How fast in the Dark

Solent Night Running!

Excellent. So at night you go in a v formation, to ENSURE that if there a pole or a pallett - at least one of them cops it, whereas line astern they might get lost, presumably cos the nav a bit hard in the dark. Of course, it's vital to keep alert at all times but just in case people are a bit TOO alert - you all go to the pub for a pint or two! I love it! Is there waterskiing as well?
 
[ QUOTE ]
the chart plotter can not be turned off, but even at its dimmest kills vision

[/ QUOTE ]

My plotter and radar has a special 'night' mode which makes 'em usable at night - but are both furuno. What make is yours? i am supprised if you cannot set them up for night nav.

I mostly aggree with what you say though - so no flames from here! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Re: Solent Night Running!

SWMBO and I like it out at night although that's been Portsmouth Harbour, Tideway and Medway to date. SWMBO has much better night vision than I do and does 8+ knots where I would creep at 3 or 4.

Forward part of the dash is black, rear part varnished wood. I have to admit that the spotlight is kept ready to hand. Not had too much problem from reflections off the saloon roof but we do drop the canopy if the weather is clement and look over the screen.
 
Yes, ok - i am treating this like a 'perfect situation' - once on board, if there is wind > F4 (F3 wrong direction), i wont go - see state not slight/smooth - i wont go /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

While i will run in most things i will not put crew or vessel at risk. I am out for fun, not for a painful ride!
 
Last summer we did a night passage (due to a narrow weather window) between Alderney and Jersey at around 20knots in our S28. Enroute we hit a 10ft log causing both legs to flick up. no damage to hull despite the load bang on hitting it, but 1 set duo props wrecked. That said I have spent the majority of my life at sea and remember narrowly missing a large container at dusk one day doing 20 knots in a large ship - that would have made the eyes water!
 
nah. A friend told me how at only moderate speed he drove over a half-sunken tree (!) All you'd save imho is the bit with the plate on. I mean, at any speed, you'd "crump" over something on a mobo and the whole hul wd need to be steel to be ok, no? You wd have to be goiing slowlyindeed to nicely push it out of the way and i bet slower that 7 knots. You'll ride up over anything half-submerged. Not say a plate wdn't be a nice idea, but in loads of instances i bet irrelevant as poster above says
 
YM whiskey

the whiskey has to over 18 years old, and have done 2,500 miles on watch half of which must be in tidal waters. Then, provided that the whiskey can wing it through a practical, somehow, it should be fine.
 
The other problem is floating fishing nets. No cutter will handle twenty feet of trawl net. I picked one up off Margate once. (In daylight in good conditions - still didn't see it) Stopped the engine dead and ripped the Stripper off the (Steel) deadwood.
Managed to beach her on Margate sands and cut it all off. That was more than lucky!
 
with an \'E\" ?

so Scotch isn't acceptable then?

For night-time return trips light coloured cans of beer or lager are much better ( Stella for example ) then dump over the bow at 15 min intervals. Crew can then use stopwatch when can reaches the stern to check that the log is reading correctly & if all electronics & compass fail it should be possible to follow the trail of cans back to where you started from - of course allowing for tidal drift & wind , so much easier in the med at night really.

of course for myself an acceptable speed is 7 knots at night, despite steel constuction, perhaps due to cunningly mounted autohelm compasss & speed/depth which due to lcd's are actually unreadable with internal illumination on unless you crane forwards so eyes directly above them.
 
Re: Solent Night Running!

You've got me all confused now. Why does it have to be Solent? - we do east coast and all sorts.

Line astern at night is dangerous - try it with 20 boats at over 20knts, then come back and tell me it's safer than a line or a v, much safer than driving into each other if one comes to a halt quickly, and much more difficult to gauage at night when following a few little lights than it is during day when you can measure distance based on size of boat changing rapidly! <g>

Who mentioned having several pints? One of club rules is no alcohol and boating, so suspect you've made this one up.

If you want to waterski at night, it's up to you but again I didn't mention it.
 
Re: Night Running and colregs

Well, you said bar meal, but if no alcohol, no prob. The waterskiing was a joke.

I wonder if 20-40 knots around solent at night wd be considered proceeding at safe speed for conditions or whatever it is that colregs demands in restricted viz? I mean, ok if nothing happens ....but response of QHM etc indicates that generally it might not be, really?
 
Re: Night Running and colregs

Bar meal was me going out on own, not with club. and no, I don't drink if I'm going out in dark.

again, don't get two confused. I said nothing about club maneouvers being at 40knts. Just one example of me coming back from Studland solo.

QHM are notified beforehand whenever we do night exercises, and QHM himself was guest speaker at AGM last year. They have never raised our behaviour as an issue except the one time just after 9/11 when everyone was a bit twitchy - but that did show we were being tracked on radar.

Speed depends on conditions, and if not safe to cruise at 20knts, we adjust speed to suit, or even cancel event.

Why being so armchair critical of events you have never attended, so have never received safety briefings etc etc, and no idea of contingency planning, safety etc etc?

We have people in club on these events who are not only RYA instuctors, but even RYA examiners, so you would suspect would you not, if these events were unsafe, they would raise issues?

PS we've had press out with us for write ups in magazines too, imagine the press coverage we'd get if we were bahaving unsafely
 
Armchair critic, night running and colregs

I was trying not to be critical (and failing a bit)

My question is regarding what *others* might think IF something happened when one or several boats doing 20knots+ or indeed 1 boat doing 44knots at night inshore around the solent. Colregs make several mentions of safe speed so that's something that presumably a judge or other wise folk would have to judge, presumably assisted by (say) a surveyor or two if anything to inspect. But what's your opinion?

For starters, is there an upper limit of speed where you'd say ooh, dodgy, not safe. If you had a 60knot boat would you perhaps keep it below a steady 50knots at night in the solent, regardless of loveliness of conditions? Or 60 wd be ok. Or what about 80knots then?
 
Re: Armchair critic, night running and colregs

In the circumstance where I made the WOT run up to Hurst point, the water was absolutely flat, and visibility superb, so I'd have been happy running at any speed that I've have used in same conditions in daylight.

It's simply down to assessing what is a safe speed for the conditions, same as you'd do in daylight.

Club nite-ex's are run on similar terms, speed according to conditions. I still don't really understand why this is such a big deal. one of the reasons I hate posting on this sort of thread, as invariably someone starts complaining its dangerous etc etc etc. despite the fact that the club have numerous very experienced members to run such events, and we've run them for years with a very high regard to safety.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

W
Charging problem
Replies
8
Views
410
lustyd
lustyd
Bigplumbs
Get stamped out. If you were stamped in
Replies
17
Views
837
PaulRainbow
PaulRainbow

Share this page

Top