Waverley has done it again.

[DJE]

Hit the pier that is.
Emergency response after Waverley steamer hits pier

 

[dunedin]

What a huge shame after just getting back on the water after the boiler problems. Hope nobody was seriously hurt.

It is certainly a very tricky ship to manoeuvre at close quarters. No side thrusters like a CalMac ferry has to assist, paddles fixed together so can’t do reverse thrust on one side, and a tiny rudder - so needs a lot of speed to have steerage.
Its like reversing a long keel yacht in a tight space, multiplied x100. Plus lots of passengers and spectators. A tricky boat to skipper.

 

[LittleSister]

Sad to hear, both for the Waverley and those injured.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

There are far more negative comments about the boat nw that there used to be, a general feeling that whole thing is one big waste of money poorly managed project, with folks getting sick of it. The comments in the likes of FB posts are mostly positive. The damage to the bow looks significant.

 

[Railbob]

As my late father in law said "she speeds like a fish but steers like a cow" . He was a Draughtsman on her when she was being built.

 

[girlofwight]

Writing purely in a personal capacity, those of us with Governance responsibilities for Heritage Piers always cross our fingers and pray to Neptune when Waverley or her sister Balmoral are around. It’s not so much will they cause damage, just how much...

But hope those onboard are not seriously hurt - boats and piers can be fixed, bodies less so.

 

[LittleSister]

Is no-one offering a steam driven paddle-wheel bow thruster these days?

 

[JumbleDuck]

There are far more negative comments about the boat nw that there used to be, a general feeling that whole thing is one big waste of money poorly managed project, with folks getting sick of it. The comments in the likes of FB posts are mostly positive. The damage to the bow looks significant.

I don't think she is a waste of money, but I do think she has been appallingly badly managed for decades. Those running her are elderly enthusiasts; there is nothing wrong with that but they aim her squarely at elderly enthusiasts and that is simply not a big enough market,

 

[Elessar]

And an interesting thread on it in scuttlebutt.

Waverley has done it again.

 

[TernVI]

The thing is a nightmare.
It seems to need to be going fast for the rudder to work?
The paddles only do straight ahead.
Surely it cannot have been like this back when it was a shiny new commercial boat?
Has something changed with the boat, or did they have much better ways of working it in those days?
But built in 1946, perhaps it was always a crackpot design?
When did paddle steamers cease to be mainstream?
I believe some of the IoW service boats had bow rudders?

 

[awol]

Already covered.

 

[LittleSister]

Deleted. (Redundant following threads merger.)

 

[dom]

Probably not for the purists, but a parallel system of joystick controlled thrusters might be an idea.

Although, aside from the aesthetics, retrofitting such a system wouldn't be cheap.

Especially LittleSister's steam driven ones

 

[awol]

The thing is a nightmare.
It seems to need to be going fast for the rudder to work?
The paddles only do straight ahead.

They also go astern!

 

[mbroom]

What will an independent Scotland do for a navy now?? More seriously, reports stated it had 213 pax and 26 crew. Seventeen injured after Waverley crashes into pier How on earth can social distancing be carried out?

 

[Stemar]

OK, I'm going to get flamed by the purists, but why not fit bow & stern thrusters? Sure there are technical challenges to be overcome, but they're far from insurmountable. Sooner of later someone's going to get badly hurt, and someone with authority but no soul is going to decide they aren't safe and that'll be the end of them. Better, in my book, to be modified and carry on at sea than to rust quietly in a dry dock or a mud bank like the Ryde

 

[JumbleDuck]

The thing is a nightmare.
It seems to need to be going fast for the rudder to work?
The paddles only do straight ahead.
Surely it cannot have been like this back when it was a shiny new commercial boat?
Has something changed with the boat, or did they have much better ways of working it in those days?
But built in 1946, perhaps it was always a crackpot design?
When did paddle steamers cease to be mainstream?
I believe some of the IoW service boats had bow rudders?

Paddle steamers were outdated after the launch of the TS King Edward at Denny's in 1901. After that all the fast services went over to turbines and fewere and fewer paddlers were built, though they continued to be used for services to the shallower piers (the Gareloch run, for example) and for excursion work where the extra deck space on the sponsons was useful. There were attempts to update the idea - my old man was purser on the Talisman, the only diesel-electric paddle vessel - but by WW2 paddlers were well and truly on their way out.

So, by the time the Waverley was built, she was a complete anachronism. All the small piers had closed by then and there really was no call for a new paddle steamer, especially such a big one. Much the same goes for the Maid of the Loch, by the way.

She has always had a reputation as a pig to steer. I suspect that that's because she's so big, and that on smaller ships the poor handling didn't matter as much. Here' from the last thread, is a picture of her rudder. It's not very clear but it has had a plate added across the bottom in an effort to improve its effectiveness.

I'm inclined to suspect something other than simply poor handling. That might explain a bit of a bump, but it looks as if she rammed the pier headfirst at considerable speed. Failed engine room telegraph, maybe? Failed engine controls?

By the way, before anyone suggests it ... it was almost unknown for paddle steamers to have separately powered paddle wheels. Just a very few paddle tugs had them. Otherwise they always ran together with a single engine.

 

[JumbleDuck]

What will an independent Scotland do for a navy now?? More seriously, reports stated it had 213 pax and 26 crew. Seventeen injured after Waverley crashes into pier How on earth can social distancing be carried out?

She has a passenger capacity of 860, down from 1350 when built. In nice weather 200 or so people could easily scatter around and keep their distance but in bad weather staying inside could be trickier.

 

[JumbleDuck]

OK, I'm going to get flamed by the purists, but why not fit bow & stern thrusters? Sure there are technical challenges to be overcome, but they're far from insurmountable. Sooner of later someone's going to get badly hurt, and someone with authority but no soul is going to decide they aren't safe and that'll be the end of them. Better, in my book, to be modified and carry on at sea than to rust quietly in a dry dock or a mud bank like the Ryde

I agree. She regularly uses small vessels to push her around: here it is happening at Glasgow (that's the TS Queen Mary behind, picture from Paddle Steamer Waverley)

and I've been on her when she was pushed around at Port Ellen and Campbeltown.

 

[Seajet]

I read that having paddlewheels able to go in opposite directions, as seems intuitive for turning, was in fact lethal causing dangerous heeling - after a fatal accident, on the Thames I think - such setups were banned for commercial vessels.

When I first started Solent sailing in the early 70's they still had paddlewheel tugs like ' Bustler ' in Portsmouth which I think did have independent drives in her job as a harbour tug.

The sadly departed Ryde had a small rudder at the forefoot of the bow, I understand for when going astern - but might be rather handy going ahead at close quarters, if the mountings and gear could handle the loads !