Col
New member
Col\'s SPECTACULAR weekend
Where shall I start this epic story? A story that could have come from the pen of the great author, HLB himself. A story of fire and brimstone, of man against the elements.
So here goes.
Every year, I take a motley crew from my local pub away for a weekend on the boat. This year decided to take them to Guernsey for a change, as they hadn’t been before. Friday came, weather looked good, so off we go.
Crossing was flat but wet, not a problem. Arrived in St peter port Friday afternoon, only to find some sort of a festival going on. This looks promising. Gave Depsol a call, he said he’d be ‘round in the morning, as he had relatives staying. Much consumption of alcohol started, and continued through weekend. Saturday morning Depsol turned up with a new boat, asked me to bring it back for someone ( you know who you are! ) luckily it was in a box, so could be stored in cockpit. Re-fuelled, and ready to go, we set off in bright, Guernsey sunshine.
Now the fun begins. Passing Casquets, I realise I can’t see them, sure enough, bit of sea mist, visibility down to about 2.5 miles. OK, but now vis getting worse, down to about 100 mtrs, and I’m only a few miles south of the TSS. Right, time to get a bit concerned, I’ve no radar, no radar reflector, and I’m about to cross one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes in about 100mtrs vis. I raid the galley, find a packet of bacofoil, got to be better than nothing at all. Wrap the radar arch in bacofoil, it does nothing for the lines of the boat, but hey, who’s going to see it in that fog? Just as I was on my third Hail Mary,
About to cross-southern edge of TSS, some one switched the fog off. This is more like it, wall to wall sunshine, and hardly a cloud in the sky. Crew gets back to their endeavours to raise the share price of allied breweries, I make a coffee. All is well.
About 40miles SSW of the Needles, I detect a change in engine note. Not sure, crew didn’t notice, so press on. Now a definite change accompanied by a rumble. I suspect a gimball bearing, so back throttles off and troll at about 10 knots, for next 30 miles. It occurred to me that it might be better, now that its had time to cool down, so tried increasing speed – hurrah, no noise. Carried on till into the Solent, just past Yarmouth, noise and vibrations suddenly back, but now worse than ever. Back throttles off, and switch off the offending engine, it shudders to a stop with a sound that only Volvos and burning ££££-fivers make. Not far now, so do the last few miles on one engine (the nameless person has now been waiting most of the day for his dinghy)
Pontoon finally in sight after 9 hour journey. That’s handy, half the boat yard have heard of my problems, and have come to help moor up, especially welcome as the tide is now racing out. All tied up, breaks out the beers, Mr Nameless collects his dinghy. Just explaining the day’s events, when Roger asks me why is my bilge pump running. Panic, boat is sinking! Arrange emergency lift out, but need to move boat around to slipway.
Nameless, motley crew, and boatyard people help to move around nearer to slip way. We congratulate ourselves on not bashing anyone’s boat. Emergency 3000 gal per hour bilge pump is set up ready to keep the water at bay ‘till the morning when tide is right for lift out.
I cannot believe my luck, surely nothing else can go wrong can it? Fog, fire, and flood! All in one day. Oh! I forgot to mention the fire didn’t I!
Just as boat was secured for the night, someone spotted smoke coming from engine intakes, Lifted hatch, starboard starter motor and wiring alight! Luckily it was spotted early enough to be put out quickly.
The post mortem.
The bearings keeping the drive shaft running true failed, ending in a bent shaft, wiped out gebo joint (double universal joint) this in turn ripped apart the bellows, letting water in through the now enlarged aperture. The water pouring in through the transom shorted out the starter solenoid, and started the fire.
Other than that, quiet weekend really. How about you?
http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/boaters?&page=2
Where shall I start this epic story? A story that could have come from the pen of the great author, HLB himself. A story of fire and brimstone, of man against the elements.
So here goes.
Every year, I take a motley crew from my local pub away for a weekend on the boat. This year decided to take them to Guernsey for a change, as they hadn’t been before. Friday came, weather looked good, so off we go.
Crossing was flat but wet, not a problem. Arrived in St peter port Friday afternoon, only to find some sort of a festival going on. This looks promising. Gave Depsol a call, he said he’d be ‘round in the morning, as he had relatives staying. Much consumption of alcohol started, and continued through weekend. Saturday morning Depsol turned up with a new boat, asked me to bring it back for someone ( you know who you are! ) luckily it was in a box, so could be stored in cockpit. Re-fuelled, and ready to go, we set off in bright, Guernsey sunshine.
Now the fun begins. Passing Casquets, I realise I can’t see them, sure enough, bit of sea mist, visibility down to about 2.5 miles. OK, but now vis getting worse, down to about 100 mtrs, and I’m only a few miles south of the TSS. Right, time to get a bit concerned, I’ve no radar, no radar reflector, and I’m about to cross one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes in about 100mtrs vis. I raid the galley, find a packet of bacofoil, got to be better than nothing at all. Wrap the radar arch in bacofoil, it does nothing for the lines of the boat, but hey, who’s going to see it in that fog? Just as I was on my third Hail Mary,
About to cross-southern edge of TSS, some one switched the fog off. This is more like it, wall to wall sunshine, and hardly a cloud in the sky. Crew gets back to their endeavours to raise the share price of allied breweries, I make a coffee. All is well.
About 40miles SSW of the Needles, I detect a change in engine note. Not sure, crew didn’t notice, so press on. Now a definite change accompanied by a rumble. I suspect a gimball bearing, so back throttles off and troll at about 10 knots, for next 30 miles. It occurred to me that it might be better, now that its had time to cool down, so tried increasing speed – hurrah, no noise. Carried on till into the Solent, just past Yarmouth, noise and vibrations suddenly back, but now worse than ever. Back throttles off, and switch off the offending engine, it shudders to a stop with a sound that only Volvos and burning ££££-fivers make. Not far now, so do the last few miles on one engine (the nameless person has now been waiting most of the day for his dinghy)
Pontoon finally in sight after 9 hour journey. That’s handy, half the boat yard have heard of my problems, and have come to help moor up, especially welcome as the tide is now racing out. All tied up, breaks out the beers, Mr Nameless collects his dinghy. Just explaining the day’s events, when Roger asks me why is my bilge pump running. Panic, boat is sinking! Arrange emergency lift out, but need to move boat around to slipway.
Nameless, motley crew, and boatyard people help to move around nearer to slip way. We congratulate ourselves on not bashing anyone’s boat. Emergency 3000 gal per hour bilge pump is set up ready to keep the water at bay ‘till the morning when tide is right for lift out.
I cannot believe my luck, surely nothing else can go wrong can it? Fog, fire, and flood! All in one day. Oh! I forgot to mention the fire didn’t I!
Just as boat was secured for the night, someone spotted smoke coming from engine intakes, Lifted hatch, starboard starter motor and wiring alight! Luckily it was spotted early enough to be put out quickly.
The post mortem.
The bearings keeping the drive shaft running true failed, ending in a bent shaft, wiped out gebo joint (double universal joint) this in turn ripped apart the bellows, letting water in through the now enlarged aperture. The water pouring in through the transom shorted out the starter solenoid, and started the fire.
Other than that, quiet weekend really. How about you?
http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/boaters?&page=2
