I have just recently discovered this and it is my DUTY to inform the sailing public of this phenomenon.  "Boat Molting" is defined as the act of shedding external fittings/equipage for some unknown reason.  This has been going on for some time now and I am hoping that the boat will split up the back and a brand new 36 footer will emerge!

It all started last summer with the addition of a brand new stern rail mounted gas barbecue.  A couple of weeks and about a thousand wakes later, the grill mysteriously disappeared from the rail.  I had originally blamed it on a case of "grill-i-cide".  One of our marina neighbors fished it up two weeks later and I cleaned it up and placed it back on the pulpit.  At the end of the season, while removing the jib, a bal-lok pin jumped over the side.  This was followed smartly by a 7/16 open end wrench.  I figured that maybe the wrench was performing some kind of rescue and forgot the basics of buoyancy but it may have been some kind of copy-cat action.  We stored the boat for the winter uneventfully (is that a word?).

At the beginning of this season we changed marinas (a whole story in itself).  While pulling away from our slip for the first time, the boat ran over to a nearby piling and like a cat rubbing against your leg, rubbed the piling down along the starboard side until it reached the barbecue.  The grill sheared off cleanly and headed quickly for the bottom of the Mystic River.  We did the "yachting wave" and continued on as if this was an everyday occurrence.  Rather than the grill acting on it's own it now appeared to be the boat doing this.

Three weeks later a diver retrieved the grill.  A good cleaning, new regulator and mounting bolts and as good as new.  The grill now has spent five weeks under water.  I believe it qualifies for the coveted Polaris Deterrent Patrol Pin (attack boat submariner humor, please disregard).

This year I had to hastily mount a windex on the mast after the electronic wind direction dammit won the "what didn't get connected properly when we stepped the mast" contest we have every year.  Last year it was the Anchor Light.  The stage was now set.

We abruptly ended one sailing venture in a one of the fast moving mystery squalls that seem to be prevalent this season.  On our way back to the marina, a fender jumped ship.  The "yachting wave" bid farewell to it as we had just made the turn into the marina and had no room to maneuver for recovery.  Two fenders would still do.  After safely securing the boat to our slip, my Useta-Glow watch peeled off my wrist with my foul weather gear and headed for the bottom under the boat.  Bye.

This is starting to get expensive.  Some time during the following week, a second fender departed.  Fender poachers?  Did it leave in search of it's mate?  We'll never know but I do know I CHECKED them after the first one departed.  On our next underway I noticed the no-sail markers on the windex were starting to move around.  Hmmmm.  Soon, there was just one marker.  I was going to have to go up there and find out what was happening.   Uhhh,  maybe next week.  The arrow dammit still pointed to the apparent wind so we were fine.

 

We have a new member of the Junk Food Evening Sailing Crew.  I will call him "Hawk Eye".  This man can pick out buoys in fog before the radar can.  I swear he can see in the Police Band.  Anyway, we were outbound on the diesel, sorting out our junk food order and discussing which one of us was most likely to have a junkfood-inspired coronary, when this molting thing took an ugly turn.

Something fluttered down into the bottom of the cockpit.  An aluminum rod with a plastic piece.  The last no sail marker from the windex!!!!!  What luck!  It could've gone over the side!  Before we had even had time to revel in our good fortune something else rained from the sky.  It reminded me of one of the battle scenes from Brave Heart.  A 15 inch plastic arrow flew down and embedded itself in the back of Hawk Eye's hand!  The tip broke off but remained (1/4 inch).   NASTY  We had a Band-Aid ready for when we extracted the tip and no whiskey for the pain or glowing iron to finish the job but we made do.  Hawk Eye's a brave man and no MedEvac was required.

How far will this go?  I think we will get hard-hats until we can rid ourselves of this curse.  Could this be the revenge of the Loctite/Lock-Wire/Bowline Knot demons?  Stay tuned!