Not a good start

C

cafebloke

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 Oct 2009
Messages
69
Location
London
www.krustynutz.smugmug.com
I have spent the winter sprucing up my Birchwood 27 and this weekend I set off for a couple of weeks on the Thames..
About a mile before I reached Teddington my prop hit something under the water and my gearbox seemed to take the brunt of the shock, cos it doesn't work any more :mad:
Luckily it is a twin engine boat so I am continuing up river ..
The engine is fine but there is no traction between the gear box and prop shaft,
it turns ok but you can grab the shaft and stop it easily... I am not mechanically minded so I will have to get someone to sort it out for me.
Its a Volvo MS 3 gearbox so I am guessing DB Marine at Cookham is my best bet, unless anyone out there thinks otherwise,,, I am at Penton Hook tonight and probaably Windsor on monday tuesday, Its a bit of a bugger to manoevre with one engine but I am getting used to it,,,
If you see me chugging uo the river, give us a wave,,,,,,,,
everyone does anyway :)
Good thing I splashed out on comprehensive insurance
 
There are

cafebloke said:
I have spent the winter sprucing up my Birchwood 27 and this weekend I set off for a couple of weeks on the Thames..
About a mile before I reached Teddington my prop hit something under the water and my gearbox seemed to take the brunt of the shock, cos it doesn't work any more :mad:
Luckily it is a twin engine boat so I am continuing up river ..
The engine is fine but there is no traction between the gear box and prop shaft,
it turns ok but you can grab the shaft and stop it easily... I am not mechanically minded so I will have to get someone to sort it out for me.
Its a Volvo MS 3 gearbox so I am guessing DB Marine at Cookham is my best bet, unless anyone out there thinks otherwise,,, I am at Penton Hook tonight and probaably Windsor on monday tuesday, Its a bit of a bugger to manoevre with one engine but I am getting used to it,,,
If you see me chugging uo the river, give us a wave,,,,,,,,
everyone does anyway :)
Good thing I splashed out on comprehensive insurance
Click to expand...

A few folk in Penton Hook, grab an engineer there to at least give you a view on things? did you hit something down stream of ted lock? i.e .the bottom?
 
Moved on to windsor today, boat going fine on one engine, just a bit dodgy with slow manouevering , locks etc...
came across the most obnoxious narrow boat owner today.... I bumped fenders with him as I was mooring and got an absolute tirade of abuse and insults.... he told me I should not try to moor up near nice boats if i dont have the skill to do it... he also said he had been driving boats all his life and if I have only been driving my boat for 3 days I should do it elsewhere.....
Luckily this experience is not typical of boat owners...

Think I will stay here another day and move on to Cookham on wednesday.
 
A Thought

cafebloke said:
Moved on to windsor today, boat going fine on one engine, just a bit dodgy with slow manouevering , locks etc...
came across the most obnoxious narrow boat owner today.... I bumped fenders with him as I was mooring and got an absolute tirade of abuse and insults.... he told me I should not try to moor up near nice boats if i dont have the skill to do it... he also said he had been driving boats all his life and if I have only been driving my boat for 3 days I should do it elsewhere.....
Luckily this experience is not typical of boat owners...

Think I will stay here another day and move on to Cookham on wednesday.
Click to expand...

Firstly sorry to hear about the Grumpy narrow boat owner

On your other issue as you are at Windsor it may well be worth popping back down to Kris Cruisers at Datchet and seeing if Andy is about their engineer, if he is not busy he may take a quick look and give you some advice. They are a great bunch and do all the work on my boat (no connection just a satisfied customer). Mentioning my name may or may not help lol :-)
 
cafebloke said:
came across the most obnoxious narrow boat owner today.... I bumped fenders with him as I was mooring and got an absolute tirade of abuse and insults.... he told me I should not try to moor up near nice boats if i dont have the skill to do it... he also said he had been driving boats all his life and if I have only been driving my boat for 3 days I should do it elsewhere.....
Click to expand...

Name and shame? Why the hell are we so reticent to "out" these people ? Maybe we should start a 'sticky' thread just for that purpose ?
 
I think

boatone said:
Name and shame? Why the hell are we so reticent to "out" these people ? Maybe we should start a 'sticky' thread just for that purpose ?
Click to expand...

