Bow thruster battery advice

[Murflynn]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

If it happens again, it could be worth trying to 'spring-off', its a common 'lumpy-water' manoeuvre where you can have strong onshore winds and tides pushing you all over the place.

 

https://www.yachtingmonthly.com/sailing-skills/springing-on-and-off-29899

 

 

 

 

not quite so easy in a sewer tube - the hull needs a bit of shape in the plan view.

[Tony Brooks]

24 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

not quite so easy in a sewer tube - the hull needs a bit of shape in the plan view.

 

I usually fund it easier to spring the bow round when Leaving Calcutt's pump out wharf against the wind but if there are no land side bollards to drop the line over it is hard/impossible. I tried springing off the bank with a strong onto bank wind and although the bow sprung out easily enough it had blown back in by the time I had retried a mooring pin and then a piling hook. Just a typical rounded stern Colecraft hull.

[Detling]

Since the engine is running when you are using your bow thruster the initial battery voltage will be high as it is on charge. I have two batteries for mine at the bow,  so that the drop caused by pulling 200 Amps is less than from one battery. Even then anything over a gently breeze will win and I have never tried to fight a current. Having been brought up with sticks, cloth and string boats on the Bristol Channel, you soon learnt fighting a current was a mugs game, the tide there can reach 7 knots in places.   Steering in reverse is the best use of a bow thruster.

[TheBiscuits]

Just now, Tony Brooks said:

I tried springing off the bank with a strong onto bank wind and although the bow sprung out easily enough it had blown back in by the time I had retried a mooring pin and then a piling hook.

Mooring pin behind the armco (I'm assuming there is some if you were trying a piling hook!), line through the eye.  Just flick it up as you engage forward then sort the line out while underway - or stow it as a mess to be sorted later.

 

It is admittedly much easier with fixed bollards or rings (use a bight so you can just pull it free without stepping off the boat.)

[Alan de Enfield]

As my reply was to the poster who was trying to get of a fuel-berth, I was of a mind that it would have Bollards or rings so not a problem.

On Armco I have done as the Biscuits suggests and it works OK

[mrsmelly]

2 hours ago, BEngo said:

Spring off, and on,  are both quite common manouevres for HM' s war canoes.  Neither are likely to be particularly popular with the XO/First Lieutenant or the Buffer because of the damage to paint and squashed fenders which can result.

I think the first time I saw it was HMS Intrepid in a severe gale in Nassau. Got alongside eventually and spent the weekend at 4 hours notice while the seaman department were using hurricane hawsers as springs to try and stop the ship surging backwards and forwards.

I seem to recall that a bottle of local rum there was cheaper than a bottle of Coca-Cola to put in it.

 

N

Indeed, we used to spring off a hell of a lot in various places and for various reasons. The three warships I sailored on were only little but the 30,000 hp engines meant they were extremely manouverable and even high winds when pinned ashore could be overcome. Happy days of proper boating innitt.

[Momac]

9 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

 

Its a toy for beginner boaters, no working boats ever found the need.

I imagine you also think servo assisted brakes , ABS, power steering,  and automatic transmission on cars are also toys  for beginners. Or maybe you think cars are toys for beginners and everyone should travel on foot or horseback.

 

While I do agree it is wise to learn how to handle a boat without a bow thruster I think they are a useful aid .

 

.

[blackrose]

On 02/04/2020 at 09:53, Tracy D'arth said:

Learn to control the boat in windy conditions and leave the BT alone. They don't last long if over used. Check that the prop has not got lots of rubbish on it, if you have it will wear through your possibly un-blacked bow  tube and you will sink.

 

Utter nonsense. The plastic BT prop blade would bend or the shear pin holding it on would break long before that ever happened.

On 02/04/2020 at 09:53, Tracy D'arth said:

 

Its a toy for beginner boaters, no working boats ever found the need.

 

No working horse-drawn boats ever found the need for a diesel engine, but no doubt as a beginner you have such a toy?

 

Just because something wasn't available at the time doesn't necessarily mean people wouldn't have opted for it given the choice. Old working boats didn't have inverters, battery chargers, full length superstructures, etc, etc. The list is endless. 

