Confession time

[jamesjermain]

I would prefer to keep this little indiscretion secret but I suspect someone in the Plymouth area witnessed my embrassment or heard the traffic on VHF so I'm getting my confession in first.

It was a typical novice error which ended with my Bella Donna high and dry on the rocks at Cawsand Bay. The tide still had a couple of hours ebb left when this picture was taken and the crowds had begun to congregate. Also on the scene, and just out of frame were three good men from HM Coastguard who stood by throughout the indicent to make sure my crew and I were safe - even though we were less than 20 metres from the beach, in a flat calm and light winds. My thanks to them for keeping our spirits up during our long wait

The cause of my discomfort was trying to motor-sail out of the bay. Even in 5 knots of wind Bella Donna's huge main overpowered her 25hp outboard so I was unable to reverse clear of the rocks after raising the anchor.

But it all had a reasonably happy ending when Bella Donna floated off four hours later with, I hope, little more than a few deep scratches to the underside of her starboard hull and a small crack in one daggerboard. She was assisted into deep water by a RIB of the Plymouth Constabulary who also have my deep gratitude.

 

[Genie]

Hi James
Sorry to hear of your incident, but pleased that no-one was hurt and that your boat has only superficial damage (which I hope would be easily repaired).
I wouldn't be too embarrassed - we all make the odd gaffe from time to time - that's what makes our hobby interesting, and no doubt the tale will keep you in frothies at the bar for a long while yet! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
Nice to hear that those erstwhile chaps at from the Coastguard and Police were on hand to give assistance too.
Good idea of you to get the pic posted before someone else did - you know how fast this forum locates news! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
ATB
Rob

 

[flipper]

Fairpaly to you for 'fessing up' Hope there's not too much damage. Only been to Cawsand bay once. We anchored there until dark enough to do the night nav exercise into Queen Annes for my DS practical.

 

[Norman_E]

Re: Confession time and my confession.

Sorry to hear it James, and glad the damage is minimal. I am much more of a novice than you, so here is my confession.

I motored out of Marmaris inner harbour and raised the mainsail outside. On returning to the helm the steering was very stiff and after getting the boat on course it jammed completely. I could not even move either wheel. My first thought was that something was jamming the quadrant, as I could not move the emergency tiller either. I started taking the aft cockpit locker to bits to get at the quadrant and could not see anything wrong. At that point I called for help, and took down the sail. The boat was in no immediate danger with little wind and a calm sea. Another yacht stood by me and offered a tow, which I declined whilst seeking a solution. Two men who have a boat in the same marina as me came up with a rib and came on board. Imagine my embarrassment when the problem was spotted. My boat has a steering lock at each wheel. One was correctly tightened against the wheel, but I had left the other one free, and it had become wound up tight against the column, locking the wheel. It had to be hit with a hammer to free it.

Some friends of ours also heard my VHF call and came up in their yacht just as the problem was solved, as did the Marmaris coastguard launch. It did have one happy consequence. Just as we all set off again and I was at the mast tidying up the mainsail, I looked up to see a tripper boat coming straight at me about 100 metres away! It turned out that they had spotted a pod of dolphins right by us, and we were treated to a good close up view of the dolphins, which was a first for me.

 

[Rabbie]

I 'cut the corner' when leaving Chichester one day - and slipped onto The Winner. Never has my picture been taken so often. I spent the time building 15 cairns after pretending to scrub her bottom for 3 hours!

 

[tome]

Never mind James, at least the CG were't adding to your discomfort by taking photos to distribute to the press. I've seen them do this and thought it was disgraceful behaviour

We've all done similar! I took out a starboard hand pole marking the Bosham channel once and when we looked at lw it was bent at a right angle. Wish I had a pic to make you feel better

Hope that neither pride nor hull too deeply scatched

Cheers
Tom

 

[dom]

Delighted to hear that no real damage was done. I guess a multihull being relatively light helped. I would not worry about it too much - everyopne who sails a lot has the odd little prang! Should be a relatively easy job to get repaired.

 

[Blueboatman]

Alls well that ends well.And you were SAILING .

I can remember spending 11 hours as Exhibit A on top of the Warden Ledge just inside the Solent as we tried to cheat the ebb and smacked up hard at the top of springs ,OH Gawd.. One slightly stove in plank,3 ruined mattresses under same plank,about 200 kilos of lead ballast that tumbled out of the dinghy -still out there if anyone wants to look-ands the only thing that got us off was an evening breeze and sailing and bumping through ouch ouch.

