Neddie_Seagoon
Well-Known Member
My first go on a mobo!
A breezy day here in IoM. We met at Port St. Mary to slip Carraghyn into the water, but Drew had just been to the slip before meeting me and advised that the wind was blowing across it, so while we might get her off the trailer OK, getting back on if we wanted to would be troublesome. We went and had another look, decided it would be too much, and chose to trailer her across to Castletown where the slip is more sheltered.
So heart in mouth I trailered her across to Castletown. No need to worry, the trailer rode well, the Range Rover barely noticed the load, and thanks to extensive practice with Mrs. Seagoon's sheep trailers I had no trouble making the confined turn and reverse to line up with the slipway /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Here's the rig
I drove down the slip, Drew donned his waders, pushed her off the trailer and guided her around to the side:
Drew had kindly brought some more fenders and warps because my trip to the swindlery on Saturday had been something of a failure - there has been a run on fenders at Peel due to the recent storms!
We spent a little while faffing around checking how things worked, and then we were off, Drew at the helm, me fending:
Leaving Castletown outer harbour
And out to sea.
Cue obligatory wake shot!
Drew reported that she came up on the plane nicely, and we chugged around for a while seeing how she behaved in the conditions. Wind was in the range 20 - 30 knots (Castletown weather station recording 20 knots in the shelter of the outer harbour!), and the sea in Castletown Bay was short, choppy and confused. Glad it was Drew at the helm and not me, it was enormously helpful to be able to observe how she behaved before taking the helm myself for the first time.
We dodged a few lobster pots, and I took the helm.
Interesting! Open the throttle, bow lifted and she veered hard away from the wind before straightening up. My first lesson, light boat with a lot of windage and not much below the waterline, at low power she gets blown about (I would say "blown about easily", but note the wind speeds above), as soon as I had some revs on, and we had 5-6 knots of way, all became fairly predictable. In the chop she was comfortable at 10 -12 knots head into the wind, and 15 - 18 knots with the wind astern, any more and she started to slam. I pottered about a while, and then we headed back into the outer harbour for some maneuvering practice.
Also interesting. I am a raggie, Ameera can spin on her keel turning in her own length, not so with a shallow draught planing mobo! Definitely less precision there, at low speed it is quite tricky. Drew directed me through maneuvers to bring her alongside. Reverse is much more controlled than in a saily boat.
Out again, more play in the chop of Castletown Bay, then back into harbour for a break to digest what I'd learnt. I gave Drew the wheel while I went topsides to hook up to the wall.
Had a chat with the Harbour Master, wolfed my sarnie, and out to play some more, Drew at the helm dodging even more lobster pots.
And then me. It was quite choppy, as you can see:
Knackered and sated, I decided it was time to go into the main harbour and look for our berth. To get to the berth we had to pass under a low road bridge, so Drew nipped out to lower the VHF antenna.
I heard a shout "..... Overboard", which I interpreted to be man overboard, looked over my shoulder to see Drew grinning at me. Then he explained his hat had blown off (wasn't me - we were only doing 5 knots or so), so we turned about for man overboard practice. Two passes and Drew retrieved a very soggy hat!
I gave Drew the helm and went up to lower the antenna while Drew took us up the narrow channel into the main harbour at Castletown. Creeping in slowly was interesting again. Wind right on the nose, and no sooner had you corrected from being blown off to one side that you were veering off to the other! Still, a little more throttle brought some semblance of control, and we were soon inside, to find that we still didn't have sufficient air draught to get under the road bridge, so we tied up:
And off across the harbour swingbridge for a pint! Whew.
Pint drunk while the tide ran out, we returned and found we could now get under the road bridge and into the inner harbour where Carraghyn will live for the moment. Getting onto our berth was tricky in the wind, but we managed, and Drew set about arranging warps so that she can lie alongside the harbour wall safely as the tide lifts her up and down. We sat and waited, chatting while the tide ran out until she touched the bottom. Effective draught is even less than I thought, certainly no more than a couple of feet.
So enormous thanks Drew. Great fun, I couldn't possibly have done it without your help, and having you on the helm was a real confidence booster. I'll be out practising as soon as the winds drop.
