From busted knuckles to fire and rescue. Have you given "skin" for your boat?

Four Suns said:
In my infinite wisdom, I leave the thing sticking up sometimes... I guess my logic is why burn the 4 calories of energy needed to put the thing flush when you are just going to open it again. One day I jumped into the cockpit from the dock and kicked the thing... My leg powered my foot perfectly with bulls eye accuracy with enough force to kick a 70 yard field goal... the blunt square T-handle end impaled my foot between my toes... I kicked it so hard it pulled the webbing/skin between my toes back and exposed some very ugly sh!t that is under the skin... and it stuck. I had to pull my foot off the handle. It made a suction noise as it came off. You would have thought I was bit by a shark there was so much blood all over the cockpit (up about 3 feet on the door, etc). I called my wife crying and she came and got me... she was shocked when she saw the boat. Anyway, the hospital pulled the webbing back and sewed it all up. Hurt like hell...
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Excellent narrative! :smt038
 
no more quoting it please, I feel the reflex in my stomach and throat getting stronger.
 
MarkNewbie said:
Well, I got mine this past weekend...:smt021

Was gonna leave the slip...turned off the shore power, thought I turned off the shore water...oops. (Turned it full on instead) Went to pull the quick disconnect for the water and BAM!, House came out of transom and proceeded to pound the crap out of my foot before running out onto the dock. There I was hoping on one foot chasing it soak and wet while the Admiral was laughing so hard she nearly peed herself. Was lucky and only have a couple black n blue marks on my foot to show for it.:smt013
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So thats why we didn't see you this past weekend!
 
Four Suns said:
I have never lost an organ... well... maybe my liver from drinking too much beer on the boat but not from a traumatic injury.

I've done the usual and customary boat injuries like driving a fillet knife through the top of my foot and having it come out the bottom and stick in the floor... and fillet knife through the hand... wrapping a power cord around a rotary polisher because I looked up to see some women on the beach in bikinis... That's all normal stuff. ( http://clubsearay.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11307&highlight=polisher )

The worst I've done is kicking that damn T-handle on the engine hatch while bare foot. The 480DB has a T-handle (no electric lift) that is normally flush with the deck and you rotate it up and twist it to open the engine room hatch. Looks like this:

193226-t-13.jpg


In my infinite wisdom, I leave the thing sticking up sometimes... I guess my logic is why burn the 4 calories of energy needed to put the thing flush when you are just going to open it again. One day I jumped into the cockpit from the dock and kicked the thing... My leg powered my foot perfectly with bulls eye accuracy with enough force to kick a 70 yard field goal... the blunt square T-handle end impaled my foot between my toes... I kicked it so hard it pulled the webbing/skin between my toes back and exposed some very ugly sh!t that is under the skin... and it stuck. I had to pull my foot off the handle. It made a suction noise as it came off. You would have thought I was bit by a shark there was so much blood all over the cockpit (up about 3 feet on the door, etc). I called my wife crying and she came and got me... she was shocked when she saw the boat. Anyway, the hospital pulled the webbing back and sewed it all up. Hurt like hell...

The real issue is... I did the EXACT SAME THING one year later but on the opposite foot...

I now wear shoes... at least try to.

A few years ago I slipped on the steps on the front porch and it rotated my foot sideways and the bone severed a couple tendons that retracted up my leg... spent some time in MCV in Richmond getting that repaired... but that's not boating related other than my feet are now in pretty bad shape and I know have a limp... Oh well... need to get a cane.
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Okay, I did something very similar. In my early 20s I was in a high diving show at the local Six Flags. We had a concrete cirlular pool with cleats on the top of the pool edge to tie down the cover. The top of the pool walls were about 4 feet above the deck and about 6" thick. One day I was walking along the top of the pool wall barefoot and I slipped. I kicked my right foot forward to get my balance. Unfortunately, the reason I kept my balance was because one of the cleats entered my right foot between the big toe and the one next to it. The cleat went about 2" in and exited the bottom of my foot with a ripping sound. But that wasn't the worst of it. Instead of falling into the pool, I fell the other way and had to jump down 4 feet to the pool deck and landed...on my right foot which split open more! It bled profusely! They wrapped it in two full sized beach towels and I bled through both. The female EMS that responded almost threw up when she saw my foot. They took me to an urgent care facility where the really painful part happened. Since they were going to have to stitch the wound from the inside out (I think I ended up with 45 - 50) the doc injected lidocaine inside the cut. MF'r that hurt. I bent the railings on the gurney I was on, but they didn't charge me for that. The lidocaine wore off before he was done sewing me up. He wanted to inject me with more, but I politely declined.

Not boating related, but at least there was a cleat involve. My boating injuries have bee fairly minor if you don't count liver damage.
 
