Small boat big big project!

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from the bridge at Shelter island, west neck harbor

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First picture story, great catch or deck mess, but interesting story!

My 2018 trip took me down the Hudson river through NY harbor at rush hour on a work day, if you have not made that trip you have not been in sloppy rough seas on a large scale. At any one time during the harbor passage you can see 10 or more 100 foot plus steel taxis/ ferry's going 25 knots or better traveling at every heading on the compass! I left the harbor and once in the ocean I turned east and headed for the inlets along the south shore of long island, I have made this trip many times over the years in my 41 CC Commander, first time in my 26 Carver! I would typikly enter the Jones inlet but opted for the Rockaway inlet as I had never used it because of my bridge clearance issue with my CC. Turns out to be a nice inlet and a very nice ride on the bay side of the rockaways east along the south side of long island island. Ok first night I anchored in Zachs bay , its about 10 miles east of the Jones inlet and separated from the ocean by a highway the ocean side of the highway is a long beautiful sand beach known as Jones beach.

Storms coming fast! I received a phone call from my brother with info about a line of severe line of thunder storms heading my way fast , this is when the books tell you, if you are on a boat you should seek shelter and stay in a strong building . They never tell you what to do if there is no building handy to take cover in . I have been in this situation more times then I care to mention, I have a plan for this situation and put it in motion immediately, I have a Lightning rod assm. that I deploy!

I designed this assm. years ago and deployed it many times on my large CC, did it work , well I never got struck, did it help maybe, would it work if I got hit, maybe, is it better then nothing I believe it is! Well I installed it and got on with getting the bimini rolled up and covered up the bridge instruments as well as letting out some more anchor chain for a better scope ratio. Storm will arrive in minutes , sky black and clouds are rolling and boiling, always scary to see coming at you, this bay would normally have a hundred boats at anchor on a weekend day but I think this was Monday and I was one of three or four boats in the bay. Ok time to go below and start the diesel in-case I pull anchor, starts up and then the wind hits with a BLAST , well it was fast moving and most of the heavy storms pass to east of me, gust to 54mph but short lived, all is well , but maybe not! I went on deck and watched the storm line heading away from me at a high rate of speed, I then noticed my lightning rod was gone! I went below and hit the MOB on my GPS, i did not know when I lost the rod but assume the first wind blast probably caused its loss, so I did not know where I was on when it went overboard as I had lots of swing on the long anchor scope.
My lightning rod is about 10 inches long 3/4 diameter SS with a very sharp pointed end, the other end is flat , a couple inches from the flat end is a flat side that has a threaded hole that a wire ring terminal is bolted, the ring terminal is the termination point of a heavy welding cable, the other end of the cable has a ring terminal bolted to a copper plate approximately 18 x 12 inch x 1/8 thick, this plate is held about 4 feet away from the side of the bout and is about 5 feet below water. The rod simply sits inside a vhf antenna extension post, they are quit strong , my post is on a SS antenna mount that allows the post to hinge down next to the bridge when not in use, this mount is new to me as it is rail mounted, I have never used this type of mount. when I realized the rod was gone the reason was obvious as the rail mount mount had rotated 90 degrees on the rail it was mounted to and had simply slipped out of the pole and went to the bottom!

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I needed allot of luck and a strong hook or something to drag on the bottom 25 feet down to try to snag the welding cable, I had nothing on board for the task! the following day I did some travels down memory lane exploring the area I grew up in and did my boating in, tried to find a bait shop to buy a large drail to use to snag my cable but no water front shops round anymore. on with my trip. I met up with my brothers a week later and was given a big drail to try if I should stop at Zachs bay on my return trip . a couple of weeks later I did stop for a night in Zachs bay, this time it was Saturday and the bay was packed, I brought up ths MOB position and did my best to get close to the spot all while getting lots of dirty looks from other boaters anchord up that I was getting too close to! I am on the upper bridge and am using a remote controlled windless, my first drop had me far from my target spot by the time i set the hook. Time to travel again I would lift the anchor untill my chain paint color told me the anchor was about to come out of the water, I did not want to bring amuddy anchor onboard , I tried to re position about 6 times but every time I got close to the spot I wanted to be to drop the hook the wind would grab my bow and turn me off course and I had to try again, now I am getting looks that could only be read as "look at this looser he can not anchor a boat ", I could not understand why my bow kept getting blown to the side as the boat is heavy for her size and is not very tender in a blow! on my next atempt two guy stood on there little 20 footer day boat that was decorated with two bikini clad beuties and waved and pointed the yelled that there was something wrong with my anchor, I could not see the anchor from the bridge, I went to the bow and looked down to see my anchor wrapped with another anchor and anchor chain and...............................................................MY LIGHTNING ROD ASSM!!
evedently the first and only anchor drop landed right on top of my ROD and another anchor, look at the deck picture, you will see the orange welting cable and the copper plate and look hard and you can just see the SS pointed rod!

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fire isand

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Skimmer yacht

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Skimmer yacht

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lower helm

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lower helm

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lower helm