bank side emergency repair

[russ]

My son and I decided to take a short trip down river to moor at Windsor for a fish & chip lunch today. We left Bray at a time that would get us there comfortably and back before dark.
Or so we thought. My 9 year old was at the helm when he shouted out "whats that noise". I looked at him with bemusement as a loud clacking and clinking coming from the engine bay got louder. I opened up the hatch to find the drive belt splitting apart and trashing the blower pipes. I immediately turned off the engine which left us drifting slowly towards a tree lined bank.
We ended up wedged into some trees. My son kept a look out incase we came adrift whilst i took a closer look.
After cutting away the shreds and trying to retrieve the dropped knife from right under the engine I eventually managed to fit the spare belt.
Under way in 30 minutes and off for our lunch.
What fun

 

[TrueBlue]

You were lucky that the stream flow is quite low at the moment.

We were in the Culham reach earlier in the season (I mention the location as it is mostly tree lined and they "all" extend well over the channel) when we came across a narrowboat who's engine had suddenly stopped and he had drifted broadside down until he crashed quite forcibly into some overhanging trees.
Being a NB no huge damage was done.

The point for folks generally is that is what an anchor is for in such a situation. Drop the pin as soon as reasonable and at least it will slow you down. There are a lot of sticky-out-bits on a cruiser which can easily break off when you hit a tree - and are expensive to repair.

I'm glad there was no other damage to your boat - at least you had a spare.

 

[oldgit]

From personal experience .

It can be difficult to obtain a purchase on a river bed due to not a lot of sediment for the anchor to bite into,just a rocky bottom for the tines to to bounce over.
You may well have to wait some time for it to hold,so good idea to drop sooner rather than later,but a least the weight of the anchor and chain will slow you down somewhat.

 

[Dave70]

emergency repair

Hello,had a similar experience earlier this year,just out of Cookham lock port engine overheated water strainer choked with weed,[and i do clean strainers after even short trips] plodded on down to Boulters Lock cut,pulled in[ glad i had previously practised on one engine] cleared inlet pipe,fitted new impeller,and off we went.My point is it pays to carry spares,drive belts,impellers,etc.and at least have a basic knowledge of fixing these things.good for you!

 

[Brayman]

Hello,had a similar experience earlier this year,just out of Bray lock port engine overheated water strainer choked with weed,[and i do clean strainers after even short trips] plodded on down to Boulters Lock cut,pulled in[ glad i had previously practised on one engine] cleared inlet pipe,fitted new impeller,and off we went.My point is it pays to carry spares,drive belts,impellers,etc.and at least have a basic knowledge of fixing these things.good for you!

It also helps to know if you are going upstream or downstream

 

[Dave70]

Downstream,cheers.