Bin out today ?

[oldgit]

Up to Rochester today to refuel the old tub.665L @ 25p.Lots cheaper than me old petrol guzzler.
Decent weather forcast so trip out to forts on Sunday and maybe trip to Stangate Creek on Monday.
Any one else out.?
And to all you lads with boats down in the Med I can give any amount of gardening and decorating tips and I can recommend the B & Q website.
You only have to ask........

Just lets say the best boat in the known universe starts with the letter P

 

[Guest]

Wheres the Rochester diesel for 25p Oldgit ? went to the Chatham Marina Bash (Bar B) last night most
enjoyable even had a long chat with John Watson MDL main man.
We slipped out this morning for a couple of hours, port engine would'nt pull max revs plus white stuff out the
back, thought "must be something round prop".
Anyway coming back in past Sheerness and a new chap on board says were are the brakes on
boats (bless im) so I pulled back the englines to neutral then stopped an reversed to show him the brakes.
Well blow me if a couple of minutes later white smoke stops and port eng makes the revs, so the reversing
must have freed it. Blessing having new bloke on board really.

"The Med is calling me"

 

[Guest]

Rule No.1:

Any abnormal vibration, smoke etc: suspect the wrong sort of leaves on the prop and "chuck back" ; in other words a quick blast astern. Very often you'll see the debris floating in your wash once you go ahead again. Old bargee's trick yer know!

Talking about chucking back a thought for the day occurs: how often do you see quite sizeable boats heading at high speed for pontoon/bank/lock, placing total reliance on the normal power of the engine to stop them. Ever had a polythene bag on the prop? Can be picked up any time and totally negates reverse thrust. Being a boring old f*** with a very heavy (100+ tonne) boat I always approach nice and slowly and check reverse gear as I approach, just to check it's there.

We also have quite a silly situation with almost all marine engines/gearboxes: they are set up so that the Morse cable pushes the lever into forward gear and pulls the lever back for reverse. When is a push-pull cable not a push-pull cable?? Answer: when it breaks. On the jolly old set up as above your cable could break without your knowing it because you are sailing/powering along happily in forward gear. At journey's end, with pub in sight, you make the aforementioned enthusiastic approach to the pontoon in eager anticipation of a nice pint/pink gin/G&T (mine's a pint please). Intending to moor with that impressive final flourish you engage reverse gear and expect the boat to stop smartly. It doesn't. Sensing imminent gelcoat damage you apply a little more power. Still the boat doesn't stop, and the pontoon seems to be coming up even faster. Final resort: give it full wellie. Result: you go even faster and sink the pontoon.

Causation: Morse gear cable has snapped and you were still in forward gear whilst applying first a little, and then a lot more power!

Remedy: Re-install gear cable and control box so that the cable sneaks up on the gearbox from the front and pushes the lever into reverse. Push-pull cables usually push, even if they won't pull. On certain gearboxes you can also achieve the desired effect by simply changing to a different prop rotation.

Down-side: I suspect the manufacturers' intention, if they had though about it at all, was to fail-safe in get-you-home mode. Rather than ram the pontoon I would rather make a smart retreat from it and engage forward gear later manually.

 

[oldgit]

If you were out on sat,we must have passed.Saw 3 or 4 Brooms on trip but did not spot a boat with your name on it.
got off berth at Kingsferry around 11am and passed lock gate about 12.30.

Just lets say the best boat in the known universe starts with the letter P

 

[Guest]

I think we did pass cos we locked out about 10.15 going toward Sheerness thought I did see a couple of
Prinsesses. My Crown has no canopy at present plus you would have seen a bare chested adonis at the helm


"The Med is calling me"

 

[syd]

Just got back from a superb weekend in St Kats. The lock in was a nightmare. More like a demolition derby for some of the impatient ones. Still, we ended up in the west dock next to a nice old chap with a polished wood sail boat called Siophan from the Swale or there abouts, any of you chaps down that way seen im? Went to see "Stones in his pockets", then chilled out on the back of the boat surrounded by a great bunch of friendly boaters. wanna go back already!
Syd

 

[longjohnsilver]

Does your wife always drive? ;-) NM

.