Oh dear

[U4]

Now I am usually quite a reserved person and certainly not one for making myself look stupid however as my self prescribed baptism on to the forum I am going to share with you the mistake I made while bringing my new pride and joy home from Brighton to Christchurch in January this year.

To set the scene it was an extremely cold day although absolutely cloudless (if that's a word) the wind was a fairly stiff Easterly. I was in two minds about making the trip as the wind over tide coming into the Solent was bound to make for a bit of chop. The fact that the new boat was on a berth right next to the little roundabout at the end of Brighton marina where anyone could just walk aboard if they fancied it made my mind up - I had to get her home!! And plus what a great opportunity to test the boat out!

The sea was horrendous as we approached the Solent and there was a huge convoy of container ships that didn't help the issue so decided to cross the main channel, hug the coast and round just passed the ryde sands.

The relief when the water began to settle and the fact that my friend asked if he could take the helm for a bit made us both take our eyes off the ball and BANG...! We hit the Ryde sands at about 26 knots and about 2 feet of water, the legs went into survival mode and kicked straight up and I went into shock!!!!

Here are some pics.

 

[Whitelighter]

Oops indeed.

I have recently doen something similar myself. Certainly teaches you a lesson you wont want to repeat. Hope the boat is ok.

 

[benjenbav]

Sorry to read that. Hope Part 2 sees you getting off the beach with everything working?

 

[Tidnock]

did you stay on the boat until the next tide?

 

[U4]

We had to wait for about 4 and a half hours, it was freezing! We called the life boat and I cant thank them enough. The drove out to us on their launching buggy thing, reassured us and told us to sit tight.

Four hours later they came out with their RIB and attached a line and waited in the cold until they could pull us off. It took about another hour. Did I mention the wind.... It was now blowing a gale and pitch black dark. Had they not helped us I think that the wind would have caused us serious problems.

We slowly cruised to Cowes where we spent the night and headed back to Christchurch in the morning with a bruised ego but nothing else...

 

[[2068]]

The trick is to always have a bucket, scrubber, and ideally a tin of antifouling and a brush handy.

Immediately after grounding, step down casually, lay out the anchor, then start patching up the antifoul, or scrubbing the outdrives and props until either they start to shine, or the tide comes in again

 

[AdeOlly]

Easily done. I remember being out in my previous S24 with a mate in what was then my first summer in the Solent. I let him have a drive and he drove over to Seaview and then west, us nattering away enjoying the hot July sunshine. We went straight over Ryde Sands. We didn't ground, but it was oh so shallow when he smacked it into neutral I could count virtually count the grains of sand beneath us.... We crept off slowly with the sounder showing under 1m.....

 

[Firefly625]

Excellent post, well admitted and photographed. It is so easy to take your eye's off the ball once you think you are "home and dry" so to speak, I remember running aground coming into the Hamble after an uneventful if not very wet 250 mile sail back from Ushant.... we were on a rising tide and were not stuck for long though!

 

[PRH]

Excellent photographs.

Welcome to the Forum from Peter and Sara, I thought I recognised the story, you told us at the Folly this year.

Question is - was it a boy or a girl? you may want to PM me the reply.

We were due on the cross channel trip today but it has, so far, been cancelled. We are awaiting an update later, the club have all gone down to Lymington for the night!

 

[U4]

Peter, I have PM'd you.

Glad you all like the post - I hope not to have to repeat it again!!

 

[hlb]

Fun posts of dareing does are sadly missing from the forum these days.

 

[GRR]

Close call too

I had a similar call off Ryde Sands when taking my boat to Bembridge on a falling tide.

I happened to look over the side and was in about a metre of water. Dead stop and crept very carefully in to deeper water.

great post - glad no permanent damage except to the ego

 

[tinkicker0]

Great post. Nice to see one where the ego has been put aside for the benefit of all those who keeps boats in the area.

Glad you did no damage to a very nice boat.

 

[Tidnock]

That would put me in a position way outside my comfort zone, what started out as a day light hop turned into a night time passage

 

[John100156]

Welcome to the Forum, but if that's the way you skipper a boat, I'm blooming glad I'm in the Med......

Still, glad no one was hurt, boats can easily be repaired......

 

[coliholic]

Nice story and thanks for sharing it.

Seven or so years ago took my Fairline Mirage from Gt Yarmouth to Kings Lynn with tcm showing me how it's all done. Round about Wells we lost an engine (electrics switched themselves off) and I remarked to tcm that if we lost the other one we'd be in deep sch**. His classic reply, after glancing at the depth sounder, was " well axshually we're in less than a metre so not very deep sch**** at all is it?"

 

[U4]

I am really sorry to bring this post up again but I really feel the need to respond to barfly4657 as despite his rather rude and judgemental PM comments he now does not accept PM's. So I have pasted my last (failed PM response) in the hope that you read it.

I appreciate your honesty both in public and private, but peeps will crucify your driving without due care and attention. Try posting those pics on Scuttlebutt if you dare!

Are you signing up for nav classes? Not that they're the solution - you'll still continue to waste RNLI resources if you don't get boatwise soon.

Good luck - just keep out of the headlines.

Sorry for the delay in response, I've been away.

I have to say that your last message makes you sound like a knowitall **** head.

I contribute SIGNIFICANTLY to the RNIL year on year however if you were familiar with the area that my mistake took place in (which clearly you aren’t so perhaps you shouldn’t judge) you would know that Ryde have their very own independent lifeboat.

You will be pleased to hear that my incident did not drain RNLI resources of a single penny.

And before you ask, yes a suitable donation was made to the Ryde lifeboat.

By the way, why have you taken this conversation away from the open forum? I will be glad to hear you’re rational for this point?

P.S. I have no interest in Scuttlebutt so you dare has fallen on deaf ears.

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Don't worry about barfly4657 - he's used a bunch of different userid's on the forum, and he's consistently proved himself to be a t*t. End of.

cheers
Jimmy

 

[Vagabond]

hey there are a few of us here who have done it ...

Here is my list:
1. Christcuhrch on a falling tide .. keel (rag and stick boat!) hit the bottom and I was left high and dry in no time.


2. Chichester . Was lucky as mates were there to take pictures!

3. Chichester again was very(!) lucky as mates were there to take pictures!

 

[AndieMac]

Most at one time or another, Vagabond........

But not many would have the pics. to prove it