"That's never happened before"

[Garrett Johns]

So this past Wednesday night beer can race, we are at the front of a large PHRF fleet at the weather mark. As we started to hoist, suddenly the spin halyard (we use the ball looped through the head) comes loose and the halyard is swinging around 6 ft above the deck. After some mad scrambling, we retrieved it and got the kite up. After we got the boat settled, Steve O who is co-owner and was driving says "well that's never happened before". I replied that if we had a dollar ever time we said that, we would both have brand new boats!
This sparked a few laughs and some reminiscing about all the times we have said that in our sailing careers, and seemingly always at the worst possible times! Many of us have sailed several different boats over the course of our sailboat racing careers and no doubt there has to be some good "well that's never happened before" stories out there. Lets hear em...
Just to keep the post on topic, if you comment on someone else's story, try to share a "well that's never happened before" story of your own so we don't get off on a rabbit trail.

[Reid Smythe]

Bringing the Custom Hood 60 "American Promise" back to Annapolis following the 2005 Marblehead-to-Halifax race we were cruising along in some decent swells on a close reach.  I had just settled down in my rack when the bilge alarm (right above my head) goes off.  Pandemonium! I direct a couple guys to man the hand pumps, a couple guys to put the electric bilge pump switches in manual and proceed to go to the main bilge where someone had pulled off the deck-plate and was pointing out that the water was almost flowing out of the bilge.  A quick check of everything aft of the forepeak didn't show any water gushing in.

Now, our forepeak had a forward head, but both doors were literally blocked by sail bags.  So I do my best to move hundreds of pounds of sails so I can wriggle in and try to unblock the door to the forward head.  I see a few inches of water sloshing around the forepeak, so now I'm really desperate trying to get into the head.  I finally move things enough to crack open the door and see....that the hose leading from our big (couple hundred gallon?) water tank had popped off.

Turned out someone had left the water pressurizer on and when the clamp worked loose and the hose popped off, it blew most of our fresh water into the boat which filled the bilge, set off the alarm ruined my nap.  Fresh water trying to sink a boat at sea?  That's never happened before!

[Drew Harper]

I'm out on my old schooner (pic below) filming a movie for a BBC production company. We're nearing the end of the production and it's been filled with all sorts of surprises.

We're a mile past the Golden Gate Bridge with the talent on deck, sort of driving the boat. Squares are up, it's blowing 20+ and there's a big ebb running causing a big seaway. Rendezvous was a stout and heavy Brigantine so she handled it easily. Myself and 5 crew (lots need to handle the squaresails) were huddled on the companionway ladder with myself dodging out occasionally to make course corrections so the talent could 'steer' while a helicopter did the overhead shots. The entire onboard film crew, ie; makeup, wardrobe, 2nd director, gaffers, grips, etc, were all down in the saloon puking into garbage bags. We were determined to 'get the shot.'

The helicopter was buzzing close, with the cameraman strapped to a special mount in the doorway. The pilot took a low pass, not taking into account just how high the waves were. One of the copters skids got slapped by a wave, sort of torquing the whole body of the copter around and sideways...the main rotor tipped the water, then all hell broke loose. I was watching this through a small portlight in the companionway, mostly in shock. The main rotor flexed then bounced back, cutting the tail off the copter. Everything went to shit in a heartbeat. I told my crew what was happening and Lyle said, "yeah, sure, the copter's crashing" just before the main rotor sheared a blade and damn near dismasted the Brig....you could hear the thing going 'whoop, whoop, whoop' as it flew overhead. The whole crew ejected from below decks, taking charge of what was now an at sea rescue of a downed aircraft.

Long story short, you would have thought we'd trained for this. Someone was on the radio, I was driving the boat, two crew on the yards bunting the squares with a third on the buntlines and another on constant point to the wreckage. We circled around under fore and aft sails, tossing our lifefloat and ring buoys (she was a certified vessel) to the two survivors we saw. Someone was missing though. The copter was sinking and to our horror the cameraman was still strapped in, fighting to get out of the harness. Lyle jumped off, swam to the copter and managed to cut him loose just before it sank. We pulled two of the survivors aboard the Rendezvous but the Director was HUGE, I mean 300+ pounds. Every time we tried to pull him up he screamed like we were killing him. The USCG was on station moments after and pulled him into a Motor Lifeboat.

I still have some pieces from the copter's empennage that ended up hitting the rig and landing on the boat. Oh yeah, and we have the Bow Maiden that was built for the movie sitting above the office to help keep us safe!

1933 Brigantine Rescuing Downed Copter Crew....that's never happened before :-D

[Garrett Johns]

Wow, not what I was expecting. Those are some great stories and blow away any of my round the buoy tales. Here is another good one though...
So many years ago at Whidbey Island Race Week, I was bow on a J24 that I had sailed with for years. Friday, the last day, and we are leading the regatta and leading the fleet to the first weather mark. Now like I mentioned, this was many years ago and a certain bow guy may have been a bit hung over from the tent party the previous night and ended up sleeping in the cockpit of the boat. Any who.... We rounded the weather mark and the kite/pole was completely $&#% up. After some mad scrambling and a LOT of yelling at the bow, we got settled. Suddenly the skipper reaches down and picks something and says "WTF is this?". The guy trimming turns bright red and quickly snatches it from the skippers hand and stuffs it in his pocket. It turns out his girlfriend at the time had given him a pair of her underwear to carry for luck. Needless to say he never heard the end of it and I was glad to have a distraction from my snafu! They must have worked cuz we won the race and the week.
So a women's leopard print thong falling from the sky onto your boat during a cluster F rounding...ya "that's never happened before"