Funny thing happened on the boat ............

[johnalison]

Eastbourne was always good, Milford Haven too.

W

I wish you hadn’t mentioned Eastbourne. We were in the marina happily moored when a couple in a Westerly Duo, two along decided to leave. They also decided that this was a good time for the husband to teach his wife (I assume) to first principles of boat handling under power. She backed out and was then faced with the task of turning ninety degrees to port. This seemed to be too much of an intellectual challenge for her, and there was no obvious advice coming from her husband. The result was that they took a side-swipe at our stern, fortunately only taking our now-fractured ensign staff with them. We managed to chase round and intercept them before they got to the lock and demand recompense. As he had no cash on him my wife marched him round to a cash point as Asda’s to get just a little more than the cost of a new staff.

 

[Refueler]

Yarmouth IoW ..... Snapdragon 23 ...

Alongside the top pontoon that runs along the shore line wall ....

Setting up to a last line so I would spring off and go ....

Woman trots along pontoon ... I'll help and promptly throws my spring line of the pontoon cleat !

I jump to stop but too late ! I tread on a cleat twisting ankle ... then have to bear off with pole etc. to get boat started on its way .. all the while literally in tears from my ankle ... woman walking away happy she 'helped'.

For days after - I was in agony.

Same boat but later - I had cut a well in aft of the cockpit to drop the outboard through. The old Vire 6 had died and and got fed up hefting that Mercury Sail Drive outboard over the transom to bracket ... those Merc saildrive O/bds were heavy ! but very good. This gave the boat amazing manoeuvrability, as the outboard could still steer and was ahead of rudder.

My 10 year old son James was with me and he was a quick learner ....

We entered Yarmouth and it was packed ... but we knew there would be a slot under that shoreline wall ... so we idled past the Hooray Henry's and got near to a slot - you could sense the Hoorays all waiting for a mess ... I stood away from helm .. James on tiller ... immaculate 90 and then backed into slot just like a parking a car. Then 'loudly' said - That do Dad ?

Dunno about you guys - but I was proudest Dad ever that day ...

 

[rotrax]

Our Syndicate Hunter 27 OOD got stuck in ahead in Yarmouth once. The roll pin in the gear/neutral mechanism sheared off. Only the dinghy hanging from the bow of an almost new Beneteau stopped serious damage, to both vessels. First Mate, who was helming, was told very aggressivly by another boater to take note of the tide!
She was adamant there was a mechanical issue - and there was!
I had to sacrifice my favoutite small phillips screwdriver to get a bit of good 5mm steed to make the replacement pin

 

[Refueler]

Our Syndicate Hunter 27 OOD got stuck in ahead in Yarmouth once. The roll pin in the gear/neutral mechanism sheared off. Only the dinghy hanging from the bow of an almost new Beneteau stopped serious damage, to both vessels. First Mate, who was helming, was told very aggressivly by another boater to take note of the tide!
She was adamant there was a mechanical issue - and there was!
I had to sacrifice my favoutite small phillips screwdriver to get a bit of good 5mm steed to make the replacement pin

I have a single action lever on my Perkins ... and the C clips had corroded away. I only found out one day when lever just moved and nothing seemed connected behind ... and yes I was stuck in ahead - but luckily throttle sprung back to idle.
Judicious use of stop lever and start button got me home.
Replaced C clips ....
Next year - same again ... but this time - the cast alloy had broken ... so of to my mate who has metal fabricator biz ... he replaced the part with Aircraft Grade Dural .. I mean the real expensive stuff - he had a contract with a Swedish Aviation Co to provide 1000 parts in this ... so he had loads of scrap left over to use ...

new part next to old

fitted

Then whole caboodle cleaned up and painted ..

 

[rotrax]

Nice repair.