Slippery When Wet said:
In 2003, jumping off my boat on it's trailer after loading it up, my swim shorts hooked onto a cleat and ripped them completely up the side to the waistband. Luckily they stayed on, but I was showing some serious thigh. :lol:
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Made me laugh!
I had a 16' Bass Boat. I was out with 2 buddies that each weigh about 280 lbs. One of them decided to get in the water to cool off while fishing. Instead of jumping in he kind of slid off the side of the boat and his swimsuit hung up on the cleat. So here he was hanging upside down in the water flapping his arms trying to keep his head above water. The other guy saw him and decided to pull him back in (I was laughing so hard I couldn't help), but you see when you're on a 16' bass boat and you put and near 600 pounds on the port aft corner the gunnel goes under water! He finally got him in and that day at the age of 16 I firsthand learned the importance of bilge pumps. We took on a LOT of water but nobody was injured and we laughed it off.

Thanks for bringing back good memories!
 
Rough day in Keowee.
Put in on a little island on the north side and promptly walked into a hornets nest along the shore in a low hanging branch. 2 stings on the head 1 one the neck and 1 on the shoulder.

Oh yea, did the cleat between the toe thing as I was getting the anchor out and slipped on the new wax on the bow. No blood but lot's of pain.

Hit a rock with the prop so the spare will go on once a find out why the gear won't go into reverse.

AAARRGGGG One of those days. Still, it was better than sitting in my office at work....
 
Everyone is posting about flesh wounds! Last year I fell on my swim platform going from my dingy to the boat and broke my wrist. Well as some of you know I don't do anything halfway I ended up needing surgery to get a metal bar and 9 screws. Take a look at this thread to read the whole nightmare!

http://clubsearay.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20598&highlight=aarrhh

Final bill for the wrist was $27000 plus 1 year of physical therapy and I still can't move it fully.
 
With the help of few good souls on this thread I was able to get my shift cable adjusted correctly and all seems to be well. Now for the rest of the story.

As stated in my last post, the bow has been a point of pain for me as the new wax makes it like a sheet of ice. Today while a friend and I are swimming around back of our boat his admiral introduced mine to a new wax product. They rubbed the bow down but somehow forgot to tell me.

All was well until we were docking. Just as the boat touches the dock I take a step onto the bow to set the bow line and next thing I know I'm headed for the hand rail. The hand rails catch me at the shins and peel the skin from my ankles as I proceed to fall forward onto the aluminum skid resistant decking taking both knee flesh off.

I was able to catch myself with my hand and wrist.

With blood running from both knees and ankle I manage to get the boat on the trailer. I throw the van in gear and ¾ of the way up the ramp I hear the admiral yelling. You guest it, in the moment of my pain I forgot the raise the outdrive. No damage just paint scraped so I was lucky.

The admiral looks at me and says “You need to be more careful when you pull the boat out.” AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGG.
 
Had a customer drop off a 260 da for buffing, when he set the trailer jack, the pin didn't engage into the plate completely. Of course, not knowing I walk over to inspect the vessels gel coat. My foot was directly behind the wheel on the jack as it collapsed, scissored backwards, taking my foot with it, pinning it between the jack and the trailer beam as the boat crushed every bone in my foot. Thank god someone was there to help me. He used a floor jack to get the boat off of the ground, and a sledge hammer to pry the jack loose. I was wearing steel toed boots, which kept the pressure from slicing my foot off. Absolutely excruciating
 
This is what happens when you don't wear shoes at the docks in Annapolis (from this past summer...)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9omq2nIQiA[/youtube]
 
Last year during Aquapalooza, my friend got his foot stuck between 2 boats during the storm:
 

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It's time to roll out this thread again. So have you cleated your toes, splintered your foot, sprained your wrist, etc...? Let hear about the 2013 misshaps.
 
So far this year I've only suffered wounds to my wallet and mental health (from not being on the water). I guess I've been lucky after looking over this thread. *knocks on wood*
 
Last camping trip on 4th of July, I woke up, went out to the swim platform to get some relief, and slipped into the "warmed" water. Bruised (really black) from my knee up to my groin, and covered in some type of "antiseptic" that was in the water.......My knee swelled up to the size of a softball, and it was too early to start drinkin'. :) Just finally faded away, now that it's August.
 
Dang, I'm going to spend the next several hours knocking on wood. The only thing I've ever done in the way of injury from boating accidents has been knocking my head on things on the boat. It's happened several times in the past few months. Hmmmmm, makes me wonder if that leads to old age senility!!!
 
Every spring i come up out of the cabin and stuff the top of my head into the top of the opening,usually tweeks my neck for a few weeks.And the normal bruising on thew chest from tuneups and water pump rebuilds.
 
What caused me to reopen the thread was seeing my grandson swim around the prop while the engine was idling. A big no-no for him and the others. Thank God it was in neutral but it put a chill down my spine.

Only the usual cuts and bruises associated with boat ownership this year but there is still more season left.....
 
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