 

I didn't have a BT on my first boat but for single handling my 30 tonne widebeam I do find it useful on occasion. I can move quite happily without it though and after 18 years of living on boats and plenty of cruising I think I'm justified in no linger considering myself a beginner.

Edited April 3, 2020 by blackrose

[Murflynn]

8 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

 

No working horse-drawn boats ever found the need for a diesel engine, but no doubt as a beginner you have such a toy?

wot 'e said.

 

when I had a 57ft widebeam in a marina berth I had to reverse 100 yds with the prevailing wind on the beam;  some of the boats I had to pass had bowsprits sticking out halfway across the narrow channel between moored boats.

it would not have been possible to get safely into my berth without the vetus.

 

[Iain_S]

On 02/04/2020 at 15:17, robtheplod said:

My bow thruster is useless in windy conditions. Was once stuck as a fuel jetty for 2 hours waiting for wind to drop!

Barton Turns Marina is notoeious for that. When we moored there, I found that a stern spring was ineffective, due to the length and narrowness of the boat. Solution was bow spring, then reverse back to opposite the marina entrance (a comparatively easy reverse, with the wind on the stern) and then either turn towards our mooring or turn towards the entrance/exit.

[Richard10002]

5 hours ago, Iain_S said:

Barton Turns Marina is notoeious for that. 

Having sailed the high seas for over 30 years, including a Foreign Going Second Mates Certificate in 1983, a Yachtmaster Certificate in 2007, during a sailing trip from UK to Malta and back between 2006 and 2009, we bought our 45 ft narrowboat at Barton Turns in 2011.

 

My first manouevre was to reverse out of the berth, our goal being the fuel berth but, in the wind, only making it as far as the rushes at the wrong end of the channel, and being pinned there by the wind. Someone gave me some specific instructions from the stern of their moored boat, and we managed to make it to the fuel berth. What a bloody mess!!

[howardang]

34 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

Having sailed the high seas for over 30 years, including a Foreign Going Second Mates Certificate in 1983, a Yachtmaster Certificate in 2007, during a sailing trip from UK to Malta and back between 2006 and 2009, we bought our 45 ft narrowboat at Barton Turns in 2011.

 

My first manouevre was to reverse out of the berth, our goal being the fuel berth but, in the wind, only making it as far as the rushes at the wrong end of the channel, and being pinned there by the wind. Someone gave me some specific instructions from the stern of their moored boat, and we managed to make it to the fuel berth. What a bloody mess!!

Ah, but were your chart corrections up to date?

 

I had a colleague who was one of the top salvage experts in the world and he decided to take his family on the Leeds Liverpool having never done it before. They went up the Springs Branch and he managed to run hard and fast aground in the middle of the channel. After a long period trying to get off without success, another boat came round the corner and dragged him off, with my friend muttering to his wife on pain of death not to mention what he did for a living. Needless to say someone did and six weeks later there was an account of the rescue in Waterways World which was promptly pinned up on our office notice board, much to his disgust and with lots of leg pulling! I wouldn't worry too much about it - it happens to us all at one time or another!

 

Howard

[WotEver]

9 hours ago, howardang said:

Ah, but were your chart corrections up to date?

 

I had a colleague who was one of the top salvage experts in the world and he decided to take his family on the Leeds Liverpool having never done it before. They went up the Springs Branch and he managed to run hard and fast aground in the middle of the channel. After a long period trying to get off without success, another boat came round the corner and dragged him off, with my friend muttering to his wife on pain of death not to mention what he did for a living. Needless to say someone did and six weeks later there was an account of the rescue in Waterways World which was promptly pinned up on our office notice board, much to his disgust and with lots of leg pulling! I wouldn't worry too much about it - it happens to us all at one time or another!

 

Howard

My first ever trip on a narrowboat was on a borrowed little 29ft trad. The owner told me not to worry about winding holes, it was so short that you could just nose into the far bank and turn anywhere. So I did that on what appeared to my inexperienced eye to be a ‘wide bit’ and raised the bow hard and fast onto the collapsed offside bank. After rocking the boat and creating huge clouds of mud around the stern for many minutes to no avail a couple of burly lads walking down the towpath suggested we throw them a line. They then slowly and steadily pulled us off. 
 

I felt very silly.