A breezy day here in IoM. We met at Port St. Mary to slip Carraghyn into the water, but Drew had just been to the slip before meeting me and advised that the wind was blowing across it, so while we might get her off the trailer OK, getting back on if we wanted to would be troublesome. We went and had another look, decided it would be too much, and chose to trailer her across to Castletown where the slip is more sheltered.
So heart in mouth I trailered her across to Castletown. No need to worry, the trailer rode well, the Range Rover barely noticed the load, and thanks to extensive practice with Mrs. Seagoon's sheep trailers I had no trouble making the confined turn and reverse to line up with the slipway /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Here's the rig
I drove down the slip, Drew donned his waders, pushed her off the trailer and guided her around to the side:
Drew had kindly brought some more fenders and warps because my trip to the swindlery on Saturday had been something of a failure - there has been a run on fenders at Peel due to the recent storms!
We spent a little while faffing around checking how things worked, and then we were off, Drew at the helm, me fending:
Leaving Castletown outer harbour
And out to sea.
Cue obligatory wake shot!
Drew reported that she came up on the plane nicely, and we chugged around for a while seeing how she behaved in the conditions. Wind was in the range 20 - 30 knots (Castletown weather station recording 20 knots in the shelter of the outer harbour!), and the sea in Castletown Bay was short, choppy and confused. Glad it was Drew at the helm and not me, it was enormously helpful to be able to observe how she behaved before taking the helm myself for the first time.
We dodged a few lobster pots, and I took the helm.
Interesting! Open the throttle, bow lifted and she veered hard away from the wind before straightening up. My first lesson, light boat with a lot of windage and not much below the waterline, at low power she gets blown about (I would say "blown about easily", but note the wind speeds above), as soon as I had some revs on, and we had 5-6 knots of way, all became fairly predictable. In the chop she was comfortable at 10 -12 knots head into the wind, and 15 - 18 knots with the wind astern, any more and she started to slam. I pottered about a while, and then we headed back into the outer harbour for some maneuvering practice.
Also interesting. I am a raggie, Ameera can spin on her keel turning in her own length, not so with a shallow draught planing mobo! Definitely less precision there, at low speed it is quite tricky. Drew directed me through maneuvers to bring her alongside. Reverse is much more controlled than in a saily boat.
Out again, more play in the chop of Castletown Bay, then back into harbour for a break to digest what I'd learnt. I gave Drew the wheel while I went topsides to hook up to the wall.
Had a chat with the Harbour Master, wolfed my sarnie, and out to play some more, Drew at the helm dodging even more lobster pots.
And then me. It was quite choppy, as you can see:
Knackered and sated, I decided it was time to go into the main harbour and look for our berth. To get to the berth we had to pass under a low road bridge, so Drew nipped out to lower the VHF antenna.
I heard a shout "..... Overboard", which I interpreted to be man overboard, looked over my shoulder to see Drew grinning at me. Then he explained his hat had blown off (wasn't me - we were only doing 5 knots or so), so we turned about for man overboard practice. Two passes and Drew retrieved a very soggy hat!
I gave Drew the helm and went up to lower the antenna while Drew took us up the narrow channel into the main harbour at Castletown. Creeping in slowly was interesting again. Wind right on the nose, and no sooner had you corrected from being blown off to one side that you were veering off to the other! Still, a little more throttle brought some semblance of control, and we were soon inside, to find that we still didn't have sufficient air draught to get under the road bridge, so we tied up:
And off across the harbour swingbridge for a pint! Whew.
Pint drunk while the tide ran out, we returned and found we could now get under the road bridge and into the inner harbour where Carraghyn will live for the moment. Getting onto our berth was tricky in the wind, but we managed, and Drew set about arranging warps so that she can lie alongside the harbour wall safely as the tide lifts her up and down. We sat and waited, chatting while the tide ran out until she touched the bottom. Effective draught is even less than I thought, certainly no more than a couple of feet.
So enormous thanks Drew. Great fun, I couldn't possibly have done it without your help, and having you on the helm was a real confidence booster. I'll be out practising as soon as the winds drop.