My problem was the Teleflex job was mazac with hot pressed mazak rivets as part of the main body. I drilled them out, filed flat and drilled and tapped for M4 screws.
The pin broke after ahead was selected and so it just stayed in ahead.
I repaired it because getting maintanence money out of one member of our informal syndicate was like trying to poke butter up a Porcupine's arse with a red hot knitting needle......................

 

[Refueler]

I've been asked to join syndicates in past ... even my late brothers ... but so many horror stories of one not pulling weight ... one ending up being repair and maintenance man ... not for me ....

You have my sympathy.

 

[rotrax]

I've been asked to join syndicates in past ... even my late brothers ... but so many horror stories of one not pulling weight ... one ending up being repair and maintenance man ... not for me ....

You have my sympathy.

Rest assured I made my feeling to him known pretty often.

Once he was gone the syndicate worked well, slush fund put to one side plus discussion re regular upgrades.

Great little boat, a good introduction to sailing.

And maintenance on a shoestring.

Some of the modifications/repairs I made - like the throttle/gear mechanism - are still on the boat and working well 15 years later. ?

 

[Refueler]

Rest assured I made my feeling to him known pretty often.

Once he was gone the syndicate worked well, slush fund put to one side plus discussion re regular upgrades.

Great little boat, a good introduction to sailing.

And maintenance on a shoestring.

Some of the modifications/repairs I made - like the throttle/gear mechanism - are still on the boat and working well 15 years later. ?

Good to hear.

My problem is not too many owners - its too many boats !!

 

[Refueler]

Post #22 should read RYDE IoW ... not Yarmouth !!

 

[Supertramp]

Years ago my wife broke her hip cycling and we had to cancel a tour in France. After a few weeks she was still on crutches and I booked a boat for the week on the Norfolk broads. It was one of the all wood no engine beautiful sailing ones from Ludham. After the initial "are you sure you know what you're doing" moments we settled in to a great week exploring and tacking up narrow channels. I had to do all the work but was learning a lot about docking under sail etc. At one stop just after shooting a bridge, I was going a little faster than planned and rushed up to the foredeck to fend off and get a line ashore. I had failed to put the mast lowering hatch on properly and shot into the bowels of the boat. Emerging rapidly I retrieved the situation. By next morning I had extensive bruising to my leg and hip and was probably in more discomfort than my wife. Moral of the story is always finish a job and put everything in its place. By the way much of the remaining holiday was spent working out how to get on and off the toilet in 4 ft headroom on crutches or with no leg articulation....

 

[johnalison]

Years ago my wife broke her hip cycling and we had to cancel a tour in France. After a few weeks she was still on crutches and I booked a boat for the week on the Norfolk broads. It was one of the all wood no engine beautiful sailing ones from Ludham. After the initial "are you sure you know what you're doing" moments we settled in to a great week exploring and tacking up narrow channels. I had to do all the work but was learning a lot about docking under sail etc. At one stop just after shooting a bridge, I was going a little faster than planned and rushed up to the foredeck to fend off and get a line ashore. I had failed to put the mast lowering hatch on properly and shot into the bowels of the boat. Emerging rapidly I retrieved the situation. By next morning I had extensive bruising to my leg and hip and was probably in more discomfort than my wife. Moral of the story is always finish a job and put everything in its place. By the way much of the remaining holiday was spent working out how to get on and off the toilet in 4 ft headroom on crutches or with no leg articulation....

I never hired one of the lovely Ludham yachts but remember the Ant well. My forehatch story is the reverse of yours in that it involve my trying to get onto the foredeck of our then Cirrus. It was only our second time out in our first cruiser and I had the misfortune to get the toggle of my life jacket caught on the catch. The life jacket instantly inflated and I was completely stuck. My family thought it was funnier than I did at the time.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

In the tideless Baltic we had a policy of arriving anywhere by mid-afternoon at the latest in order to be sure of getting a box berth. We would then spend the next six hours or so refreshing ourselves and watching the charterbavs drift in, intent on getting their money's worth of sailing.

