What the heck did I just read? It sounds very much like NOT having an exit plan, pulling a save out of your ass at the last second, and pretending you meant to do that.
I have sailed into the dock in exactly the same place, but our engine was out, it wasn’t during boat show set up, the boat was half as big and probably four times as maneuverable, and it was still a major PITA. There is no way I can see that sailing a steel schooner at 8 knots into the middle of setup day at the boat show is anything but a really bad idea.
I haven’t seen a boat show there, but when the skipjacks were in in the late sixties it was solid from one end to the other.
This is what the boat show looks like:
Look on the lower left and right hand side for the temporary pilings and wires that get put in for the show. In this photo they got around to hanging flags on them at least.
Being a yacht guy power and sail for 65 underway years, I’m wondering what this Carr guy is thinking. I would never charge head long into any harbor much less that one on boat-show weekend. That is wreck less and stupid operation.
Carr’s other article about yacht deliveries gives me some insight into him. Don’t think I’m following him anywhere.
I do agree with the bast premise, in all operations “have plan for when it turns to s#*t”
He’s thinking we can all learn from his past mistakes and have an exit plan, which he didn’t.
He seemed quite proud of himself for his last second tack and barely missing a few boats. I think in his mind that WAS the exit plan.
I could be wrong, but I never got the “sailing in here when we had a working engine was a really bad idea” part.
I agree that it wasn’t clearly stated but it seemed obvious to me that the point of the story was to show why you need an exit plan. He clearly knows they got really fecking lucky with his last minute maneuver.
If he had run down some older couple (like us) in their dinghy and killed them, it would have put a real damper on those celebrations - and that area is loaded with dinghys, kayaks and other small craft weaving in & out of the moored boats - and more so during the boat show. It makes me nervous motoring in there at minimum maneuvering speed, let alone recklessly sailing in there at 8 knots.