Ooops!

[salinia]

Probably been posted before...there but for the grace of...
For those who haven't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=t2dE5p1cx-o

 

[prv]

"There but for the grace of"?!?! Sincerely hope not! We all make mistakes, but I hope it would take simultaneous loss of both steering and engine control for me to power straight into a quay like that, car or no car.

Weird that no one on board appeared to be worried until the very last moment!

Pete

 

[ricky_s]

Power gives way to sail

 

[NealB]

Reminds me of an incident in 1990.

We'd just moored in the marina at Solenzarra, Corsica. About ten minutes later, as we were enjoying our first post-passage cocktail, a Sunsail fleet began to arrive.

The third of the fleet in used a very similar docking style to that demonstrated in the youtube clip, except that the pontoon was lower, so the bows rose right up onto the pontoon, only stopping when the keel hit.

She then began a very sedate, graceful slide back into the water.

The French crew didn't flinch at any point...just made fast in a way which made it all look like perfect execution of the agreed plan.

 

[SlimRick]

Would love to see the car driver's insurance claim -hit by a boat whilst parked.

 

[Hornet_UK]

Power gives way to sail

Sail gives way to rock!

 

[salinia]

"There but for the grace of"?!?! Sincerely hope not! We all make mistakes, but I hope it would take simultaneous loss of both steering and engine control for me to power straight into a quay like that, car or no car.

Weird that no one on board appeared to be worried until the very last moment!

Pete

A slower approach would have no doubt been more favourable but the emergency procedure of using the golf as a fender seemed a good call if it was the skippers motor...lucky there was no one in it at the time. Was there enough time to avoid the collision I wonder?

 

[Boomshanka]

Was this the precursor to the YM Crash Test Boat series

 

[sigma38dave]

Shall we give the skipper the benefit of doubt and assume astern control picked the wrong moment not to work?

 

[halcyon]

Shall we give the skipper the benefit of doubt and assume astern control picked the wrong moment not to work?

One of the east ender's actors learnt to sail in Mylor, he always parked the yacht that way, just ramed the pontoon.

Brian

 

[prv]

One of the east ender's actors learnt to sail in Mylor, he always parked the yacht that way, just ramed the pontoon.

Concrete pontoons there, too

Pete

 

[Bodach na mara]

I notice they hit the car once then had another go to make sure!

 

[Twister_Ken]

I blame the Golf driver for parking where a boat might hit him.

 

[prv]

Tom Cunliffe's gaff-rig book does warn about collecting 2CVs on the end of one's bowsprit while turning into a berth

Pete

 

[onesea]

Tom Cunliffe's gaff-rig book does warn about collecting 2CVs on the end of one's bowsprit while turning into a berth

Pete

I understand there is a photo of the STS Sir Winston Churchill's bow sprite in the side of a bread lorry .

It had been waiting to deliver bread to them ..

 

[lustyd]

Shall we give the skipper the benefit of doubt and assume astern control picked the wrong moment not to work?

If the skipper was relying on reverse to stop his yacht then he was going too fast and is still at fault. There looked to be a bit of a breeze blowing towards the pontoon but not enough to have built that kind of speed.

 

[Simondjuk]

It looks to me like the boat accelerates part way through its approach. Throttle dyslexia on the part of the helmsman perhaps?

 

[Talulah]

Last year whilst in Cherbourg I watched a bunch of Day Skipper candidates being taught to park that way.
I recognised the School Boat as it was one that I had taught on.
Each student had a go at ramming the pontoon (albeit slowly) to berth the boat.

A bit later on I went and spoke to the instructor. His reply was "There is always someone watching when you try to teach something a little unorthodox."
First he had taken all the Day Skipper candidates to Cherbourg as he considered the Solent too busy to teach in. The boat was fitted with a stainless plate plate to help protect the bow against mishaps.
But I wonder how many of his pupils (past and future) will think it's ok to charter a boat and then ram it into a pontoon whilst the crew get lines on?

(My neighbour in the marina often uses this technigue as he sails single handed. However, it's his boat and he has fenders permanently tied onto the pontoon at the point of contact.)

 

[Highland Bear]

Mock ye Not, mes amis!

I sailed on a Sunsail charter boat many years ago in Turkey, heading into a narrow rock inlet to moor up at the restaurant pontoon for the night.

With about 200 metres to go I decided we were going a bit quickly so gave her a burst of reverse. We surged forward!

Repeat burst in reverse, surged forward again! Eeek!!

Fortunately had just enough room to spin the boat round and head back out to sea to sort out the slipping gear selector in the engine bay which had worked loose and decided reverse was no longer on the menu!

Makes stern-to mooring a bit tricky without "R" in the box!

 

[[70521]]

A daft place to park a car