Boatyard Safety -- DIY accidents that happened to you or that you witnessed

[thinwater]

I like the pro boatyard thread. But what about us idiots?


Others in the boatyard while I was there:

• Guy fell ~ 6 feet off ladder, working on toerail, overreaching. I was working on my boat, a few slots over, heard him hit the ground, and responded. He said he was fine, though obviously he was not, and we encouraged him to seek treatment. He tried to get back to work, but soon went home. I don't know the full story, but the boat soon went on the market. The scuttlebutt was serious shoulder and back trauma, so no more sailing for him.
• Two cases of rash from excessive solvent exposure on the arms. Both were stripping cabin liners or adhesives using xylene.

Me, either working at home or industry:

• Stuff in eye a few times, most often around safety glasses. Never serious. I always keep an eye wash bottle, regularly serviced, at hand.
• Stitches in hand. I was free handing a disk grinder with 60 grit paper and holding what I was shaping in the other hand, no glove. Dumb.
• Stitches in chin. I was leaning into a hatch and the latch failed (rusty oilfield tank). A hard hat saved my noggin from denting.

If I listed the injuries at plants over 40 years I would need a few pages. Perhaps the dumbest was a guy that got 40 stitches because he was playing with a self-retracting razor knife, trying to show how it would open if you swung it fast enough. It opened. But slips and falls were by far most common cause of serious injuries.


What boatyard accidents do you have first hand knowledge of?

[rslifkin]

Dumbest one I've done was walking through the storage shed to get to my boat for some work a few winters ago. Went to duck past the bow of a small boat on a trailer and firmly whacked my forehead on the edge of an anchor roller.

At that point I noticed that I was bleeding pretty significantly and it was time for the "what next?" decision. I wasn't quite sure I was ok yet from the head hit, but I was alone in a locked building. So I had a choice. Make my way outside to the car and figure out what to do from there, or walk another 50 feet to the ladder behind my boat and climb up where I'd have access to useful things to assess the situation and deal with the blood like a mirror, paper towels, etc. Ended up climbing up onto the boat (very carefully, as I was a little off balance), cleaning up the blood, determining I wasn't significantly hurt, and just sat for a few minutes before getting started on the work I was there to do.

[Chotu]

Boat was sitting on the hard like pictured. In fact, that is the actual scene where this happened.

My helper’s girlfriend was there since we were finishing the thing and getting ready to launch soon.

We had a small step ladder set up open so you could walk up it to start climbing up the built in steps at the stern.

She was coming down from deck level and I was getting ready to go up from ground level.

As I’m waiting she TRIPS! She falls from the top step and misses the second step from the top in the pic and starts to go inverted.

She goes head first for the concrete.

I dove and caught her. We crashed to the ground, but it saved her from hitting the ground. It was SUCH a close call.

[Kettlewell]

I was walking down the dinghy dock once and there was a strong smell of gasoline in the air. Some guy had flooded his dinghy motor so bad it was leaking fuel out and there was a big puddle of gas sloshing around in the bottom of the dinghy. He proceeded to ponder the situation while sitting in the dinghy and lighting up a cigarette! Nothing happened, but I scurried out of there pretty quick.

One fall I got my boat hauled out and noticed the boat they put right next to me on land still had her sails on. A few days later there was a gale when I wasn't there and apparently the guy's roller jib came undone, the sail opened, and it was threatening to pull the boat over which was sideways to the wind. The boatyard guys tried to get it down but couldn't and ended up cutting it away before his boat toppled into my boat. Could have been like dominoes.

[Chotu]

Thinwater: “ Stitches in hand. I was free handing a disk grinder with 60 grit paper and holding what I was shaping in the other hand, no glove. Dumb.”

Wow! I do this one on the regular. I also use a slow speed on the grinder. The slowest setting possible. Maybe that’s the difference. I use a variable speed grinder/polisher. Set it on its back. Lowest speed and lock the throttle. Then I drag whatever it is on the disk. It’s a fantastic way to get a custom part. I’ve certainly hit my hand into the 60 grit paper a few times but it doesn’t cause damage I guess because I’m going so slow with it. But wearing a glove is a good idea next time. I think I’ll try it.


