Scaryest Boating Moment?

[WotEver]

yes,it is accepted that you may "have it on good authority"but,are you willing to produce solid evidence attesting to your statement,or will go "scarce" once required to do so?

Yes dear, you just have to be patient.

[mayalld]

We fully understand

 

PHYLIS dear girl!

 

How delightful to see you.

 

There are those in another thread who feared that you might have been driven away. I have told them that this is not so, and that I remain confident that your document scanning will soon be complete.

[Guest]

PHYLIS dear girl!

 

How delightful to see you.

 

There are those in another thread who feared that you might have been driven away. I have told them that this is not so, and that I remain confident that your document scanning will soon be complete.

 

[carlt]

It would have also meant that someone would have to had to go outside in heavy swell - lethal!

 

Whilst agreeing with all your other points, the last place I'd want to be, in heavy swell, is inside a narrowboat.

 

Outside, Safety line clipped on (but ready to unclip at short notice) and wearing lifjacket is where you'd find me and all my crew...

[kiki]

Worst boating moment, not on a narrowboat, was a force 12 outside Hong Kong on a 12,000 freighter, 3 days of monstrous seas, and listening to the radio as ships went down, and the Chinese trying manfully to get helicopters up to rescue at sea - I will never forget it.

[mrsmelly]

Trying to monitor batteries without a SMARTGUAGE.....

 

No...seriously....it was our second week of owning a boat...bought from...surveyed by a Braunston recommended surveyor at BIG cost...and mended by Braunston.

 

I was on my way around the more celubrious parts of Birmingham...

Put the boat into reverse...and it started making lots of noise....so assumed I picked up some crud on the prop.

Eventually moored up and opened the rear hatch.

The nuts and bolts that hold the stern tube to a steel hull crossmember..had come out...

As I reversed..I had unscrewed the stern tube from the hull...and there was a rather large hole that was letting in lots of water..

The surveyor had ...maybe..negelcted to test the bilge pump...as it didn't work....and so I had to go head first down the hatch...stretch under the water...and find the stern tube...and try and screw it back in...!!

 

Funny thing (Braunston)...when I eventually drained and dried the bilge...I only found two bolts and one nut(standard nut...not Nylock...and no washers ) !!

The work they had done...had been on the coupling.

 

My surveyor...'washed his hands of it all'...saying it must have been all OK when he surveyed the boat.

Having once spent 3 years suing a council...who had admitted liability in writing 2 weeks after I had an accident....I decided...to walk away...and 'move on'

 

bob

 

And that is precisely why I have never had nor ever will have a could be/ might do/ should etc etc etc survey they cost loadsa money are never written with a straight yes or no and not worth the price of the paper they are printed on.

[Gibbo]

You'll remember the sea anchor next time.

 

 

The anchor was readily at hand. 600 feet of rope wasn't.

[cereal tiller]

Worst boating moment, not on a narrowboat, was a force 12 outside Hong Kong on a 12,000 freighter, 3 days of monstrous seas, and listening to the radio as ships went down, and the Chinese trying manfully to get helicopters up to rescue at sea - I will never forget it.

hi

why were you there,where you working on the ship?

[nb Innisfree]

The time when the canal breached and us and our 60' nb were swept into a cobbled street, we managed to keep going for a while before we ended up high and dry in a cul de sac.

 

Boy was I glad to wake up.

[NickF]

Mine (so far) was lifting the engine cover to find 3" of canal water on the floor, and having pumped/mopped it out, seeing a steady trickle/flow from the stern tube welds ... and it was 8.30 at night! That Sinking Feeling

Mine would be coming out of Minshull lock (middlewhich branch shroppie)having gone down in 2001. Just as I was coming out of the lock the brake on a JCB on the bank failed and it rolled backwards down the embankment and ended up on it's back in the canal in front of me with its shovel in the air. at which point it slowly began to topple towards my boat with the shovel missing my bow by about six feet and splashing my son and mother in law who were sat on the front deck. If I had been 30 seconds earlier or a bit slower going into full astern ........well it doesn't bear thinking about. We were stuck for about six hours while BW cleared it but I happy to wait I was just so relieved we weren't under it.

Nick

[Teadaemon]

I've had a few, but the most recent was last September...

