Go / No go ?

rotrax said:
I once rode an Ariel Square Four 1000cc motorbike through rush hour traffic in South London-Elephant and Castle to Ewell Village-with the broken end of the throttle cable tied to my crash helmet chinstrap. Fast and slow by raising and lowering my head. I had to lift the clutch once when I sneezed!

Crossing the Channel with a working jury rig seems tame by comparison.
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what ever is a Sq 4 worth now. my m8 aged 16 had one with a sidecar
 
Long ago I prepared a group of 5 enthusiastic sailors for their (german equivalent) of coastal skipper practical exam. The evening before the exam, the throttle cable on the chartered Oceanis 411 broke... We made it to the next marina box, and sourced a replacement at the next volvo dealer (we luckily where in Kiel). But as the replacement was too short, we had to fit it to the lever in the cockpit, and then run it through the cockpit and into an open hatch into one of the aft cabins, and from there to the engine. We fixed it with some decent lashings and gaffer tape, and did a few trials.

The expression on the examiners face the next morning won't be forgotten, but he accepted to go out, and all candidates successfully passed the exam. He did not even ask one question on engine maintenance, as he said there was enough supporting evidence that the crew knew how to help herself...
 
rotrax said:
A nice all alloy 4 pipe MK.2 would fetch 20K plus today.

If I knew then what I know now.................................
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My father said he sold his for £12. At the time was quite pleased as he'd bought it for £11. Not sure of teh Mk though.
 
FWIW I just replaced my throttle cable but left the old one (not broken) in place as spare for throttle and gearchange should one break.
 
dom said:
What's the problem; even if the lash-up failed, why not just have one of your crew beside the engine manually operating the throttle and gears as instructed?

A bit like the old ships ;)
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I've been that engine-room wallah, aged about 14, when the gear cable on a chartered yacht broke :)

Actually, unless I'm muddling up different incidents, it was the same yacht where the fuel sender had been deliberately shorted out with a strand of wire and the apparently-full tank ran dry just as we entered harbour...

Pete
 
I have at various times had to arrive in port under sail (engine breakdown, flat battery, dirty fuel etc).

Two tips : prepare your anchor and reef down strongly. The latter tip enables you to short tack quickly (provided of course your boat is responsive) should you miss your mooring on the first attempt. When I first started sailing it was always a point of honour to leave and to arrive at the mooring without using the engine.

You also have to consider the people who cruise without any engine eg the Pardeys.

However as somebody said the worst thing is to find yourself becalmed in the traffic lanes in fog. That happened to me and it's not much fun; at least they could see me judging by the ships' horns.
 
Sea_Spray said:
.....the yard sure me that they're going to have to cut the top of the wheel mount to get at the control as, apparently, Beneteau have assembled the throttle control and then joined the wheel mount to the deck.
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Out of interest (also an Oceanis owner), which model?

On the thread drift of bikes, my story is a broken throttle cable on a Bantam in 1969/70. I managed to jury rig a direct pull on top of the carb so rode the bike with left hand on the bars and right pulling vertically (could have been the other way round, can’t recall which side the carb was on). Anything is possible when you’re 16.
 
A few things spring to mind...

So the yard are saying there's no access to the throttle from the wheel pedestal? Pictures would help but how are instruments/compass/etc fitted? It just seems very unlikely (and if true, crap design!). Is the binnacle a metal tube job or a GRP moulding? If it's a moulding, I'd sure as hell be cutting a place for a round plastic inspection hatch so I could at least get to the steering linkage...TBH this would be more of a concern to me than the throttle.

Have you tested your bodge properly? Really tested it, under load, on the pontoon, engine running? You know how hard to pull ropes for certain throttle settings? You absolutely know how to get into neutral at the first attempt? To be honest I'm less concerned about you here, but if you are close quarters maneuvering, your bodge jams, you ram someone's boat, and ruin their summer because you were too impatient to wait to postpone just one trip, that's very very bad form indeed. If you are absolutely happy it works, then go...perhaps have the yard boat on standby as you leave, and just anchor away from other boats at your destination Or, get your cable, get your hatch, spend a day fixing it, and go on a shorter trip instead. On the "stuck in shipping lanes" comment, that's unimportant, as you can start the engine, get it in gear and apply throttle to get out of trouble just by grabbing the relevant bits on the engine.

To be totally honest, you've lashed up a bodge which you say you are confident in, but have to ask the opinion of the forum without showing any pictures. However you're asking the yard to fix a problem which you should be capable of...and of course for future reference in case it happens again...want to do yourself. The experience of your other crew is pretty irrelevant unless they are marine engineers by the way.

Your call, but I suspect the right thing to do here is fix your boat and take a shorter trip...
 
We once had the transmission cable broken, I fitted some string and pulleys through the cockpit porthole which were ok to cross the doldrums with the engine on and off and give me confidence; obviously the system decided to break all of a sudden at the most appropriate moment, meaning our first contact with the New World was celebrated by leaving a chunk of the stem gelcoat into a Salvador pontoon.
 
