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your boat is sinking!

nora

By nora
in General Boating

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nora Contributor

nora

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We have a mooring at Festival Park Etruria, and my son and his wife stay at the boat as often as they can, and have made friends with other moorers, a couple of days ago he got a phone call at home from one of them, Heath come quick we think your boat is taking on water and sinking, she is down at the back end, son jumps in his van , and dashes to the marina, to find about 5 people round our boat with large pump ready,son climbs aboard in fear and trepidation, to find all is well, not a drop of water in her,and in a way that is part of the problem, he has drained the water tank for the winter, and filled up with diesel ready for the spring, and that made the boat look down at the back. he was very thankful that the other moorers cared enough to notice and ring him, because it could have been a real problem,so they got a big thank you , and a nice bottle of wine each,how good of them to care, real Christmas spirit.

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Alan Saunders Rising Star

Alan Saunders

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Better a false alarm than a sinking! Reminder to self, put notice in windows: 'Any problem with this boat, please call 07747 xxx xxx!'.

 

Starcoaster: your boat will not sink! Many leave their boats unnattended for weeks or even months which increases the chance of a mishap.

I know this from experience.

 

Alan

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Emerald Collaborator

Emerald

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:lol: I love the way this post is 90 minutes old and already has 80 views... Boaters. Not paranoid, honestly!

 

Does the Paranoia ever go away? :wacko: I keep going and checking our boat every few days or so.I noticed ours was sitting really low at the stern and started to panic not realising it too has no water on board and it is a reverse layout so its stern heavy anyway. :banghead:

Edited by Escape
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curzons246 Collaborator

curzons246

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Does the Paranoia ever go away? :wacko: I keep going and checking our boat every few days or so.I noticed ours was sitting really low at the stern and started to panic not realising it too has no water on board and it is a reverse layout so its stern heavy anyway. :banghead:

If it's any comfort she looked fine when I took the dogs out 10 mins ago :-) cheers Bill

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Starcoaster Veteran

Starcoaster

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Posted (edited)
Does the paranoia ever go away?

Well, sometimes when I am actually ON mine I get the mad urge to go dashing off the back to look at it from the pontoon and see if it looks lower... Particularly if the floor feels very cold or I have dripped/ splashed something on the floor and even though I know I've done it, convince myself that it's the start of the grimey canal water of death coming up through the floor...

I am hoping this will fade with time, as it has yet to abate after almost two months.

Edited by Starcoaster
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tree Rising Star

tree

Posted
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:blink:

Better a false alarm than a sinking! Reminder to self, put notice in windows: 'Any problem with this boat, please call 07747 xxx xxx!'.

 

Starcoaster: your boat will not sink! Many leave their boats unnattended for weeks or even months which increases the chance of a mishap.

I know this from experience.

 

Alan

shush !!! Alan, my lickle boat is in the wild lands of Northamptonshire, whilst I am in the land of dragons and druids till next summer ( hoping to get up to her mid feb,weather and work permitting) and I worry that all is ok :wacko: as I will be then a 'liveaboard', but she is in a marina, so hopefully without the worry of Mr Finch and other reprebates, I hope she is ok :) festive greetings :)

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redgirl Explorer

redgirl

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I have left my boat tonight and I know I am going to have a restless sleep. It's either going to sink or blow up. This morning I had to remove my weed hatch as some polythene got wrapped around the prop, and now I am paranoid I didn't replace it properly.....Although, I know I did! IT'S ALL GOING WRONG....... AAARRRGGHGHHH!!!

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Gazboatman Proficient

Gazboatman

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I have left my boat tonight and I know I am going to have a restless sleep. It's either going to sink or blow up. This morning I had to remove my weed hatch as some polythene got wrapped around the prop, and now I am paranoid I didn't replace it properly.....Although, I know I did! IT'S ALL GOING WRONG....... AAARRRGGHGHHH!!!

Don't forget the gas cooker you left on, and the coal fire you didn't quite put out and forgot to pull that (insert any flamable object) away from the still lit fire, or the rope you didn't tie good enough.

 

These thoughts usualy kick in as I'm half way home in my car.

 

:banghead:

Edited by Gazboatman
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koukouvagia Influencer

koukouvagiaDonate to Canal World

Posted
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I have left my boat tonight and I know I am going to have a restless sleep. It's either going to sink or blow up. This morning I had to remove my weed hatch as some polythene got wrapped around the prop, and now I am paranoid I didn't replace it properly.....Although, I know I did! IT'S ALL GOING WRONG....... AAARRRGGHGHHH!!!

 

Don't worry. Even if you left the cover off completely your boat won't sink because the rim of the weed hatch will be at least six inches above the water line. Mind you, it'll sink if you haven't put the cover on properly when the prop starts turning.

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Chickadee Proficient

Chickadee

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Don't worry. Even if you left the cover off completely your boat won't sink because the rim of the weed hatch will be at least six inches above the water line. Mind you, it'll sink if you haven't put the cover on properly when the prop starts turning.

 

You still have a bit of time before you sink when you get going to. We did a day on the canal then got half the way down the Severn from Worcester to Gloucester before we realised where the water was coming from... :blush:

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Chris Pink Veteran II

Chris Pink

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You still have a bit of time before you sink when you get going to. We did a day on the canal then got half the way down the Severn from Worcester to Gloucester before we realised where the water was coming from... :blush:

 

You were lucky and this advice is dangerous. I know boats that have sunk through weed hatch problems very quickly indeed.

 

This issue should not be trivialised.

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alan_fincher Veteran II

alan_fincher

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You still have a bit of time before you sink when you get going to. We did a day on the canal then got half the way down the Severn from Worcester to Gloucester before we realised where the water was coming from... :blush:

 

You were lucky and this advice is dangerous. I know boats that have sunk through weed hatch problems very quickly indeed.

 

This issue should not be trivialised.

Absolutely,

 

Chris is spot on.

 

Our blog page here shows the very real consequences of moving with the hatch anything other than fully secured.

 

This was not a case of leaving it off, either, more a case of it not having a seal correctly seated when it had been taken off.

 

Anyone who believes the risks are unreal is deluding themselves, I'm afraid. Probably the most common cause of narrow boats sinking, other than getting them caught on cills and other bits of locks.

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Chickadee Proficient

Chickadee

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You were lucky and this advice is dangerous. I know boats that have sunk through weed hatch problems very quickly indeed.

 

This issue should not be trivialised.

 

I wasn't trivialising it just going by my experience. The weed hatch wasn't totally off just not on right and we were not taking on enough water to sink. We'd have probably got all the way to Gloucester without sinking but the boat would have been rather damp inside. I wouldn't recommend anyone try it but we didn't die or sink.

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redgirl Explorer

redgirl

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I had a dream last night that my boat was sinking, Engine Bilge close to spilling over into main Bilge, exhaust under water.

Woke up and had to check the hatch :captain:

 

HAHAHAHA So did I. Not sinking though, but drifting. Moored last night in the really heavy rain, in the dark after having to go on through 2 locks as i couldn't moor due to low water levels. It was very muddy and the ground was so soft but I didn't risk continuing in the dark to find a better spot. Kept dreaming off and on about drifting and getting grounded. I was so glad morning came, along with a bit of sunshine!

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