You are as bored as I have been today Tony but your point is a good one, especially after all the support you have been giving our narrow boat friends lately. Luckily it is the odd few in any type of craft and not the norm, albeit seems to be becoming more common. And the weather is not nad at all this season imagine if it was like the last few summers :-)
 
cafebloke said:
Moved on to windsor today, boat going fine on one engine, just a bit dodgy with slow manouevering , locks etc...
came across the most obnoxious narrow boat owner today.... I bumped fenders with him as I was mooring and got an absolute tirade of abuse and insults.... he told me I should not try to moor up near nice boats if i dont have the skill to do it... he also said he had been driving boats all his life and if I have only been driving my boat for 3 days I should do it elsewhere.....
Luckily this experience is not typical of boat owners...

Think I will stay here another day and move on to Cookham on wednesday.
Click to expand...

Oh dear. I have just been saying how friendly they all are on a another thread. There is no accounting for some people's attitude. Perhaps you could have politely suggested that he find another pastime as boating clearly is not doing the trick.
 
boatone said:
Name and shame? Why the hell are we so reticent to "out" these people ? Maybe we should start a 'sticky' thread just for that purpose ?
Click to expand...

Lets not get too carried away B1, I think most of us would be a bit upset if our "fenders were bumped" whatever that means whilst we were moored up, NB's don't tend to have fenders anyway.
 
Chris_d said:
Lets not get too carried away B1, I think most of us would be a bit upset if our "fenders were bumped" whatever that means whilst we were moored up, NB's don't tend to have fenders anyway.
Click to expand...

But isn't that what fenders are for?

I know that the original poster was less than detailed in his description of the event but there was no suggestion of any damage being done so why the need for "an absolute tirade of abuse and insults" which, if accurately reported seems at least a bit OTT ?

I just think that we have all become too tolerant of bad behavior.

If I have got too carried away I apologise.
 
A point of information

Putting two and two together and probably making a whole lot more than five -

  • There are a lot of this forum's favourite :rolleyes: vessels making their way to Beal Park, very many of whom you would never see on the River.
  • Some folk spend an huge amount on paint jobs for their boats (£4k will do an adequate basic finish - so I guess upwards of £10k for the full monty). This to such an extent that the owners are afeared to take them out of their marina.
  • There are prizes given at the rally for the best pimped boats.
Given the above you might understand that the owner of such a boat might be distraught if he thought his paint job might even be scuffed, coupled with the fact that many of these come from areas where folk are not reticent in making their feelings known.

HOWEVER, there is absolutely no excuse for an abusive tirade. I merely indicate why the response might be more than one would expect.
 
Hello again,
I wont stoop so low as to name and shame in public, but if you pm me I dont mind....
As mentioned earlier I have lost the use of one engine, and I am also making my first journey in this boat,..
Manouvering into a tight mooring space is not easy when your prop and rudder are off to one side.. I have lots of fenders to compensate for my lack of experience.. and I made a balls up of my mooring bumping the rear corner of his narrowboat with a big ball fender...

I am sure if it had been boat to boat, my heap of fibreglass would not make much of an impact on his 20 tons of steel.... As it happens not so much as scratch happened either, his main abuse was at my lack of steering skills and for having the audacity to try and moor up near a boater with a 'lifetime' of experience..

On the plus side... He is the one and only 'victor meldrew' I have come across so far .. Helpful and cheerful is the norm..
 
Well I for one think you have done well, to press on when you have lost one engine and your first trip in a new boat any true boater whether it be a cruiser or narrowboater would normally be more sympathetic and understanding to your situation. I'me afraid you were unlucky enough to come across a floating PR*tt














l
 
Well. I made it to Cookham after a brief hold up for a fallen tree near boulters lock, and took the boat to DB marine on thursday morning..
Their mechanic was on the job immediately and less than an hour later the gearbox was laid out like a jigsaw puzzle on his desk..
The offending part was a cone clutch thingy whotsit... ( mega expensive )
He ordered the necessary parts and said I would be on my way the next morning...
Unfortunately, later in the afternoon we got the bad news that the part was unavailable for 2 to 3 weeks ...
So I have abandoned ship and got the train home today.. hopefully to resume my trip in a few weeks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top