Stuck on a sand bank

[JDR]

Glad it worked out alright I bet the first beer on dry ground tasted good. Must have been a big relief to be pulled off by a passing stranger.

 

(coat etc)

Edited November 15, 2012 by JDR

[mrsmelly]

Indeed, it looks deep, but the reality is that is isn't at all!

 

We thought we were in the middle of a deep channel until we ran aground on the not very visible sandbank.

 

It was one of our scariest moments ever and I hope that we'll never have to repeat it!

 

Janet

 

Hi

 

You were just unlucky. It is very deep there in the channel. The loaded barges draw about eight feet, a terrific amount more than narrowboats and work all year even at low summer levels. the problem is without local knowledge there is no way to know where the channel is and it does shift around

 

Tim

[shugie]

If you whirl the anchor round and round like throwing the hammer and chuck it out over the deepest water side and pull on its warp to ensure it grips the bottom well and with engine full astern and rocking you might pull it off.

For extra power pull up the engine covers and tie the anchor rope to the prop shaft coupling, go astern using the prop shaft as a rope winch to yank the boat sideways. If there are sharp edges smooth the ropes passage over them with things like your coal shovel. And rock the boat all the time. Keep a long heaving line correctly coiled and ready to heave to a passing ship, if thrown properly its surprising how far they can go.

 

Tying a rope round the prop shaft could provide a side loading much greater than the propshaft/gearbox and connected gubbins. I'd not want to do that myself.

 

A lot to be said for carrying an inflatable dinghy on the bigger rivers, as well as a VHF, you can use the dinghy to take the anchor out to deep water a lot further then you could hurl it. Whether you can get enough pull without some sort of winch or tackle I'm not sure about. When I've got a yacht stuck I've used a kedge anchor and 6:1 geared spinnaker winch to do the pulling, and even then it was hard work.

[Guest]

Tying a rope round the prop shaft could provide a side loading much greater than the propshaft/gearbox and connected gubbins. I'd not want to do that myself.

 

A lot to be said for carrying an inflatable dinghy on the bigger rivers, as well as a VHF, you can use the dinghy to take the anchor out to deep water a lot further then you could hurl it. Whether you can get enough pull without some sort of winch or tackle I'm not sure about. When I've got a yacht stuck I've used a kedge anchor and 6:1 geared spinnaker winch to do the pulling, and even then it was hard work.

 

Are you Biz's alter ego?

[Athy]

Must have been a big relief to be pulled off by a passing stranger.

He was a single-hander, then?

[oldairbear]

Twas i who went to the aid of said distressed boater. He had to wait until i had taken divers and their diving platform down to Stephensons Bridge. Took him off on my return to Fairies Hill Moorings where i have been moored since 2005. Below hopefully if i have mangaed the black art of putting images into the post is one reason why bouys or markers can't be deployed. We have spoken to BW (now C&RT)and the engineers have been out on site. the sand bank is caused mainly due to the long sweeping bend, silt being swept down river will naturally deposit on the inside of the bend as the water flows round it. So dredging would have to be a continuous process. It is true that the sand barges move sand to the side but that is true on any river or canal, the deepest water is where the main channel of boats move. In this case the sand barges coming up laden have approx ten foot below the water line and are twenty foot wide, they tend to be on the left coming up stream so that the stern has somewhere to go as they turn into the wharf(they being two hundred feet long). so it follows that is where the channel is and it is very deep with a minimum of twelve feet of water below top. We are currently on normal river levels. As someone earlier pointed out the river rises when water gets poured onto the pennines. when it can and has raised the river level by over ten feet swamping our lock. Thankfully it goes down just as quick. I took another boater off that same afternoon who had got rather well stuck. Several years ago the RNLI granted me the status of Life Governor, I thought it was a honourary title, not an active role anyway if you think getting free from the sand bank is easy try it when you are stuck in one of these. It took several hours and the use of its sister boat to free it

 

I have been unable to fathom out how to get images into the post, i have put four images into the members gallery under sand barge stuck to illustrate the above, if someone better than i could copy them into here then all can see other than that if you wish to see how the sand bank catches boats please visit the members gallery sand barge stuck. I clicked on public so they should be visible.

