Closest to disaster....

[Doorman]

Which is why you should always have a weak link in the chains holding your bow fender - hacksaw through one side of a link.

 

David

 

Better still, have no chains holding the bow fender down against the stem at all. We only have top chains holding ours and it doesn't cause any problems, now we've got the hang of 'Locking'.

 

Mike

[MoominPapa]

Better still, have no chains holding the bow fender down against the stem at all. We only have top chains holding ours

Ours is the same, but it's not complete insurance. Our closest moment to disaster was when the bow fender wedged under a lock-gate timber whilst coming up in a Grand Union lock. The bow was distinctly down and the stern up when I noticed and dropped the paddles. If I hadn't we'd have either sunk the boat or pulled the gate out of its socket.

 

MP.

[Guest]

Better still, have no chains holding the bow fender down against the stem at all. We only have top chains holding ours and it doesn't cause any problems, now we've got the hang of 'Locking'.

 

Mike

 

Ditto - ours 'hangs' nicely in position on it's chains but readily slides up and over the stem if it was to hang on anything.

[Doorman]

That's why I think children should be surpervised at locks and health & safety should apply. If not for them then for us.

 

We had a similar experience whilst cruising along the Staffs & Worcs canal with our friends.

 

Whenever we go cruising together, we always help single handers along the locks knowing how difficult it can be for them. On this occasion, while attending to the other boater, we'd opened the bottom paddles of the lock my wife was waiting to enter, in readiness for our return so that the lock would be set. Some of the crew of the boat behind ours (a man and his two teenage daughters), proceeded up to the lock and opened the gates to allow my wife to enter.

 

Once safely in the lock, my wife thanked the chap but asked if he would discourage his girls from raising the paddles, as our 40 footer had a tendency to lurch back and forward in the chamber if the paddles were raised too quickly. Obviously in a hurry to progress, he ignored my wife's plea and allowed his offspring to rack up the paddles with great enthusiasm. As she'd previously experienced, the boat shot forward then back with the onsurge of water.

 

Returning to the lock, my wife's expression was enough to explain what had transpired. Because we were going to be leading the way infront of this chap along the series of locks, I reminded him about the dangers of inconsiderate lock wheeling and again asked if the girls could refrain from doing it. The chap, who was probably in his forties, took the huff and bellowed that he and his family had been boating for years and they knew exactly what they were doing! Just then, his elderly father arrived from their boat enquiring as to what had unfolded. He took his arrogant son to one side and had a quiet word in his ear.

 

From that point onwards, the girls would come along side the locks, await the signal from my wife then slowly raise the paddles. Their father on the other hand would skulk along with them, without uttering another word of his reputed wisdom.

 

So yes, I agree with your sentiment about children being supervised at locks, even if they are forty years old!

Edited December 22, 2011 by Doorman

[Barry]

Have a greenie that man

[Doorman]

Ours is the same, but it's not complete insurance.

MP.

 

Very true! Is this not why the old working boats used to raise their bow fenders whilst in the locks?

 

Mike

[jonathanA]

But how would this have helped in the situation you described?

 

David

 

It doesnt - the situation IMHO could have been avoided if the hire boat had had fenders on. (diving for cover - Incoming)

 

however the rope does give her a feeling of more control and helps avoid getting the boat diagonally across when in wide locks (opening the ground paddle on the same side isn't always enough)

 

the point is these near misses aren't always about physical damage they can seriously affect your confidence too

 

Jon

[muddywaters]

Right here's our near disaster and I admit it was my fault for doing something stupid, but in my defense it was only my second time on a boat and first time on a river so it was more down to a lack of experience.

When we did the StourPort Ring Went down onto the Severn at Diglis Basin and headed up the Severn towards StourPort.

As it was our first time on the Severn and I never thought to ask before leaving the hire base we did not know what the procedure was when approaching the manned locks on the Severn.

So when we see the first lock I spotted what I assumed was a lock landing so thinking the procedure would be to put someone ashore to go and see the lock keeper.

Anyway as we are approaching this assumed lock landing (which turned out to be the pontoon at the camphouse) I got a little to close to the bank and the rudder caught on a rock.

So we are on the Severn with no rudder as we could not get it back into place.

After a number of attempts to get onto the pontoon with the rudder as it was I noticed that the current was pushing the bow towards the pontoon we had tried to get into, so I let the boat get turned this way and then opened the engine up to hopefully get in this way, after trying this 4 or 5 times and the OH not being able to get ashore from the front I tried something else, told her to try and get ashore from the back which with it being a cruiser stern she as able to when I swung the back in.

Oh and as for the rudder we could not get it back into place and neither could the crew from another boat that breasted up to us

[MartinClark]

 

No doubt someone can remind me which lock it was now.

 

Steve

 

Looks like Cadbury/Welford Lock. No road access.

[Laurence Hogg]

The thing I find hard to reconcile about that photograph is how nonchalant the crew look. It's almost as if the guy on the roof is saying to his mate "well I've had a cuppa and a bit of a think about it and on balance I think I agree something's probably not right." Did Progress require any remedial steelwork after refloating?

