Truck Crane Through My Love-Boat

[nemoofsweden]

Second post here in this forum must be a confession

This is about my first sail boat called "the Loveboat" (now living on my second sail boat...)

I had met the girl of my life (I thought) and just weeks after, we decided to buy a boat together. Without that much money we aimed for "a near wreck" and went for a very badly handled small French Sheriff 600 (6 m) from the early 70s. We didn't know anything about sail-boats but had the dream of being out at sea, together!

We spent most of the dark winter days in Sweden trying to get the boat back in shape. Hours after hours after hours. We were most proud that spring, the boat actually float on her own!

Since we had got a new job opening that summer running a B&B up the west coast of Sweden, in a place next to the sea, all things looked like heaven: working daytime, sailing lunchtime, a bit of work again and then sail into the sundown together. Wow!

We had too much things to do before moving up there so we thought that it would be a great idea to stick all our belongings into the boat, put the boat on a truck and get a free ride all the way to heaven...

Said and done. Still with no money we had to choose between the good company with insurance and the not so good company. Said and done again, there was a bit of cash involved and off we went a beautiful day in May. Lifting the boat on to the truck was easy, it weight about 800 kg (plus all we owned, about 200 kg more)

Finally at the destination the drivers said to us, that this was probably the smallest boat he had ever lifted. He pulled the truck up end of the dock and jumped out in a hurry. He was already late for supper back home and it had been a long day out on the roads he said. He opened and shut a few levers and up in to the sky our boat went. We were totally impressed of our little Loveboat hanging far, far up in the sky as the driver controlled the crane with his radio-steering hanging on the belly. Soon we were to be the most happy triad: me, the girl and the boat we had spent so many hours on.

I stood lucking up into the sky. One small cloud drifting by. That was the only thing except blue skies and the warm sun. Pure happiness!

All of a sudden the cloud STOPPED! Damn if it didn't stop! I had a few seconds to think "Why is that little cloud stopping...?

And then I saw the rest of the world spinning...

My girl shouted: Nnnnnooooo.
The driver jumped away.
Me? I run a few steps to the right with the camera in video mode!

And then came the boat.

The crane.

The truck.

The sound of the crane thru the Loveboat

The sound of the truck smashing into the concrete

The shattering of glass

The smell of diesel and hydralic oil

And the little cloud continued across the sky as if nothing really happened...

[nemoofsweden]

Yes, I asked her to marry me.
Yes, all of our things got wet
No, we didn't have any insurance
No, we didn't called the police, we were new to a new place, driver was local
No, he didn't took ALL of the outriggers out from the truck
Yes, he got away with it claiming the radio-controlled remote was somehow affected by some radio mast nearby
Yes, we lived happily ever after (but divorced a few years ago, happily)
Yes, looking for my next sail boat I included "drop-proof" among the variables...

[knottybuoyz]

Whew! I'm glad it all worked out for you in the long run. I'm also glad I'm not the only one who's prone to disasters!

Welcome aboard.....

[Surveyor]

Oh man! You seem to have took it in stride, good for you. Thank god no one was hurt.

I am thinking that he uses his outriggers now no matter how small the boat!

[SkiprJohn]

That's a sad story. Glad you two were uninjured.
regards,

[hummingway]

Boat 1, Crane 0

The saga continues ...

[James S]

Great story...wonderful atitude...welcome to the forum nemoofsweden.

[SvenG]

That must have hurt !

Allt väl som slutar väl.



-Sven

[Pelagic]

Welcome to CF.
That photo with the crane certainly looks like coitus interuptess with your love boat to me.

As James said…sad story….wonderful attitude.

[Ocean Girl]

nemoofsweden, are you a writer? You need to submit some of your stuff to the sailing mags, great story very well written.
Erika

[nemoofsweden]

Thanks a lot! English is not my first language so I tend to be a bit shy about it. That's a reason why I haven't been writing a lot in this forum. I'm mostly writing our own blog and from that response we got there I'm seriously thinking about one or two articles just for fun. We haven't been out for long but since we LOVE trying crazy stuff out all the time we maybe got a few more stories to tell than the casual know-how-to-do-it sailor bound their normal playground. That involving storms, lost life-rafts, grounding, fights and so on

So, maybe in the future!

Thanks again for flattering me, if you are serious that is

[inSanity]

Very well written, but nightmarish, story. My boat's going on a crane in six days.

[psteele235]

Boat, Crane and Marriage (later) on the Rocks....Skol!

[nemoofsweden]

If I only knew I would find my way back in this old forum 14 yrs later and get another laugh out of that story ����

I guess 7 years of cruise got me even more stories

[Henr1y]

Originally Posted by nemoofsweden

If I only knew I would find my way back in this old forum 14 yrs later and get another laugh out of that story ����

I guess 7 years of cruise got me even more stories

Wait until you find out other things this forum has done in the last 14 years