Near miss - phew

[Elessar]

Coming out of my berth yesterday I sucked somthing into the Bowthruster and jammed it. Oh well, no drama if one is aware of its absence.

I had a student doing a yachtmaster conversion exam that afternoon, so we nipped down to ocean village to go into a couple of berths and let him get used to the boat. The conversion exam is only 4 hours and the examiner was coming at 1.

I had not met him before, and yachmaster conversions can sometimes be a nightmare. A yottie who thinks he knows about mobos because he motors his yacht is a real problem as they do everything way too fast with no control. This guy felt fine though instinctively I felt he was OK quite quickly.

Stern to into a double berth for his first go, he lined it up well. Then I realised he was picking up pace and I felt uncomfortable. Engines rev, we slew sideways and I grab a roaming fender. Just missed a pile. I ran up to the fly. I couldn't control the boat either! Port engine had stuck in gear astern. Not even a bow thruster to help. Killed the engines as, and this may sound daft, in the heat of the moment in a confined space it wasn't possible to work out what was wrong. The boat was just not doing as she was told, with space around diagnosis is easy but gathering pace in circles in a marina is not fun!

Thanks to the locals who realised we werent a pair of idiots and came to our aid. No damage done but it was close. Very.

Loose screw in the control head allowing the cable outer to slip took about 4 minutes to diagnose and repair.

He then showed real skill manoeuvring the boat, we went and picked the examiner up and he went on to (deservedly in my view) pass his exam.

 

[sharpness]

Thanks for posting this, its a sobering reminder to us all that gear cables/ controls can malfunction, and always at the worst time. Easier said than done to keep a cool head in situation like that, killing the engine is exactly the right action. Happened to a friend of mine few weeks back entering lock and his port gear cable snapped, unfortunately couldn't switch off in time, surprising the damage can be done at a fairly low speed. No one hurt, just pride dented and some repairs to be made.

 

[oGaryo]

Coming out of my berth yesterday I sucked somthing into the Bowthruster and jammed it. Oh well, no drama if one is aware of its absence.

I had a student doing a yachtmaster conversion exam that afternoon, so we nipped down to ocean village to go into a couple of berths and let him get used to the boat. The conversion exam is only 4 hours and the examiner was coming at 1.

I had not met him before, and yachmaster conversions can sometimes be a nightmare. A yottie who thinks he knows about mobos because he motors his yacht is a real problem as they do everything way too fast with no control. This guy felt fine though instinctively I felt he was OK quite quickly.

Stern to into a double berth for his first go, he lined it up well. Then I realised he was picking up pace and I felt uncomfortable. Engines rev, we slew sideways and I grab a roaming fender. Just missed a pile. I ran up to the fly. I couldn't control the boat either! Port engine had stuck in gear astern. Not even a bow thruster to help. Killed the engines as, and this may sound daft, in the heat of the moment in a confined space it wasn't possible to work out what was wrong. The boat was just not doing as she was told, with space around diagnosis is easy but gathering pace in circles in a marina is not fun!

Thanks to the locals who realised we werent a pair of idiots and came to our aid. No damage done but it was close. Very.

Loose screw in the control head allowing the cable outer to slip took about 4 minutes to diagnose and repair.

He then showed real skill manoeuvring the boat, we went and picked the examiner up and he went on to (deservedly in my view) pass his exam.

Same happened to me about 2 months ago Mark, same marina too and was heading to T bone an F42 in front of us as my stbd engine was stuck in forward. Put port in reverse to turn the boat away from the collision and then steered out the fairway using port throttle and steering. Sussed what it was when back in relatively open water in front of Banana Wharf. Now have thread look on the levers. Glad it turned out ok for you guys too

 

[Elessar]

Same happened to me about 2 months ago Mark, same marina too and was heading to T bone an F42 in front of us as my stbd engine was stuck in forward. Put port in reverse to turn the boat away from the collision and then steered out the fairway using port throttle and steering. Sussed what it was when back in relatively open water in front of Banana Wharf. Now have thread look on the levers. Glad it turned out ok for you guys too

On one engine, and full steering lock, I don't start going straight until I am doing 5.6 knots. Below that speed the prop walk is stronger than the rudder effect and the boat turns away from the working engine. So with no bow thruster I simply have no chance of getting out of a marina on one engine.
It was made worse by the fact that I couldn't work out what was going on quickly enough.