 

There was no damage whatsoever apart from the natural embarassment! The crew look relaxed because that ohotgraph was taken after the tide had fully receded and was obviously the boat was not going to tip further. Prior to this things were much more fraught as no one had any idea how far she was going to submerge at the stern. The stern is watertight right to the top of the cabin doors but testing it that day was not pre arranged!

[stuart23]

OK...back over 20 years ago on a hire boat...when shown the ropes, the instructor had tightened up the weed hatch with his hand..on previous trips I'd used a hammer to lightly tap it tight...but on this holiday I did what I was shown and tightened just with my hand (are you getting where this is going???)...so we were going along the southern Oxford and there was this funny gurgling noise...at the same time someone inside the boat says 'Is there meant to be water on the floor?'...the gurgling was the exhaust outlet dipping under water...my quick thinking other half grabs the tiller and heads towards the bank and luckily on the southern Oxford the edge of the canal was not well maintained and we went aground, I lifted the deck board to see water pouring in through the weed hatch....switched the engine off and at the same time pressed the bilge pump...which worked and the outlet was not below the water level. As we were doing this a BW launch (they had them in those days) came past ..'Everything OK?'....Oh yes!!...luckily we emptied the enginewell...and then used one of the cooking pans to get the water out of the shower tray...We never told the base what happened, just left them to wonder what had happened to the pan.

[keble]

My "disaster" involved us cruising happily up the Severn on a boiling hot day. I had a packet of biltong on the hatch (an African thing ...) from which I was nibbling. One mouthful didn't taste right, after a while I realised I'd eaten a bee or wasp, which then stung me at the back of my mouth.

This was pretty uncomfortable, to say the least. Managed to pull in at the Severn Motor Yacht Club (IIRC) where SWMBO yelled for help. A kind boater there found us a place to moor and took me to Worcester A&E. By the time I got seen to the swelling had subsided, and I was able to taxi back to the boat. Big thanks to that boater :-)

[jelunga]

The only time we have ever thought that our boat was at risk of not coming out of what we were doing was this year coming back out of Wells on our way home from the Broads. We had already had a great week on the Broads but had been holed up in Wells due to a Force 8 storm blowing out at sea. We were all fed up of being blown around in the harbour and were all getting cabin fever. The weather forecast was changing by the day and wasnt looking to get any better. The dutch chap on the yacht behind us was busy pacing the pontoons with his laptop trying to contact friends and family and let them know he was safe and well but would be late home.

 

Friday looked to be our only chance of leaving Wells that week, the storm,the storm had died down to a Force 5 turning 6. Failing that it was the train home, leave NC at the harbour and come back for her when the weather had calmed down (which we now know would have been a couple of weeks). On Friday morning we woke early to catch the tide and were met with a roar from the sand bar, we knew it would be a bumpy ride over the batr but none of us was prepared for quite how bumpy. The first vessel out a wind farm support boat was thrown around like a rag doll and at this point we realised quite how bad it would be, but it was too late to truna round and head back for the shelter of the harbour, we were commited to going.

 

At first it didnt seem too bad but as we motored further onto the bar the sea kicked up and we were riding waves bigger trough to peak than NC was long. To give her credit where its due she handled the waves beautifully and up until this point didnt give us cause for concern. The concern came when the navigabel channel switched direction so that we were beam onto some quiet large waves and we were now both worried for our and the boats safety. At the wrong moment we both spotted a huge rogue wave which was aiming at us beam on. This wave was much larger than the others and towered over the boat. We tooke the desicion to turn bow into the wave knowing that this could leave us in dangerously shallw water out of the channel and in these conditions would almost certainly be the end of the boat and maybe us. As we turned into the now cresting wave, we didnt know wether NC would hop over it or simply crash through it, our friends who had already tackled this monster turned around looking in vain for a glimpse of NC to see if we were alright (despite their many years at sea this caught them out and was much worse than they anticipated). Eventually after what seemed an eternity NC started to lift her bow and with the throttle on the stops she surged up the wave, clearing the cresting water at the peak of the wave before hurtling down the other side aiming straight at the port hand navigation buoy. In the end we surfed the backside of the wave and with no choice had to go the wrong side of the marker luckily managing to get back into the channel which was by now back to bow into the waves and head out to sea.

 

Once off the bar the sea although still on the rough side wasnt so bad, there was a large swell, but it took us a good 10 minutes to recover from our fright before we could pluck up the courage to see if she would get onto the plane and head for home. The waves were still on the large side around 2m but were swelly with long intervals between them which gave us good conditions to get some speed up and make it back to Boston in time for our locking. Despite the rough exit from wells we made it back and by the time we were approaching Boston the sea had ironed out to near flat, the wash providing excellent shelter from the rough seas beyond.

 

We will still go to Wells this wont put us off but we will keep a closer eye on the weather. This trip alos gave us a flavour of what NC is really capable of, although we far exceeded her design limits this day andwould aim to do the same again. Not your average inland boaters close disaster but ours all the same.

