I suppose I'd better confess...

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rr_123

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... before Gavi comes on and blurts it all out (c;

I was giving the boat a bit of welly to turn round near the M25 yesterday when - thunk - everything stopped. I found that I could start the engine but not put it into gear or turn the wheel. "32 year old outdrive" thinks I, "'tis seized"

Managed to get to the bank (paddling with a table-top...), I spoke to Gavi who was out for a jaunt and he kindly agreed to give me a tow on his way back downstream. When they got close, the eagle eyed Mrs Gavi wondered why;

a) I had dropped the anchor
b) I had dropped the anchor under the boat

Bow-line round the prop. Aaaagghhhh! Schoolboy error! I usually keep the lines in the cockpit for ease of single handing AND so that I can keep an eye on them!!!

Anyway, thanks Mr and Mrs B for a beatifully executed and thoroughly good natured tow home, and thanks to number one son for plunging his arm into the icy waters and helping to free it, and I think the whole lot (with the exception of the only decent warp which came with the boat) will live to fight again!

I shall now sit in the corner sulking sheepishly...
 
rr_123 said:
... before Gavi comes on and blurts it all out (c;

I was giving the boat a bit of welly to turn round near the M25 yesterday when - thunk - everything stopped. I found that I could start the engine but not put it into gear or turn the wheel. "32 year old outdrive" thinks I, "'tis seized"

Managed to get to the bank (paddling with a table-top...), I spoke to Gavi who was out for a jaunt and he kindly agreed to give me a tow on his way back downstream. When they got close, the eagle eyed Mrs Gavi wondered why;

a) I had dropped the anchor
b) I had dropped the anchor under the boat

Bow-line round the prop. Aaaagghhhh! Schoolboy error! I usually keep the lines in the cockpit for ease of single handing AND so that I can keep an eye on them!!!

Anyway, thanks Mr and Mrs B for a beatifully executed and thoroughly good natured tow home, and thanks to number one son for plunging his arm into the icy waters and helping to free it, and I think the whole lot (with the exception of the only decent warp which came with the boat) will live to fight again!

I shall now sit in the corner sulking sheepishly...
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You may not be alone in having had a bow rope or stern rope for that matter round prop,or even in fact,the chain from your ground tackle wrapped firmly round your equipment,which bought a day out to a premature end.
 
Reminds me of when I left shillingford with anchor still down and only discovered it half a mile down the river.
Wondered why handling was a bit sluggish!
 
boatone said:
Nurse......Nurse......
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It's the times we live in...
No smoking closing down the pubs
Political Correctness strangling free speech
Health & Safety nannying us to a ridiculous degree
Foreigners telling us how to run our country
Murderers, Rapists and child molesters given the support denied the victims
Financial support for illegal aliens while pensioners can't pay fuel bills
I could go on and on but NBs are the least of my concerns these days.
 
Well at least lift them!

Preferably (According to FUCC regs) stow them in those specially made Fender holders you should have on deck, for the full FUCC effect...
 
Had the tender on a tow rope years ago in Chichester Harbour while coming up to picking up a mooring in Mill Rythe. Got the rope round the prop and missed the pickup buoy in the confusion. Cutter dealt with the tender rope leaving me chasing the tender on a falling tide in a narrow channel. Bad language was the order of the day.
 
Andrew_Fanner said:
a mooring in Mill Rythe. y.
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Mill Rythe. Gosh that takes me back. I had a swinging mooring there back in the late 60s. I think I paid a grand total of £30 a year for it. The place was hardly developed then and still had all the equipment and stuff laying about from when it was a WW2 MTB base. There were also a number of houseboats there too, ex-MTBs sort of thingees. The place had a hell of a history and the old boy who owned the yard really knew the past. I have a mate who still moors there.
 
byron said:
Mill Rythe. Gosh that takes me back. I had a swinging mooring there back in the late 60s. I think I paid a grand total of £30 a year for it. The place was hardly developed then and still had all the equipment and stuff laying about from when it was a WW2 MTB base. There were also a number of houseboats there too, ex-MTBs sort of thingees. The place had a hell of a history and the old boy who owned the yard really knew the past. I have a mate who still moors there.
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Thanks for that Byron.

Hayling Yacht Company still have a couple of MTB types as houseboats. The MTB base bit is interesting, I'll ask SWEMBO what she might turn up on that.
 
Andrew_Fanner said:
Thanks for that Byron.

Hayling Yacht Company still have a couple of MTB types as houseboats. The MTB base bit is interesting, I'll ask SWEMBO what she might turn up on that.
Click to expand...

The part where you could pull your boat up alongside and let it dry out on huge beams was put in by the Navy as was the wood Derricks (if still there). The old boy was probably the father or grandfather of the present owners of the Hayling Yacht Company.
As a side issue, there were three Swans living there. two males, one female. She was mate to both but one male would never go in the water. The Yard would have to catch him regularly and clean him as he would get filthy wandering around the yard. it was quite comical to see how the female divided her time.
I had some very happy times there it was while there I was a relief Coxswain on the original Hayling Lifeboat (HISRO) and was recruited as an Auxiliary Coastguard.
 
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=50.805508,-0.970584&spn=0.002539,0.004812&t=h&z=18

In the centre of the picture with a yacht near it looks like the remains of the beams, to the bottom right are two MTB type houseboats. I used to have the berth on the pontoons nearest to and in line with the stern of the rearmost houseboat. We moved in from the buoys as getting very small children on board was a bit of a process. Came to the Thames because the tides were not that compatible with weekends and weather!

I recall an older gentleman about the place when we first moored there. I gather he was the officially in charge person's father, and clearly thought he still ran the show! Seems and odd place to keep MTBs given the awkwardly tidal nature of the place, but its quite out of the way, I wonder what they were doing; could not have been that many there and being stuck waiting for the tide after a rough patrol doesn't seem a likely incentive to put light forces there unless they were up to rather more discreet activities.
 
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