even I'll admit that clear back in August. I tend to be agressive usually when I'm pushed. Usually if someone poked me TWICE with a stick they'd have gone in the drink. I don't usually take guff. In this circumstance, I was in unfamilar water, at an unfamilar dock. When I hit the bar I was more worried about more perminent damage then a pin, actually it was a cotter pin and the castle nut backed off. Sorry I was having a brain fart.
Anyways, I was on uncertain ground with at the time undefined prop problem.
Under normal circumstances I would have at the least told her to call the sheriff. I was worried about the whole situation.

As to the maritime law it never occurred to me about that. What was supposed to be a nice afternoon was degrading to "Am I gonna have to tow the boat home" AND now I have a VERY aggressive person poking me.

Alot of it was my own fault;
I hit the mud bar.
I was captain.
I wasn't thinking clearly as I had the boat and the GF to worry about as well. I usually don't worry about myself, and had I been alone it would have been a different story.

As to who it was and what club. I'm still in correnspondence with them and will reveal that pending conclusion of the correspondence, it's taken 8 months to get a OK maybe we were wrong out of them and we are straightening out the story. Although it is a LARGE south sound club, and it took time to track the exact boat I'm told.... blah blah blah.
 
I hope it is clear I am not trying to throw stones here. I can understand how you'd be upset during a difficult situation, possibly confused about additional (unseen?) damage, and so on.

At the same time, since you raised the issue, it seems to me like a thought-provoking issue for each of us to consider. Problems are going to happen. At some point, sooner or later, each of us is very likely to be faced one safety problem or another. Personally I'm finding it helpful to think this through in the safety and comfort of my living room. Hopefully I will be less likely to be blindsided if and when I'm faced with the real thing.

Frankly, the more I think about this, the worse that woman's behavior seems.

It would be one thing if she were initiating a hassle because you were picnicking on the beach, or hosting a drinking party on the dock. Initiating a confrontation when a skipper is trying to deal with a significant problem is indefensible.

iggy
 
starcrafttom":1yyc76rp said:
I still want to pirate raid the clubs happy hour :twisted:
Click to expand...

Arrrrrrrrggggggghh! Bring me the wenches!

Ummm... sorry, I got caught up with Tom's post. :wink:

It's the cabin fever... we had three feet of snow last Wednesday; almost completely melted by Saturday (71º), and another 6" so far this morning. :cry 66 more days in the frozen northland.
 
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