 

I'm a member of the Friends of Hunter's Yard, home of the Norfolk Heritage Fleet, and had arranged to take my mum, wife and son (5) out sailing on the annual Friend's Picnic. A gentle chug down the River Thurne to the EACC moorings at Thurne Mouth on board the Princess Katherine (the 60' trip boat that normally operates out of Potter Heigham), lunch, and a sail back on board one of the yachts. In the morning the weather wasn't great, but we set off for the yard (not far, given that we live in Ludham), and got on board ready to set off. There's a bit of a delay, and eventually the organiser gets on board and tells us that the party who were going to sail our yacht on the outward leg haven't arrived, so if we want to sail we'll have to sail there and back. Not a problem, with the help of the yard staff we get Hustler 5 reefed down as far as she'll go (3 in the main, 1 in the jib), get the sails up, and set off down Womack Dyke. All seems ok, although out of the wind shadow of the sheds and trees at the yard it appears to be getting stronger and more gusty, and whenever we've got the wind behind us I'm constantly looking out for a gybe (the big gaff rigs are great to sail in light winds, but an uncontrolled gybe in a force 6 is quite capable of breaking gaff and/or mast).

 

About half way to Thurne Mouth, a gust hits, and for the only time in my life I'm seriously worried that I'm about to sail the boat under. I've sailed these boats a lot, and green water splashing over the side decks is fun. I can assure you, green water up to the top of the cabin is not fun. I did about the only thing I could do - let go of the tiller and ease out the main, which caused the boat to slew into the wind and head across the river, but also slowing us down and returning us to a more even keel.

 

Regaining composure, we carried on. The next challenge happened when we got to the EACC moorings (which are directly opposite the windpump and dyke down to the Lion Inn). I went past the moorings and turned to tack back up the river and land. All was ok until we got to the entrance to the dyke, when we found ourselves in an interesting situation of wind against tide, and flukey, gusting wind eddying around the windpump. Three times I tried to tack across the river onto the EACC moorings. The first two times I had plenty of water to bear off and try again when she refused to tack through the wind, on the third try we were running out of space, so I passed the helm to my mum (who has more than 30years of experience of Broads sailing and is perfectly capable of controlling a yacht), and made my way to the foredeck to step off on the opposite bank and make us fast. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite quick enough, and by the time I'd got the mooring rope we'd bounced a couple of feet back into the river and a gust pushed our bows around, and we started sailing down the dyke (which had a fair few boats moored on both sides). At that point I realised that if we didn't sort ourselves out, in 300m we were going to sail an irreplaceable piece of Norfol's boating heritage up a slipway. Fortunately, all that experience sailing these boats in the past came into play, and we got the sails down quickly, if not neatly (my mum and wife couldn't manage the topping lift, so we dropped the main by loosing off the peak and gaff halyards, which caused everything to drop straight onto the cabin top). We even found a nice clear section of bank to come alongside (sailing on bare poles), so we didn't even have to go for my normal reserve option (if a collision with something has become unavoidable), of aiming for the hire cruiser with the biggest/most fenders and hoping for the best.

 

All ok in the end, but I was so shaken up that once I'd stepped ashore it took me 10 minutes to roll myself a cigarette, I was shaking so much. Fortunately the organiser had seen our plight (we weren't the only yacht to end up moored on the wrong side of the river), and arranged with the yard to send a motorised dory out to tow us back to the yard. (A few days later I popped in with a large tin of Cadbury's Roses as a thank you gift.)

Edited September 1, 2011 by Teadaemon

[Higgs]

Having to paint a boat with £2,500 of AwlGRip 2 pack. Having no spare. I was too scared to waste even an egg-cup full.

 

I had humidity gauges all over the place. Temperature gauges for the steel, for the air at ground level and at roof height. The paint was kept in it's own room with heater, had full english breakfast and en-suite.

 

The job over-ran by about two weeks. My years of experience counted for nothing. It went on lovely then kept dulling off. I called the agents, they stood around scratching heads.

 

In the end, they sent me some lacquer. That did it and it shone. I was a nervous wreck and smoking again.

Edited September 1, 2011 by Higgs

[Bloomsberry]

24 hours into acquiring my first narrowboat and single handedly steering it new moorings, I had left the water pump switched on and whilst on the move the water filter split and emptied the contents of the tank into the cabin while I was blissfully unaware steering the boat. This caused the bow to rise and the water traveled to the back of boat where the majority had collected in the bilge.

 

I had bought a small 12v pump and this was a godsend in bailing out most of the water. The cabin smelt for weeks afterwards and in the end decided to get rid of the old stinking carpet tiles and replace them.These were stuck down with copious amounts of strong glue and in the end had to resort to using a hot air stripper in the end, each tile taking an age to lift.

 

Welcome to the world of Narrowboat ownership !