My big boat building injury (other than ruining my health by using epoxy):

I was pulling on a garden hose that had one end stuck under a pile of wood. I think they were scraps from the mold for the hulls or something.

I was busy. I was rushing. I was frustrated at something. But I got a lot more frustrated that the stupid hose wouldn’t come out.

So I gave it a really hard pull. That would do it right?

Sure did!

The metal end of the hose flew at me at an incredible speed and hit me right in the glasses. Broke my glasses and scratched my cornea. I had to go to an emergency eye doctor over the weekend because it happened on a weekend.

If I didn’t have my glasses on I probably wouldn’t have an eye right now. The impact was so hard through the glasses that I couldn’t see for a few moments after the hit. Then vision came back and it was itchy and blurry

[Kettlewell]

We were looking at a big old wooden sailboat in a boatyard once and the only way in to her was through an open deck hatch. I climbed into the hatch and dangled by my arms thinking I would reach the floorboards in the darkness below, but couldn't feel anything. I let go assuming I must be inches from the floor, but instead fell several feet down into the bilge of the deep boat because all the floorboards were up! It felt like a much longer drop!

Another time I had my cockpit floor completely open to work on my engine, and of course in a rush I stepped into the void backwards and fell on top of the engine, banging my shoulder pretty hard on the way down. Still bothers me a bit today.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

We were looking at a big old wooden sailboat in a boatyard once and the only way in to her was through an open deck hatch. I climbed into the hatch and dangled by my arms thinking I would reach the floorboards in the darkness below, but couldn't feel anything. I let go assuming I must be inches from the floor, but instead fell several feet down into the bilge of the deep boat because all the floorboards were up! It felt like a much longer drop!

Another time I had my cockpit floor completely open to work on my engine, and of course in a rush I stepped into the void backwards and fell on top of the engine, banging my shoulder pretty hard on the way down. Still bothers me a bit today.

Ouch! Those are BAD

[Knotical]

thinwater, as you witnessed, a fellow boat owner in our yard fell 10-12 feet from a ladder and spent a few weeks in the hospital, seemed like he aged 5 years in the time when I saw him after, now he is selling his boat.

Falls are a big thing, not just in a boatyard, one moment can ruin your entire life, and that of those around you - be very very careful.

[Knotical]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

We were looking at a big old wooden sailboat in a boatyard once and the only way in to her was through an open deck hatch. I climbed into the hatch and dangled by my arms thinking I would reach the floorboards in the darkness below, but couldn't feel anything. I let go assuming I must be inches from the floor, but instead fell several feet down into the bilge of the deep boat because all the floorboards were up! It felt like a much longer drop!

Another time I had my cockpit floor completely open to work on my engine, and of course in a rush I stepped into the void backwards and fell on top of the engine, banging my shoulder pretty hard on the way down. Still bothers me a bit today.

***off topic***

John, I just read through a few of your blog posts, really nice stuff, it is bookmarked now and will read more in the coming days.

[BobFord]

A fellow traveller ,keel boat ,on blocks in the yard, during a "celebration ?" , thought he was at anchor and jumped in for a swim.Spent 4 weeks in hospital. Another , at anchor ,me , Granddaughter had terrier on board, poor little fellow fell thro' open deck hatch ,landed on sole ,7 feet. Shook himself and carried on as normal !!

[skipperpete]

In just one boatyard at one marina we had a total of 8 people fall off decks or ladders to the concrete below, 3 of which were extremely serious one of which was fatal and one was while the owner fell off the ladder after a fire started in the boat , so, burned AND broken. These were only the ones where I was actually on the work area at the time, and the fatal fall happened because the guy was taking a pee off the stern at night before turning in, later suggested to have been an epileptic event combined with alcohol. In Phuket a guy working at the top of his mast in a bosun chair was killed on the hard stand when he apparently managed to release one of the 3 wires that supported his rotating mast. Fires inside boats is a huge risk, usually from welding on the outside of the hull but occasionally from battery issues and insulation burning due to electrical short circuits. Foam insulation is a real fire trap. We had 3 of those fires, 2 on our hardstand and one at a nearby yard.

