Very Obvious Warning Devices

We had just sailed in to Opua to clear customs after a fine passage from Tonga and saw a friend from San Francisco standing on the wharf. “Hey Richard,”Larry yelled, “What you doing down here?” Richard, normally a very boisterous type, signaled he’d talk to us later, then climbed down onto what looked like a very new boat where several folks stood around looking more than a bit distressed. It turned out the boat was in fact on its very first sea trials, a million dollar special built in New Zealand for an American owner.

The designer and builder had paid for the editors of some well-known yachting publications to come along for the very first sail. Unfortunately, no one had thought to close the port lights that lined the hull before they left the dock. A fresh breeze, a short beat to windward and the portlights had gone underwater. Now about $100,000 worth of electronic gear had died, drowned in salt water. After we anchored Taleisin, I went below and opened the forward portlights in her hull then, following the routine we’d made up when we decided to have holes such as these in our hull, I removed the red yarn pom pom we attached to the portlight securing knob with shock cord and took it immediately out into the cockpit and snapped its cord around the tiller, right where I would have to put my hand when we got ready to sail again. This pom pom has drawn a lot of questions in its day; we jokingly say it’s our idiot signal for our boat is run by idiots for idiots. But in reality, there are certain things that can be easily forgotten in the rush to get under way and a warning device such as the red pom pom could prove to be vital.

Another example of a simple warning devise is what we call the keep the stern-anchor-rode-out-of-the-prop-device. When we are delivering or moving a boat with an engine and set a stern anchor, we cleat the rode then bring the inboard end of the line to the gear shift lever and secure it there with a clove hitch. This way we are reminded to pull in the slack before engaging the prop. We came up with this warning devise only after having to dive to remove a wrapped line when we used the stern anchor to secure a 50 tonner we were delivering across the Atlantic via Funchal harbor in Madiera. Fortunately the line did no damage to the engine shaft, just as fortunately it taught us a lesson we didn’t forget.