The sea is a dangerous place

[Chris Partridge]

A horrifying incident on the coast of Finland.

[David Bewick]

This sounds like a another very good reason not to have a toilet on a boat to me!

[Jeremy]

It reminded me a bit of doing my yacht master practical a long long time ago.  There were four of us, plus the instructor/examiner on board, three 30'ish blokes and a somewhat "practical" lady who was slightly older.  After a run ashore one evening (at Fowey, I think) we returned to the mooring, somewhat loaded with liquid ballast.  The need to offload was urgent by the time we had the dinghy tied up and the male contingent made a bee line for the leeward deck, to perform the time-honoured ritual.  As we made our way forward to the shrouds one of our number quipped along the line of how handy it was for blokes to be able dump liquid ballast so easily over the side.

We were brought up short by the lady joining us and performing the same trick (standing up), although to this day I have no idea how she did it.

It saved going below and having to do battle with the ancient, and somewhat unpredictable, pump-out head though.

When living in Portpatrick I was friends with a lot of the lifeboat crew.  I remember the coxwain once telling me that a fair number of yachtsmen recovered dead in the water had their flies open, leading to the suspicion that peeing over the side was a significant cause of falling overboard.  I'm not sure if this is better or worse than getting stuck in the head and running into a rock.

[Port-Na-Storm]

Jeremy wrote

yachtsmen recovered dead in the water had their flies open, leading to the suspicion that peeing over the side was a significant cause of falling overboard.

I was taught, when on cruising boats,  to pee in the bailer, (sans sponge) and then empty it over the side.

Similarly, when throwing up, use the bucket.

At Itchenor on Saturday evening there was a very posh wedding at a very posh house opposite the yacht club. I wonder if anyone there noticed the little dinghy gliding by on the evening ebb and whether they realised the chap on the helm was contentedly pissing down the centreboard slot.

[Jeremy]

Port-Na-Storm wrote

I was taught, when on cruising boats,  to pee in the bailer, (sans sponge) and then empty it over the side.

Similarly, when throwing up, use the bucket.

At Itchenor on Saturday evening there was a very posh wedding at a very posh house opposite the yacht club. I wonder if anyone there noticed the little dinghy gliding by on the evening ebb and whether they realised the chap on the helm was contentedly pissing down the centreboard slot.

My first sailing experience was crewing a Falmouth working boat, during the summer racing season back in the mid-70's.  The skipper was the local lifeboat coxwain and a bit of an interesting character.  He insisted that the crew (except him and the foredeck man, Boyo) kept their heads down below the gunwales (to reduce windage) and their eyes on their particular sail at all times.  Beer was consumed pretty much all day and the relief system was an old paint can.  One was liable to get a sharp word from the Toby (the skipper) if one took one's eye off the sail when using the said paint can, so the technique was to keep one's thumb over the inner edge to sense whether it was getting full, by the warmth...............

[Tomsk]

Far too much information Jeremy ;-)

On 23 August 2011 11:54, Jeremy [via UK HBBR Forum] <[hidden email]> wrote:

My first sailing experience was crewing a Falmouth working boat, during the summer racing season back in the mid-70's.  The skipper was the local lifeboat coxwain and a bit of an interesting character.  He insisted that the crew (except him and the foredeck man, Boyo) kept their heads down below the gunwales (to reduce windage) and their eyes on their particular sail at all times.  Beer was consumed pretty much all day and the relief system was an old paint can.  One was liable to get a sharp word from the Toby (the skipper) if one took one's eye off the sail when using the said paint can, so the technique was to keep one's thumb over the inner edge to sense whether it was getting full, by the warmth...............

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