Nice seals around Wells. A small but useful car park. But not a good place to be in crap weather if you are a boat! Glad you made it

[Phil Ambrose]

My near disaster was due to me checking the tide tables and getting it a week out. This meant that when we came in to moorup instead of being bows into the tide it was in fact running 4 or 5 knots in the opposite direction. I stepped of with a line only for the boat to be whipped round in the stream with me hanging on (praying) My wife had to run from the stern to our bow steering position and get some revs on her to bring it all under control again.

 

Phil

[Hair Bear Bunch]

Inland. Dejon 14.

Launched off the trailer as normal, and noticed a strange bubbling/hissing noise. Hmm... must have a puncture in a trailer tyre - never mind, I'll deal with it later, there's boating to be done. So went and parked the car, clamped the trailer, locked the gate to the slipway and walked back to the boat. Threw the keys into the boat and noticed the cork keyring was... err... floating!

It did take a few seconds to register that the orange string tied to the steering wheel that had the drain plug attached to it was still tied to the steering wheel.

It seemed to take forever to rescue the keys, run to the car, run back and unlock the gate, run back to the car, try to get the trailer on the slipway, think for a few secs, remove the wheel clamp, try again, and still got back on the trailer before it sank.

Bung now cable tied to the winch handle spigot so I can't use the winch until I've removed the bung from it.

 

At Sea. Fisher 23, Portsmouth harbour.

Boat was kept on a tidal mooring and not used very often. On this occasion hadn't been run for about 3 months, needless to say it wouldn't start. So, before the battery goes flat let's go back to basics and bleed the diesel through. Full of air so took the oportunity to change filters ect. Bled through and eventually fired up. Left it running for a while while we gave her a bit of a spruce up and give the battery a chance to recharge, then dropped the moorings and putted across to the jetty to unload all the tools ect, easier than transfering to dinghy then jetty. While tied up on the jetty the engine stopped. It'd been running for about an hour and a quick look showed there was still air in the system. Bleed it out, fire it up, leave it running again.

Loveley afternoon and the ammeter showed it was still charging so what the hell we went for a cruise up and down the creek a few times. The water was like glass so we ventured out into the harbour. A couple of laps of the harbour and the sun was still shining so open her up and out into the Solent. It was choppy and breezy but you just pointed this boat at it and it revelled in it.

Somewhere out near Church Bay I.O.W., the following conversation between myself and the boat's owner took place... starting with the owner.

 

Why'd you do that?

Do what?

Stop it.

I didn't stop it, it did that itself.

Why?

Dunno. (removes engine cover) Might still have air in it. Where's the spanner?

What spanner?

The injector spanner.

In the toolbox.

Let's have it then.

The toolbox, on the jetty.

Oh cr@p we're drifting. Where's the anchor?

It's here, under the floor. (produces an anchor)

Where's the warp for it?

In the car.

(groan) Radio?

In the car.

Lifejackets?

In a box with the warp and the radio.

I suppose your phone is in the car as well?

No, I never leave that in the car, I think it's in my coat pocket on the jetty.

 

At this point you start to wonder if the sea toilet works. It was time to get on your knees and... take a close look to see if you can fix it. On the tank side of the filter there was a drip of diesel, a hairline crack that was drawing air when running. A rusty pair of pliers was found in the bilge which with much persuasion were used to crack an injector and a run for home was made very quickly, whith the injector being cracked every so often to keep it running.

Moral - Even if you're not planning on going far, take everything with you.

[Phil Ambrose]

My near disaster was due to me checking the tide tables and getting it a week out. This meant that when we came in to moorup instead of being bows into the tide it was in fact running 4 or 5 knots in the opposite direction. I stepped of with a line only for the boat to be whipped round in the stream with me hanging on (praying) My wife had to run from the stern to our bow steering position and get some revs on her to bring it all under control again.

 

Phil

 

Oh and there's more. I fitted our previous boat up with a bit of kit to give us shore water, plug a hose in the side of hull and away you go, saves the pump and batteries. One day while doing routine checks I found the float switch on bilge pump was a bit erratic. I decided to replace it, took it out, popped to local chandlers, returned 20 mins later to find our boat sitting very low at the stern, heard rushing water and realised i needed to turn of the main supply pronto.

I discovered thar in the 20 mins I had been away with the float switch a hose had popped off the calorifier and as fast as it drained, the mains supply filled it again.

Thereafter we always turned mains of when we left the boat.

 

Phil

[mykaskin]

Were you doing this as some sort of controlled demonstration in how not to take your boat through a lock Mike?

 

I only ask as it looks like the same boat as your avatar and if this happened to me I think the last thing I'd do would be to stand back and take a picture.

 

I can't see anyone refilling the lock?

 

Well after taking quite awhile dropping the second paddle I'd just nicely got to the top, and getting to the other one, and the running to the other end of the lock (singled handed you see), I realised it weren't going anywhere. It was also only half way into the green band at the rear and had another 1.5 foot of deck to go... there are advantages to having a large freeboard.

 

I think it would have been still floating if I'd emptied the lock completely - but I wasn't going to try it!

 

Cheers,

 

Mike