Entertainment can also be found at home, with tides being a special source of amusement for unwary. I remember watching a pair of young men in an engineless day-sailer trying to pick up a mooring near Bawdsey, where the tide runs at a couple of knots or more. They had obviously read that you turn a sailing-boat head to wind to stop it but hadn't read the next chapter about currents. After many attempts trying to pick up a buoy while moving at about four knots and after the loss of the odd boathook, they eventuall worked it out.

That Head-to-Wind buoy/MOB pickup method has been ditched years ago. The way it is taught now is to approach on a Broad Reach, (such that the mainsail will flap when the sheet is released, i.e. the SAIL is head-to -wind), filling and spilling, so as to control the boatspeed while still maintaining headway. Allowances obviously have to be made for strength of wind and tide so as not to make too much leeway.
The only time a boat is stopped head to wind is when coming alongside a moored/anchored boat or a swinging pontoon, as the boat will naturally end up at this point of sail in the execution of the manouver.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Cowes West ....

Came in from a sail and it was a bit late to get up to Newport, called ahead to a pal and heard Folly was full. So we opted for Cowes West ... not my fav but anyway.
Going in - lass on pontoon says they have Marquee party for the Sail School boats due in and I would have to use the inside run of the outer pontoons. OK .. no prob.

There's Mike .. Svet .. Mags and myself sitting on the boat discussing where to go that evening when the School boats start coming in ... Jeanneaus putt putt past and turn into berths in varying displays of 'skill' or lack of !
Then the Beneteau control boat slides in and starts the run along past us.

Now to this day - I have no idea what that skipper was thinking about - but he could not pick a worse place to try turn the boat to reverse into the marina .. YES he decided to reverse the boat along the 50+ odd metres till the 90 deg turn to get to the berths ...

My boat was ok being relatively small .. but ahead of me where this **** decided to turn was a lovely sloop of about 40ft ... and the channel was of course narrow.

First he struck the pontoon opposite .. then started astern turning towards the sloop.
Bodies on the sloop were hurredly throwing out fenders and gesticulating to this guy !!

Finally he sort of gets control and there's a rather smart young lady standing midships holding a rope ... completely confused and not knowing why she was there ...

I have a terrible black sense of humour and once I saw her ... called out :

Excuse me - are you the cosmetic addition for the cameras ??

The laughter that rang out all around was cruel ... so if that Lady is reading this - I apologise !!

The Bendy boat then sorted itself and berthed - with the skipper hightailing it away as fast as he could !!

Nothing wrong with reversing in, there is more control over the boat, especially if the bow is likely to be blown off.
Fifteen or so years ago I did this with a 42' charter boat in a marina near Athens, in Alimos, I think, where the boats are moored stern-to on concrete docks. The space between the rows of boats on each side seemed quite narrow and our berth was near the landward end. I had no problem motoring gently backwards and gliding gracefully into our spot without having the hassle of turning in the tight space. Admittedly there was obviously no tide to contend with, and the wind was negligible.

 

[Refueler]

Nothing wrong with reversing in, there is more control over the boat, especially if the bow is likely to be blown off.
Fifteen or so years ago I did this with a 42' charter boat in a marina near Athens, in Alimos, I think, where the boats are moored stern-to on concrete docks. The space between the rows of boats on each side seemed quite narrow and our berth was near the landward end. I had no problem motoring gently backwards and gliding gracefully into our spot without having the hassle of turning in the tight space. Admittedly there was obviously no tide to contend with, and the wind was negligible.

Nothing wrong with sternway in ... but do the 180 turn in suitable place ....

Even the other school boats crews stopped to watch the drama !!

Not so sure of the generalisation of more control astern ... I know plenty boats including mine that its a brave person who tries astern through a marina ..
Berthing astern into a slot is a bit different.

 

[PilotWolf]

I had to go stern in again Eastbourne. It was blowing very hard. The crew/owner next to us was going crazy with the fenders.

Proud to say never touched one not sure who was more impressed- them or me!

W