[Proper Job]

How's this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

.......... and well done for being Leeco's night in shining armour

 

Edited November 16, 2012 by Proper Job

[oldairbear]

Thank you PJ I think that one is what the old BW used to call an unplanned stoppage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited November 16, 2012 by oldairbear

[Guest]

Excellent pictures - nice to see that the pro's can get it wrong sometimes ...

[bargemast]

Excellent pictures - nice to see that the pro's can get it wrong sometimes ...

 

 

Of course we don't know the reason why this pro got it wrong, as for someone who's doing that run daily, it's far from likely to happen just like that.

 

Maybe he had mecanical problems, like a rudder-chain or linkage broken, or something like that, or less likely he'd fallen asleep.

 

Normally it's 9 times out of 10 a human error, but in the case of a (real) pro, it could very well have been different.

 

Peter.

[matty40s]

Excellent pictures - nice to see that the pro's can get it wrong sometimes ...

 

He's not got it wrong, he's just raising the upstream levels so they can get the other boats off the sandbanks

[Guest]

Of course we don't know the reason why this pro got it wrong, as for someone who's doing that run daily, it's far from likely to happen just like that.

 

Maybe he had mecanical problems, like a rudder-chain or linkage broken, or something like that, or less likely he'd fallen asleep.

 

Normally it's 9 times out of 10 a human error, but in the case of a (real) pro, it could very well have been different.

 

Peter.

 

Possibly -

 

Just made me feel a bit 'less bad' about getting stuck there when we had cough ahem 'mechanical problems'

[bargemast]

Possibly -

 

Just made me feel a bit 'less bad' about getting stuck there when we had cough ahem 'mechanical problems'

 

 

Hi Martin,

 

if seeing these photos made you feel a bit 'less bad' while you had your (cough ahem) mechanical problems, i'm happy for you that someone posted them.

 

Sometimes one doesn't need a lot to feel a bit better.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter.

[Guest]

He's not got it wrong, he's just raising the upstream levels so they can get the other boats off the sandbanks

 

You jest but what is interesting is the difference in the water levels between the photos-

 

Looking down river from Fairies Hill

 

Looking up river towards Fairies Hill (© Pennine waterways)

 

Either the river is quite well up when that commercial got stuck or it is indeed acting as a dam!

Edited November 16, 2012 by The Dog House

[Proper Job]

Maybe the river being up and running fast was part of the problem happening.

[Guest]

Maybe the river being up and running fast was part of the problem happening.

 

That is my thoughts too.

 

As you will know those boats do continue running even when the rivers are up and the boards are on red.

 

Last time we were marooned in Castleford cut these guys were still moving and there was talk of one of them getting stuck over the weir at Ferrybridge but we never heard if this was true or not.

[oldairbear]

there was indeed a flood, flood gates were shut, but the lockies work these boats through no matter how much flood there is. On this day there was high winds from the west as well as around 8/9 foot of flood water. the photo shows we were within a foot of breaching at the lock. you have to watch these boats to see the complicated manouvres they go through just to turn round, it was during this the strong stream coupled with the high wind took his bows in the opposite direction to which he intended and grounded both front and rear on the two opposing banks with the wind and stream then holding him in place as he was now unladen and showing a huge side slab of metal to the wind. a laden boat arrived and even that pushing hard against his down stream side did little to move him, it gave us something to watch for a while.

[bargemast]

there was indeed a flood, flood gates were shut, but the lockies work these boats through no matter how much flood there is. On this day there was high winds from the west as well as around 8/9 foot of flood water. the photo shows we were within a foot of breaching at the lock. you have to watch these boats to see the complicated manouvres they go through just to turn round, it was during this the strong stream coupled with the high wind took his bows in the opposite direction to which he intended and grounded both front and rear on the two opposing banks with the wind and stream then holding him in place as he was now unladen and showing a huge side slab of metal to the wind. a laden boat arrived and even that pushing hard against his down stream side did little to move him, it gave us something to watch for a while.

