# Small boat takes more caution.



## Woodvet (May 5, 2012)

Not sure why people think the little boat is more forgiving. 
They aren't... 
Big boats cause more expense if lost but a smaller one can cost you your life...

I was never so ready to trade a boat as my canoe, so when a friend brought me a laser I was ecstatic. 
The rigging was gone so I shored it up, grabbed some emergency gear and away I went in February...
It's cold but you ignore all that. 
It was late and windy that day but a little voice says "good sailors sail in all weather!" 
I put in at Antioch and with far to much breeze tacked up toward Pittsburg at a rate to fast to say no. I knew it was too much power but a little voice says: "It will die down after sunset_. 
A laser is no boat for multi tasking, much like snow skiing you just sorta go with it. 
I had already sailed much larger boats and thought the dinghy was easier. Not so says anyone who knows small boats. 
I was clear up river when I came about in the greater Sacramento river.. 
In a blow you can't jibe so easy so I was tacking into a jibe when the main sheet parted from UV damage. 
The tide was flooding at about four knots by then so a run down might have been thrilling, had I a sheet I could rely on...
As it was I could not let it out and this made for slow progress. 
Night came on and the little voice so full of advice began to talk in small increments and timid ones at that. 
The ominous clouds came and sucked out all light. 
There were still some frogs around then, who's chorus informed me I was close and it was time to jibe off. 
With the tide I soon gained sight of the "red light returning" of the old Antioch boat ramp between the wreck of the Solano ferry and the Fulton shipyard. 
The little voice came back once more all full of it's self. "It's time to celebrate." 
I had a small ice box lashed to the mast that contained for me a hand made cigar. 
Getting it out as I screamed across the river was no problem but lighting it was. I bent low in the small cockpit out of the wind but just as it lite, the keel that was locked hit a tree and pitch poled. 
The cold water was shock enough without the realization the rudder had parted and my ice box of belongings were being blown up river faster than I was willing to go.
I grabbed what I could but I stayed with the boat which was still held fast to a tree on a sand bar. 
The whole business below was yucky and slimy. When she finally floated free I swung the hull to windward and standing on her keel tried to leap aboard. 
With no rudder she was difficult and swung around only to go over again, again and again. 
Some how she lodged in a second of three trees. This one was sharper and cut me. 
Free once more I tried to get aboard but she turtled and lodged her mast in the third tree. 
I had to dive down and try to see what could be done by feeling around. 
Let me tell you, I was hardly holding up as well as it sounds. I found my self stuck in a tree with leaves still on it a with the flood tide so strong the mast would not come out. 
It was then I found myself singing the star spangled banner. 
It all came back from childhood that when I was scared, REALLY scared, I would sing the anthem. 
With the rudder and much of the gear I had gone before me and my hands shaking with hyperthermia 
I heard the little voice that was saying "you wanna sail, you gotta get your self otta this." 
Answering the voice for the first time I said, "Screw that... This is a mayday."
I cut loose the mast and she floated off and once up right threw myself into the **** pit. 
Got in the ice box and in it was a cell phone in a zip lock bag. it was an early model with limited reception and battery. 
I dared not take it out of the bag in the wind, chop and spray. 
So hitting the button it lit up so surreal there is no words to say. 
Hands shaking boat rocking I thumbed out my home # after carefully choosing what I was going to say....
I hold it to my ear and hear my wife answer on the limited battery. 
"Listen, I am blowing up river and should be at the Antioch bridge in about 6 minutes. After that I don't know...
You need to call my friends at the Sportsman YC and get them out here to save me." 
"Honey, it's 3:30 AM and I have to work in the morning, what can I do?" 
"Im in a serious situation here sweetheart, I COULD DIE!!!!" 
"Call who ever cause it is bad!!!" 
"I have to save battery" 
"Goodbye, love you!!!" 
Time in the thick of it moves slower than slime. 
In what seemed forever I saw a search light. The noise was so high no voice could be heard. 
The cell phone rang and in short order I was found after I discovered a head lamp I was wearing actually still worked. 
The moral of the story is, that little voice you hear in your head is fricken nuts. 
Never in a situation assume anyone gets it over the phone. 
Even a bad friend who comes out for you on the water is worth all the kindness you can bestow on them before hand. 
That some of the most stupid ideas can get you in the worst jams but they also teach you more than any book ever can. 
It takes a lot of failed gear and added expense to make a good sailor.
There are too many lessons here to list.....


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## Stumble (Feb 2, 2012)

A perfect example of cascading failures. Big boats have storage for repair parts little boats zilch.


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

Dude, great story. Almost like one of those stories the sailing instructors tell people to convey what not to do when sailing. Glad you made it. Small boats are easier to sail, provided you have some common sense.


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## chip (Oct 23, 2008)

Sounds like a quality adventure. Glad you made it. 