[thinwater]

Fun thread!


Some take aways:

• Watch where you are going. This is a serious thing in industrial settings, where not everything is safe.
• Wear a bump cap insert in your hat. Google it. About $8, fits in most caps.
• Tie off ladders.
• Fire watch when welding. You can't see much while under the hood, and you are concentrating on the arc.

[chris mac]

I was using a grinder to cut down a tube for the old Bimini when it twisted on me and jumped off the steel. The grinder (wheel)hit me in the upper stomach. The wheel broke from my rock hard abs[emoji39], so it only gave me a small scratch/burn
Luckily the wheel wound up my tee shirt as it hit, so it only got 1 good revolution against my stomach. I really dodged a bullet with that one!

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by thinwater

I like the pro boatyard thread. But what about us idiots?


Others in the boatyard while I was there:

• Guy fell ~ 6 feet off ladder, working on toerail, overreaching. I was working on my boat, a few slots over, heard him hit the ground, and responded. He said he was fine, though obviously he was not, and we encouraged him to seek treatment. He tried to get back to work, but soon went home. I don't know the full story, but the boat soon went on the market. The scuttlebutt was serious shoulder and back trauma, so no more sailing for him.
• Two cases of rash from excessive solvent exposure on the arms. Both were stripping cabin liners or adhesives using xylene.

Me, either working at home or industry:

• Stuff in eye a few times, most often around safety glasses. Never serious. I always keep an eye wash bottle, regularly serviced, at hand.
• Stitches in hand. I was free handing a disk grinder with 60 grit paper and holding what I was shaping in the other hand, no glove. Dumb.
• Stitches in chin. I was leaning into a hatch and the latch failed (rusty oilfield tank). A hard hat saved my noggin from denting.

If I listed the injuries at plants over 40 years I would need a few pages. Perhaps the dumbest was a guy that got 40 stitches because he was playing with a self-retracting razor knife, trying to show how it would open if you swung it fast enough. It opened. But slips and falls were by far most common cause of serious injuries.


What boatyard accidents do you have first hand knowledge of?

Shelter Bay Marina in Panama.(The country, not the city in the US) Yard manager was moving a boat with a crane. Didn't think the boat was large enough to need to put the legs down. Crane toppled and landed on two catamarans, destroying both of them, and the boat that was being lifted, and the crane. Someone sleeping on one of the boats was nearly crushed, and needed help to get out.

Same marina, same operator, boat was lifted out of the water on a travel lift, and the pins that secure the straps were not fully engaged. Boat was lifted out of the water, a strap came loose, and the boat landed on its keel.

It was scary watching the yard crew work, climbing and crawling on the ground under moving boats, via the crane, travel lift, or a trailer they had, with no spotting and the operator of the machinery and the guy under the boat not being able to see each other. I would say it was an accident waiting to happen, but they seemed to have those pretty often. It is a death waiting to happen.

Last I heard, when I left in January 2022, the marina was not taking responsibility of any of the damage, claiming that when the boats hauled-out they signed a waiver that any damage was the boat owners' responsibility. And the same operator continued to be in charge of everything.

I try to be really careful myself. One dumb accident that I got lucky with recently, I was using a router to trim the Formica on my new countertops. I got careless and hit my finger with the router. I guess the router bit was spinning fast enough that it threw my finger out of the way instead of cutting it off. Blood sprayed everywhere, but it was only 2 small slices (I suppose as the bit spun it hit me twice) and no serious damage at all.

[hlev00]

I was working on decommissioning my boat at a marina dock when a woman in a panic started yelling to help her husband. We were the only ones in the yard at the time. I ran over to his boat and found his feet sticking out of an engine locker. He had gone down head first to get something at the bottom and couldn’t get himself back out. It made me think about working alone.