Boating accident

[Richard T]

This article has recently appeared on Facebook. A man reversing a boat was swept off the stern by the tiller and into the prop. He's lucky to be alive.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scots-grandad-organs-mangled-after-22664025?fbclid=IwY2xjawFONTxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHfuklLUjeuyuYu-HBmGBLlFNweiTgcDyk9OQ2JRjFzOVtyQSXxcVnDTQ5w_aem_BfOxIrKBUA-xVmIAlRKUUQ

It appears that the accident happened in 2020 - so is old news. Why it has just turned up on FB I don't know!!

Edited September 11 by Richard T

[haggis]

Although this terrible accident happened a few years ago it is a timely reminder to be careful where you stand when steering a boat 

[nicknorman]

Although it says Northamptonshire, wasn’t this one near Autherley Junction? Or is it another one?

[Bee]

Terrible accident. There but for fortune........ If you are reversing and the rudder touches something, e.g. the bank that tiller will sweep round with unstoppable force.  

[nicknorman]

1 minute ago, Bee said:

Terrible accident. There but for fortune........ If you are reversing and the rudder touches something, e.g. the bank that tiller will sweep round with unstoppable force.  

And yet people still stand within the arc of the tiller, hire boats still have seating within the arc of the tiller.

[davem399]

28 minutes ago, Richard T said:

This article has recently appeared on Facebook. A man reversing a boat was swept off the stern by the tiller and into the prop. He's lucky to be alive.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scots-grandad-organs-mangled-after-22664025?fbclid=IwY2xjawFONTxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHfuklLUjeuyuYu-HBmGBLlFNweiTgcDyk9OQ2JRjFzOVtyQSXxcVnDTQ5w_aem_BfOxIrKBUA-xVmIAlRKUUQ

It appears that the accident happened in 2020 - so is old news. Why it has just turned up on FB I don't know!!

The date of the article is 11/9/20, and if posted on FB the same day, it might have reappeared on its 4th anniversary?  Coincidentally, I had a FB memory of a family day out from the same date turn up today.

Edited September 11 by davem399

[Mike Tee]

   It always makes me shudder when I see a young child stood or sat next to the steerer in the arc of the tiller. No point saying anything, they always know better.

[Alan de Enfield]

46 minutes ago, Mike Tee said:

   It always makes me shudder when I see a young child stood or sat next to the steerer in the arc of the tiller. No point saying anything, they always know better.

 

And, there are folks (even on here) who say it doesn't happen, or, is such a miniscule risk it can be ignored.

[Stroudwater1]

51 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

And, there are folks (even on here) who say it doesn't happen, or, is such a miniscule risk it can be ignored.

I doubt anyone is saying it’s no risk when reversing, or suddenly swinging the tiller. People say the risk when sitting on back rails cruising where sight ahead is good is minuscule. This seems to be right. It’s hard to see the rudder can be forcibly pushed so far over when travelling forward in the middle of a canal, even with a heavy submerged item. 
 

It looks like a Napton hire boat so could be Autherley or Napton. However IIRC the Autherley incident was last year and the poor person I believe may have died. 
 

Such a sad story though. 

[nicknorman]

8 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

I doubt anyone is saying it’s no risk when reversing, or suddenly swinging the tiller. People say the risk when sitting on back rails cruising where sight ahead is good is minuscule. This seems to be right. It’s hard to see the rudder can be forcibly pushed so far over when travelling forward in the middle of a canal, even with a heavy submerged item. 
 

It looks like a Napton hire boat so could be Autherley or Napton. However IIRC the Autherley incident was last year and the poor person I believe may have died. 
 

Such a sad story though. 

 

I'm not sure why you think that. Most rudders have a large area of plate in front of the pivot to reduce rudder forces, which could catch in something expecially when the rudder isn't central. Our boat has a relatively small area in front of the pivot (high tiller forces) but I still managed to get a tiller hard-over when it caught on a submerged shopping trolley going forwards (fortunately very slowly). Even though the tiller didn't move that fast due to our low speed, it was quite impossible to stop it.

Edited September 11 by nicknorman

[Tonka]

i believe the incident was seen by a member on here. i believe it was nearer June than Septemer

[Naughty Cal]

1 hour ago, Stroudwater1 said:

I doubt anyone is saying it’s no risk when reversing, or suddenly swinging the tiller. People say the risk when sitting on back rails cruising where sight ahead is good is minuscule. This seems to be right. It’s hard to see the rudder can be forcibly pushed so far over when travelling forward in the middle of a canal, even with a heavy submerged item. 
 

