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Tidal Thames Narrowboat rescue

Tim Lewis

By Tim Lewis
in General Boating

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WJM Veteran

WJM

Posted
Posted

Darwin foiled again?



I think that is the bit of river where the flow sweeps you towards the buoys at some pace, or in this case looks like it swept them past the buoys into the barges

 

Doesn't that describe the whole of the tideway?

 

Looks to me like the cruiser is a surrogate butty and the anchor was absent or ineffectual

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PaddingtonBear Rising Star

PaddingtonBear

Posted
Posted (edited)

Not scary, stupid. What sort of half wit acts like that. The tides streams are always perfectly clear on the river and there is a great deal of advice from all and sundry but I suppose there is no substitute for experience. I shall await all the mawkish incoming with interest.

Edited by NB Alnwick
Inappropriate term deleted.
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mrsmelly Veteran II

mrsmellyDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted (edited)

Not scary, stupid. What sort of half wit acts like that. The tides streams are always perfectly clear on the river and there is a great deal of advice from all and sundry but I suppose there is no substitute for experience. I shall await all the mawkish incoming with interest.

Of course there is no need either for vhf radio rolleyes.gif how much would you bet on them not having one between them?

 

Tim

Edited by NB Alnwick
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RichardN Proficient

RichardN

Posted
Posted (edited)

It looks to me very much like a fouled prop or a failed engine - and lets face it, none of us could confidently say that would never happen to us.

 

It was scary that at the first Jubillee Rehearsal 3 boats out of 20 suffered some sort of engine failure mostly diesel bug related so agree about the last part but my bet would be that they simply did not read the river well enough.

 

That bit of river has a strong sideways flow which pushes you towards the bouys, a few narrowboats have left a bit of paint there in the past, I know we normally have to add some revs there and turn to avoid being swept across. Get it wrong and you are swept past the buoys into whatever is moored there and you probably will be at a sharp angle by then, you need to hope it is not a warship. Somewhere I have a photo of a widebeam almost broadside on missing the buoys by millimetres but can't find it, instead here is a photo of a boat confidentally correcting against the drift so easily missing the buoy but you can see that they have added revs and I think they are turned at 30 degrees to get across

r_qdjp-practice-_2012_05_26_0095.jpg?w=3

 

Larger version is here

Edited by RichardN
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PaddingtonBear Rising Star

PaddingtonBear

Posted
Posted

No of course not but it is how you deal with these things thatmatters. It is also very likely that the boat was underprepared, if prepared at all for this venture especially as it was seemingly recovering an other equally hapless(hippy? boat. Narrowboats are totally unsuitable for this type of boating, wrong hull shape and generally wrong or underpowered engine but most of all wrong 'driver'. You need bags of experience and brains to take on a tidal river severly lacking in this case it appears. Christ this is becomming a bit mad, I have supported nicknorman and now I agree with Chris Pink. I shall go for a quiet lay down!

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alan_fincher Veteran II

alan_fincher

Posted
Posted

Scared me a bit. Always fancied cruising to Limehouse, but better not show the video to my wife. She may try to put me off.

To be fair, I think they are a fair bit further up than that.

 

Going out of Limehouse and up river is in my estimation a bit less of a challenge than actually heading out towards the sea, (although I admit I have never tried the latter to find out!).

 

I don't think I'd want to try any of it with a yogurt pot strapped alongside though.

 

(Nor would I have wanted to be the chap walking back along the gunwales when it is getting the full effect of being towed off at an angle, (although it is fairly clear why he would have wished to keep his front doors shut, and not go though the boat!....)

 

I dont think the narrowboat rescued the plastic - I think the plastic is the narrowboater's shed, annex, butty, outhouse!

Yes, that was my take - I assume it was under way from Limehouse with the "plastic" strapped alongside. I wonder if the Limehouse lock-keepers pass comment on such arrangements?.

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magnetman Veteran II

magnetman

Posted
Posted

Is this the same place where a tug was lost last year? I remember there was a situation where two tugs were towing / pushing a barge and swung out to far the pusher attempted to motor out of the dangerous situation and pushed the barge onto the towing vessel rolling it over. I think it then hit one of those yellow buoys and sank with the loss of the captain.

 

There is a MAIB report on it.

 

Just thinking that if a 'professional' tug crew ends up being pushed over then it must be a serious bit of current there.

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