I'm not sure who says that little boats are more forgiving. Smaller boats have a lot going for them, but in my experience they're notably less forgiving. That's what makes them good to learn on...they are much more strict in their instruction, and will make it really obvious when you're doing it wrong. Some more than others, but still...

Certainly no boat at any size does well when colliding with trees.


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## Morild (Mar 31, 2013)

You were in a Laser, alone, in a blow, in february, in the middle of the night?

I think there is a lot more to discuss, before the size of the boat...


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## Woodvet (May 5, 2012)

I started out with wood and was glad I came in when it was being tossed unceremoniously out. 
I was an accomplished big boat sailor at the time I was traded the lazer. 
Contemporaries had informed me that the dinghy was less forgiving and a faster teacher with lessons I did not want to miss. 
Of course I had a bristol traditional dinghy but I spared it the brutal ways of my inexperience. 
I knew a lot but never suffered the humiliation of a capsize or the difficulties of maintaing grace hoisting your gut over a gunwale. 

The dinghy is a must to the cruiser. A device that transcends surf and shallow. One must know it as good or better than any of the systems...
For instance, should they hit a shadow and then a gust you are sure to get a good lesson. 
Of course those who fear the ocean say the river is no challenge but those who really know, say a river can raise a halva chop 
and even drive you into a bar whether you want a drink or not... 
There's no way a cruiser can avoid a dinghy. If the hook is used, you will need to know it's intricacies as you transport stores and water out to her mother. 
If a purest you may want to avoid the outboard or the inflatable. 
The arguments on that subject dance a bit, but the inflatable has saved my ass and others a good many times...
With age, anything heavy ends up on my back so I 
lean toward the softer of the two. 
Mainly cause hard shell won't stow easily. 
You can't argue a boat needs a dinghy but that's where a lot of conflict begins...
Dinghies seem cheap enough -till you need to leave it on the beach in a third world country, 
Of course you can advertise you're not a typical "yachtsman" but even the barest bones is more than a years wages to their income. 
Hang 2 grand in an outboard on it's rear end and you're ready to ride your folding bike to town....
No good sailor is without worry. He fixes things before they break. 
Leaving a potential for disaster is not in him. If he won't feel the stress, the inequity will give creative juice to innocent bystander looking for any excuse. 
If your dink was gone would you be mad? 
Would you go hunt them down or go back into the policia and cry those ever so rich tears about injustice in a world where there isn't any?
We all wrestle with this once we accomplice any wealth at all. But we're in denial because we love sailing. 
And we want the best dinghy if it's affordable, I mean inflatable. 
They're just diapers you know, so necessary to life on the water. 
They wear, they chafe and they stain. 
Yet they'll serve with distinction if required in a rescue. 
When the mother needs her, she's right there, the little engine that could nesting on deck or not far behind... 
The hard hull is phasing out as the ungrateful sell them off to the semi mariner who fishes them. Some are sold as a play ground boat or a yard planter to rot out. 
But never all.... Every once in a while that green patina on hardware or the traditional varnish lures a new lover to her. 
So let the argument continue and I'll try to hold my tongue but who could miss the perfect ten on a passing deck??? 
In fact I will give praise to the eye candy of tradition and sentiment. 
No one ever remembers their old inflatable... 
But we'll all watch with admiration as he swings out the boom with that cute little lass to lay on the water... Maybe get out an eyeglass to observe his love and patience as he handles rudder and oars down into place. 
God bless old traditions as we stand on the eve of the hydrogen generator and endless energy for the whippersnappers. Soon they'll infest our anchorages once vacant of loud music or tactless intellect.
"Well something's lost, but something's gained In living every day" (Joni Mitchell).


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## CalebD (Jan 11, 2008)

Your little voice in the back of your head needs a good talking to.

I have sailed Lasers and I am a smoker so I know how difficult it might be to light up a stogie on a Laser, much less a cigarette in some nasty weather. 

The little voice in your head needs to be more like a coast guard officer evaluating a float plan than someone who tells you to light up a stogie.


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## Tanski (May 28, 2015)

Small boat doesn't take any more "caution" but it does need at least a little bit of common sense!
I think you would have gotten into trouble no matter what you were in considering some of the decisions made in that story!


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## Sal Paradise (Sep 14, 2012)

The key to this story is the "voice in your head". They have medications that shut the voice up and prevent these sort of things from happening. If you just kept your head you would have been okay. You risked your own life and the lives of those who came to your rescue in the dead of night.


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## denverd0n (Jun 20, 2008)

Whoever said that little boats are more forgiving? I have certainly never heard anyone say that.

What I HAVE heard people say is that feedback is more immediate in small boats, and for that reason they force you to learn to sail better than a larger boat might. I am certainly a believer in that theory. Indeed, in many ways I would say that your experience supports that theory pretty well.

Anyway, I would say that anyone who told you that little boats are more forgiving, didn't know what they were talking about.


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