Georgia goes for a Test Drive
Being a photographer is sometimes kind of like being an ambulance chaser. Being in the right place at the right time is even better. I didn’t have a decent digital camera, that I could always have in my pocket ready to go, until recently. A few times, I have been right there as some great drama is unfolding, and can't get my camera out of my bag quick enough, and as Murphy's Law would have it, I usually have the wrong bloody lens on, so by the time I get the right one on, the action is over. But I'm learning quickly through my own mistakes, and it's always an adrenaline rush to be close to the action. If I'd had a camera handy even half the time that a punterama was unfolding (PUNTERAMA~verb~a bareboat charterer in peril~eg.anchoring in bay) I could have filled volumes with humorous photos over the years. Not to mention a few of my own glorious snafus.
What follows is a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time, and showing up with an unloaded gun! During a recent Americas Cup, all the megayachts were tied up just outside the media center. The largest sloop in the world at that time, newly launched the week before, went out for her first sea trial. Arriving back in the basin and backing into her slip, the captain shifted to forward, to slow the backwards momentum of this 150’vessel down. It didn’t slow down. Instead, it went faster in reverse. As they picked up speed, he goosed it even more, thinking he was in forward, only to go even faster in reverse. Of course, I couldn't get my camera out of my backpack fast enough. There I am, feeling like a quick-shooter who can't draw my gun!
At ramming speed, the megayacht sideswiped the pylon, preventing it from doing major damage to the Perini-Navi beside it. The big, red yacht nearly ended up taking out a gaggle of gawking spectators on the cement bulkhead, before the rudder connected with the floating wooden dock. This stopped a couple of hundred tons of backward momentum before it rammed the cement bulkhead. Talk about excitement.
Luckily, the owner wasn't on board or he would have had heart failure. The boat builders were on board, though, as well as all the technical guys from the boat yard who commissioned the yacht, so a big conference ensued with the Captain on the bridge with a lot of head scratching and shaking. I’m sure there were a few interesting comments flying about. I gathered right away as the scene was unfolding before our unbelieving eyes that it was something like a faulty transmission linkage that failed to go from reverse to forward.
I've had that happen myself, but on a C&C 41 it's not quite so dramatic. Besides which, I had great crew on board. Before the words were out of my mouth, my crew knew what was happening. As we were coming into dock after 10 days at sea, I shifted to reverse to slow us down… no reverse! Jerry jugs flew out of the locker, and Billy shifted gears at the engine, and we stopped just as planned, although with hearts in mouths.
The guys on the megayacht must have had to have a few stiff drinks after their debacle. Can you imagine parking a $140 million yacht for the first time? You'd be more than a little nervous. And then to have your worst nightmare come true, and in front of hundreds of spectators, just makes a bad situation even worse. Things like that never happen in a totally deserted area. There is always going to be someone sitting at the bar looking out at the anchorage when you make the worst cock-up imaginable. I wonder what lucky guy on board got to make the first call to the owner. It’s at times like that I am glad I was just an innocent bystander.
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