Iain C said:
Have you tested your bodge properly? Really tested it, under load, on the pontoon, engine running? You know how hard to pull ropes for certain throttle settings? You absolutely know how to get into neutral at the first attempt?
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As per my original post, the cable broke last weekend and I jury-rigged a solution. Of course, it's not as slick as using the morse but it's finger light and I'm able to smoothly control engine revs from idle to full chat. We used it for a couple of hours on the Orwell, in the lock and marina without difficulty, The gear shift isn't involved here - that's separate cable and is fine.


Iain C said:
To be totally honest, you've lashed up a bodge which you say you are confident in, but have to ask the opinion of the forum without showing any pictures. However you're asking the yard to fix a problem which you should be capable of...and of course for future reference in case it happens again...want to do yourself. The experience of your other crew is pretty irrelevant unless they are marine engineers by the way.
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Again, as per the original post, I was curious as to other views - we've already made our decision (which is to take the trip but remaining closer to home - mainly due to the light wind forecast, especially on Tuesday). And I generally do almost all the work on my boat, but this time the yard is involved because I live in Cambridge, the boat is near Ipswich. It broke on Sunday, we're sailing in Friday and I cannot get additional time off work. I fail to see how I can do it myself. No pics, because I'm not near the boat...
 
Sea_Spray said:
That was my thought too. However, the yard sure me that they're going to have to cut the top of the wheel mount to get at the control as, apparently, Beneteau have assembled the throttle control and then joined the wheel mount to the deck. I'm not at the boat to check but that's the info I have from them
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I'd be really surprised if you have to cut anything to replace a throttle or gearchange cable - the French builders do make most things service-able, though it might involve some gymnastics at times. Any outboard motor supplier and some chandlers will have cables. On my Jeanneau replaced one last summer: took about an hour or so with one to help. At the time I thought they'd stsrted with a control cable and built the boat round it, but ultimately it was all accessible.
 
Sea_Spray said:
Again, as per the original post, I was curious as to other views - we've already made our decision (which is to take the trip but remaining closer to home - mainly due to the light wind forecast, especially on Tuesday). And I generally do almost all the work on my boat, but this time the yard is involved because I live in Cambridge, the boat is near Ipswich. It broke on Sunday, we're sailing in Friday and I cannot get additional time off work. I fail to see how I can do it myself. No pics, because I'm not near the boat...
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Why not call PaulRainbow (http://rainbowmarine.co.uk/) and ask him whether he can have a quick look at it and see whether the cable's accessible via the instrument panel, as I surmised in post 12? He's around in Shotley at the moment, I believe.
 
pvb said:
Why not call PaulRainbow (http://rainbowmarine.co.uk/) and ask him whether he can have a quick look at it and see whether the cable's accessible via the instrument panel, as I surmised in post 12? He's around in Shotley at the moment, I believe.
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Thanks for the intro. I have seen Paul's van around but TBH never thought to call him. He's off to have a look at it later on.
 
Sea_Spray said:
Thanks for the intro. I have seen Paul's van around but TBH never thought to call him. He's off to have a look at it later on.
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My 351 was easily accessible as was my mates 36cc which I changed the cable on for him. The throttle handle has an allen grub screw at the bottom of it. Loosen that, the handle is on a tapered spline and wriggles off, Then the black plastic cover snaps off to reveal 4 self tapping screws that hold the assembly to the binnacle. You should be able to remove the top of the binnacle with the gauges and engine panel mount in to get at the inside to "catch" the gear throttle assembly. A couple of nuts hold the cable to the assembly. Undo and tape a new cable to the old and thread through. The cables are bog std universal ones available in 1/2 mtr increment lengths from any chandlery. It took me about half an hour to do my mates 36cc. It took longer to dinghy over to the chandlery.
Stu
PS if the binnacle top isnt removeable then just remove the engine control panel, iirc it is to the right where the control is, it has 4 screws holding it on and has fast twist connectors on it for easy removal and is big enough to allow access to the throttle gear control.
 
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Did a whole regatta with a broken throttle cable once. Including getting into and out of the yacht haven in Cowes several times. engine was managed by someone lying in the aft cabin and me shouting throttle commands through a hatch. Went very well until post racing the throttle person nodded off and I had to abort coming into the yacht haven until someone had woken them up!
 
Sea_Spray said:
So, this has been exercising us for a few hours.

The throttle cable on our Oceanis broke last weekend. No major problem and I was able to rig a control system using lines led through a couple of turning blocks. However, the boatyard are unable to effect replacement of the cable until after a planned trip this weekend.
The trip is with a very experienced crew (four adults), and under normal circumstances would involve a cross channel passage. We are confident handling the boat for berthing and anchoring purposes.
If be interested in the opinion of the forum on whether the trip should proceed as planned, with a suitable control system improvised or whether putting to sea with a known issue is a poor choice. (We have made our decision but I'd be very interested in your thoughts).
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This fellow:

https://www.cruisingworld.com/capn-fatty-gets-his-comeuppance

Writes in one of his books that he used such a control cable system for his throttle for an extended period of time with no ill effects.
 
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