It looks like a Napton hire boat so could be Autherley or Napton. However IIRC the Autherley incident was last year and the poor person I believe may have died. 
 

Such a sad story though. 

It does happen though.

 

There was a chap thrown over board by his tiller on the Trent, it will be some years ago now. His boat had been heading downstream when the incident happened. His body was never recovered despite an extensive search.

[cuthound]

4 hours ago, haggis said:

Although this terrible accident happened a few years ago it is a timely reminder to be careful where you stand when steering a boat 

 

Absolutely, and although the risk is greatest when reversing, it can also happen when going forward.

 

Back in the early 90's I was steering our first shareboat along the Coventry canal near Pooley when it ran over something submerged. The front rose and fell, followed by the rear, so I suspect it was a submerged 205 litre drum. Fortunately I was steering from within the hatches, because as the stern of the boat fell, the tiller was wrenched violently sideways and out of my hands.

 

Had I been standing next to the tiller, like you see so many people doing, I could easily have been pushed into the water.

[haggis]

A boat has just gone past ( trad stern)  with the male standing in the hatches and the female who was driving standing right on the back beside the swans neck ( both feet on the raised bit). It was a private boat and you would think they would know better. Obviously  not members on here 😀

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Perhaps they most likely stand like that so they can see down the side of the boat - they get a clearer view of the things/structures they hit. 
 

[Tam & Di]

I always find it odd when I see a steerer leaping from side to side. People obviously have different capabilities, but I seldom need to look over the side, even coming into a lock. If I do ever look, if it is a lock or bridge that I know the boat will clear I only look on one side - if that side is OK then the other side has to be.

[David Mack]

3 hours ago, Tam & Di said:

I always find it odd when I see a steerer leaping from side to side.

Some years back we overnighted alongside a couple on a widebeam in Bristol Floating Harbour. As they set off the next morning the wife was steering. She was only about 5ft tall, and with the cabin roof stacked up with potted plants, bags of coal and all the other paraphernalia of liveaboards, she obviously couldn't see a thing over the top, but the cabin was so wide that neither could she see anything either side from the tiller. So we watched them depart with her leaping from one side of the deck to the other as the boat zigzagged it's way across the open water of the harbour. Goodness knows how they coped with the confines of a canal!

[IanD]

5 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Some years back we overnighted alongside a couple on a widebeam in Bristol Floating Harbour. As they set off the next morning the wife was steering. She was only about 5ft tall, and with the cabin roof stacked up with potted plants, bags of coal and all the other paraphernalia of liveaboards, she obviously couldn't see a thing over the top, but the cabin was so wide that neither could she see anything either side from the tiller. So we watched them depart with her leaping from one side of the deck to the other as the boat zigzagged it's way across the open water of the harbour. Goodness knows how they coped with the confines of a canal!

We nearly had a head-on collision with a boat who had so much stuff and plants on the roof that the steerer didn't see us coming the other way and just carried on down the middle of the canal... 😞

[mrsmelly]

Not many years ago a hirer was killed at Cropredy on iirc a Kate boat? She went into the prop in the lock, we were stuck for quite a while understandably. She had two teenage kids onboard at the time. No one's fault, just inexperienced and terrible luck combined.

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, IanD said:

We nearly had a head-on collision with a boat who had so much stuff and plants on the roof that the steerer didn't see us coming the other way and just carried on down the middle of the canal... 😞

Same here right on the wide bit before Nantwich 

[LadyG]

I had a hire boat nearly took my window out yesterday, I was moored.

Apparently he needed to turn roound 180, but obviously had no experience , and wind was quite strong.

I see his paint on my fender, so there was some contact.

There was no point in me railing, at him, by good luck he managed to avoid actually hitting me hard, no apology I dont thnnk he had any idea how much damage he could have done. Certainly a few thousand if he'd hit the cabin . I wondered if he pays or the hire company pays?

Edited September 11 by LadyG

[ditchcrawler]

48 minutes ago, LadyG said:

  Certainly a few thousand if he'd hit the cabin . I wondered if he pays or the hire company pays?

Its called insurance

[LadyG]

30 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Its called insurance

Not my insurance, its the hire company or the hirer are at fault.

[Ianws]

Given the original topic, at least nobody was hurt in this "incident". And it sounds like your boat was unscathed. 

[TheBiscuits]

7 hours ago, LadyG said:

I had a hire boat nearly took my window out yesterday, I was moored.

Apparently he needed to turn roound 180, but obviously had no experience , and wind was quite strong.

 

Are you moored in a winding hole?  There's not many of the hire boats up there that can turn round in the usual width of the canal.