 

[oldharry]

A long time ago - tacking down the Emsworth Channel (Chi) in a 20 foot Bilge keelr near the top of the tide, so pushing out well past the marker posts;

Helm down to go about, boat comes to an abrupt halt at almost the same angle of heel. Stuck there till nearly midnight, as I had sailed in to the saltings with one bilge keel flying, and gone up a narrow channel. As soon as the boat started to come upright, the windward keel banged down into about six inches of water.....

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Only this weekend, I managed to forget the 1m offset I had removed from the sounder several weeks back in order to keep SWMBO slightly less stressed....

As I rested at a peaceful anchorage, it was somewhat shocking when, with an hour of drop to still go, I felt the boat bump.....

A moment of panicking realisation, a very quick anchor retrieval, and phew... we managed to get off in a cloud of stirred up mud and sand.....

 

[machurley22]

Well, if this is going to be a general confessional, I wrote up my negative depth sailing here.

As a wiser man than I once said "There's only two kinds of sailors around here - those who have hit rocks and those who haven't, yet"

 

[FullCircle]

Pleased to hear you got off OK James, and can now see why were were gentle with my thread on the perils of our sport.

 

[suse]

Oh god - and I'll bet he'd remember, so I'm not going to check with him, but my young son (9,10) reminded his panicking parents the boat had a lifting keel when we'd run aground INSIDE the marina ...

Errm, I plucked up the courage - yes, oh, yes, how well he remembers .... 16 years later...

S x

 

[cgull]

I went aground in my bilge keeler on Sat pm, sailing up the narrow channel on the last of the Ebb, towards Southdown marina, (nr Mayflower ,Plymouth) I had not looked at chart, got stuck on the West Mud for 4 hrs.I was well out of the channel, the red buoys look like mooring buoys,well faded.Not an unpleasant wait, and at least now I know that part of the river better, looked at the chart after the event!

 

[Santana379]

James - delighted for you that there's no serious damage.

Some years ago, on a final Day Skipper practice weekend for two friends and myself on my Golden Hind, we hurriedly left the Deben after work on a Friday night at mid ebb. I did pretty well everything by the book so I thought, checking for a good flow of water from the exhaust etc. etc.

Pretty much on the leading marks, I managed to put her squarely on the sand. For £20, fisherman/river pilot/deputy harbourmaster Duncan Read, sadly no longer with us, towed us off, not before we broke the first tow rope. At times like that bilge plates are a real disadvantage. The boat was undamaged.

In my defence, they did take the leading marks down and buoy the channel the next week.

My worst mistake however, was that I had not opened the engine cooling seacock. The excellent water flow I observed on turning on the engine was the water already in the system. I always wait a minute or so now before checking. Running aground actually saved the impellor and any other possible damage, as we had no visible or audible overheating alarms.

Little Knot

 

[john_morris_uk]

My commiserations. These things are sometimes two edged.

I was involved in a little light racing in the solent last week with novice crews on three identical boats. During the Monday practice afternoon, one of my opponents put themselves hard aground on Ryde Sands on a falling tide. They took the opportunity to thoroughly scrub their bottom and the subsequent racing resulted in them beating us in nearly every race. We would start ahead, or get ahead through good tactics, and every time, they would overhaul us on their clean hull.

What was even more frustrating was that their sail trim wasn't very good and their tacking and boat handling was sometimes very dodgy - but they just had a faster hull. We got two firsts and eight seconds and as one of my crew said 'are we supposed to have all that weed on our rudder?'

Going aground paid off....

 

[blackbeard]

[ QUOTE ]
My commiserations. These things are sometimes two edged.
...hard aground on Ryde Sands on a falling tide.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah yes. Ryde Sands. The Solent sailor's favourite boat park. It seems to me that Solent sailors in general fall into two groups; those who admit to a close encounter with Ryde Sands, and those who are economical with the truth ...

 

[jamesjermain]

Thanks to you all for your sympathetic messages - they're more than I deserve.

I am pleased to report that a diver went under Bella Donna yesterday and reported no significant damage other than a depressed area of GRP about a hand width in size with a small break in the outer skin and some minor damage to a centreboard. Should be quick and not too costly to repair.

 

[FullCircle]

Hurrah. Pleased to see its not costing you a fortune JJ.

 

[jimi]

Excellent news James, must be a major relief! Have you though about beaching legs .. one for each corner?