 

 

Oké, so it wasn't a mechanical problem here, I'm from a very flat and windy country (Holland) and before the days of powerful independent bowthrusters we used our anchors, and motorised anchor-winches of our barges a lot, to enable us to do those delicate manoeuvres.

 

Before the days of the common use of VHF, we had to use them too (the anchors) in strong winds, while waiting for locks, and bridge

openings.

 

Peter.

[leeco]

Twas i who went to the aid of said distressed boater. He had to wait until i had taken divers and their diving platform down to Stephensons Bridge. Took him off on my return to Fairies Hill Moorings where i have been moored since 2005. Below hopefully if i have mangaed the black art of putting images into the post is one reason why bouys or markers can't be deployed. We have spoken to BW (now C&RT)and the engineers have been out on site. the sand bank is caused mainly due to the long sweeping bend, silt being swept down river will naturally deposit on the inside of the bend as the water flows round it. So dredging would have to be a continuous process. It is true that the sand barges move sand to the side but that is true on any river or canal, the deepest water is where the main channel of boats move. In this case the sand barges coming up laden have approx ten foot below the water line and are twenty foot wide, they tend to be on the left coming up stream so that the stern has somewhere to go as they turn into the wharf(they being two hundred feet long). so it follows that is where the channel is and it is very deep with a minimum of twelve feet of water below top. We are currently on normal river levels. As someone earlier pointed out the river rises when water gets poured onto the pennines. when it can and has raised the river level by over ten feet swamping our lock. Thankfully it goes down just as quick. I took another boater off that same afternoon who had got rather well stuck. Several years ago the RNLI granted me the status of Life Governor, I thought it was a honourary title, not an active role anyway if you think getting free from the sand bank is easy try it when you are stuck in one of these. It took several hours and the use of its sister boat to free it

 

I have been unable to fathom out how to get images into the post, i have put four images into the members gallery under sand barge stuck to illustrate the above, if someone better than i could copy them into here then all can see other than that if you wish to see how the sand bank catches boats please visit the members gallery sand barge stuck. I clicked on public so they should be visible.

 

 

Cheers for that pal We went past again today and kept well clear of the sand.

[bizzard]

Tying a rope round the prop shaft could provide a side loading much greater than the propshaft/gearbox and connected gubbins. I'd not want to do that myself.

 

A lot to be said for carrying an inflatable dinghy on the bigger rivers, as well as a VHF, you can use the dinghy to take the anchor out to deep water a lot further then you could hurl it. Whether you can get enough pull without some sort of winch or tackle I'm not sure about. When I've got a yacht stuck I've used a kedge anchor and 6:1 geared spinnaker winch to do the pulling, and even then it was hard work.

Naturally you'd have to do it with caution, juggling the gear shift and throttle yer know, and i'd stand on the engine too whilst this winching operation's in progress, to restrain it in case the engines rubber mounts bust.

It was worth trying anyway as nobody was aware at the time of ye good Oldairbear.

Leeco could have been waiting for ever and ever to get plucked off that sandbank getting hungrier and thirstier ect.

Three cheers for the good Oldairbear.

[leeco]

Naturally you'd have to do it with caution, juggling the gear shift and throttle yer know, and i'd stand on the engine too whilst this winching operation's in progress, to restrain it in case the engines rubber mounts bust.

It was worth trying anyway as nobody was aware at the time of ye good Oldairbear.

Leeco could have been waiting for ever and ever to get plucked off that sandbank getting hungrier and thirstier ect.

Three cheers for the good Oldairbear.

 

It's not nice knowing that you can't get of the boat onto dry land. I will be taking my big anchor back to the boat and buying a little dingy and maybe a big barge pole like other boats have.

[bizzard]

It's not nice knowing that you can't get of the boat onto dry land. I will be taking my big anchor back to the boat and buying a little dingy and maybe a big barge pole like other boats have.

Tell me about it. I was shipwrecked off Canvey point once, and stuck in the mud off Thorpe bay when the tide decided for some strange reason not to come back that night, the moon must have made a detour or something.

A long heaving line, grappling hook, a big box of distress Maroons and survival rations are useful too.