 

[Elessar]

Stop press on the bow thruster - it had a huge lump of plastic sucked into it and wrapped around the props. Diving friend in marina sorted it. More beer owed.

 

[[2068]]

Having something like this happen would rank fairly high up my list of worst nightmares: it sounds like quick thinking saved the day.
If it was me, I would be looking for the striped yellow and black ejector seat handle.
Or if there was a crunch, a Sky Remote Control so I could hit "rewind" and try it again.

 

[pmagowan]

Did the same on my wee sailing boat. Gave the marina a good thump when got stuck in forward. No harm done and new attachment on now.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Similar thing happened to me once when i was manouvering around a Med anchorage full of expensive gin palaces. I went to pull both throttle levers back to neutral but I couldn't understand why the boat appeared to be still powering forwards and veering off to starboard. I panicked and started sawing at both levers and the wheel and apart from making myself look like a complete fool and nearly swiping an adjacent boat, I wasn't any the wiser after what seemed like an eternity of doing that. Luckily it finally dawned on me to switch off the engines and drop the hook. It didn't take me long to find that the linkage operating the port gear selector had parted company thanks to a simple split pin having dropped out. A couple of minutes later we were back in business and I was hugely relieved

 

[prv]

Did the same on my wee sailing boat. Gave the marina a good thump when got stuck in forward. No harm done and new attachment on now.

I've done the same in a charter boat when the whole throttle/gear lever came off in my hand

Pete

 

[Paul_f7]

I was one of those locals on the pontoon at OVM and only glad I could help. For a while it all looked a little scary seeing your Sealine pirouette down the main channel in reverse. But amazing how quickly we managed to 'glide' her on to a berth and that you both had time to calm down before the exam. Good to hear your client passed his exam and he will be heading back to the BVI ready for motor as well as sail. Take care and remember to keep that screwdriver handy!! Cheers

 

[Elessar]

I was one of those locals on the pontoon at OVM and only glad I could help. For a while it all looked a little scary seeing your Sealine pirouette down the main channel in reverse. But amazing how quickly we managed to 'glide' her on to a berth and that you both had time to calm down before the exam. Good to hear your client passed his exam and he will be heading back to the BVI ready for motor as well as sail. Take care and remember to keep that screwdriver handy!! Cheers

Well what can I say other than "thanks!"
You helped ensure there was no damage for sure.
Much appeciated.

 

[rlw]

Ha had that happen to me twice. First time with a broken shift cable. Did not have the reaction to kill the engine but manage to motor away from rafting up without damage.
Next time was coming into a lock with a force 5 behind me and ended up with a throttle lever in my hand. Knew what to do then from the previous escapade. Kill the engine immediately. Was a bit scary for the FB in front as I ended up with my anchor over his seating but no contact. Eyeopener for the inlaws who were on board as they had never heard me swear before, not shure what shocked them the most

 

[itchenseadog]

A similar incident happened to me back in the late 70's. We had a contract to commission Sea Kip cruisers. We had a Sea Kip 38 arrive as deckcargo at Southampton container port. The boat was lifted over the far side of the ship into the water. We had 10mins to start engines, do all the usual checks etc. before he ship sailed. So we cast of quickly and put the throttles ahead. No matter what we did the boat would not behave, it just pirouetted around in circles. Luckily we had clear water and time to sort out the problem. Turned out that the factory in Taiwan had connected up the port gear lever incorrectly and you had to pull back to go forward whilst the starboard gear was connected correctly. In addition to that scenario, they had connectd the hydraulic steering wrongly so the wheel had to be turned to port to go to starboard.
Trying to get that combination into your brain and manouver into a berth was not easy!

 

[PEJ]

I was one of those locals on the pontoon at OVM and only glad I could help.

I was the other one. Paul got the tugging like hell on the rope job while I got the radio the marina launch to come and help job!

It was lucky that you were close enough to the finger to throw a rope but far enough away to not hit the pile. And also that it happened next to where Paul and I were chatting, minutes earlier we were both inside our boats and would not have seen you.

All's well that ends well.

 

[Elessar]

I was the other one. Paul got the tugging like hell on the rope job while I got the radio the marina launch to come and help job!

It was lucky that you were close enough to the finger to throw a rope but far enough away to not hit the pile. And also that it happened next to where Paul and I were chatting, minutes earlier we were both inside our boats and would not have seen you.

All's well that ends well.

well thanks to you too! I used up a whole load of luck that's for sure.