Over reaction perhaps,

[Rappey]

is how anyone can manage to go outside the incredibly well marked channel and go aground,

It happens ! I entered newtown creek in the solent ,saw the green channel marker ànd for a totally unknown reason went to starboard of it and promptly ran aground !

Possibly some issues with emergency services with over or under reaction can be due to so much red tape involving health and safety ?
I was told about a boat that had caught fire in a marina, the fire brigade were in the office going through folders/paperwork meanwhile a member of staff on the pontoons grabbed a marina hose (before health and safety and water regs had them removed) kicked in the washboards and put the fire out.

 

[The Q]

What baffles me, having transited Breydon a number of times, is how anyone can manage to go outside the incredibly well marked channel and go aground, unless I suppose they had an engine failure. Short of joining all the posts together with fluorescent chain I cannot imagine how it could be marked more clearly. ?
All assuming normal visibility.

One of the two Boats claimed to have had engine failure, But I've not heard from anyone whether that was true or not, I'm betting the other one just saw it out there and followed it like sheep. Why the "engine failure" one didn't drop a mud weight is beyond me..

I have sailed between two similar posts on Hickling broad, mind you it was 2 in the morning, and the fog was that heavy you couldn't see from one post to the next (pre affordable GPS).

 

[Juan Twothree]

I once got called to take the occupants off a motor cruiser which had gone aground well outside the channel, which was marked at that point by several port hand markers.

When I asked the skipper what had happened, he explained that he'd seen the red buoys, and as red obviously means danger, he'd given them a wide berth.

 

[The Q]

We Get that on the river occasionally when they see our Orange race marker buoys and then decide the wrong side is the place to be..

 

[Bigplumbs]

I think you need to remember that if they were hire craft. People are taught next to nothing when they hire them

Phrases like Port hand buoy, Starboard etc mean nothing to them and why should they. For years we have had left and Right and we all know that it is relevant to the direction of travel. Some people like to feel good about themselves because they use nautical phrases. The sooner they go the better

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I think you need to remember that if they were hire craft. People are taught next to nothing when they hire them

Phrases like Port hand buoy, Starboard etc mean nothing to them and why should they. For years we have had left and Right and we all know that it is relevant to the direction of travel. Some people like to feel good about themselves because they use nautical phrases. The sooner they go the better

But Port and Starboard mean something different from left and right. Anyone who has dealt with the stage knows that left and right have to be qualified according to whether you're looking out from the stage or in from the auditorium! And it's the same on a boat; left only equates to Port if you happen to be looking forward. But Port is always the same side of the boat and it's always the same side of the channel. Nautical phrases aren't for show; they, like any other technical language, are there to bring greater precision.

Left and Right aren't as hard-wired as you imagine either - I have to think which is which and frequently get it wrong when giving directions! I acknowledge I'm in a minority, but I've met enough other people like me to recognize that it isn't a tiny minority. For me, Port and Starboard (and compass directions) are far more intuitive.

 

[fisherman]

Breydon Water: Norfolk lifeboat crews rescue 17 people and three pets

I wonder every time i see the local hire boats up the Helford river, how much info are they given about receding tides and channel marks. Spending nine or ten hours aground is one thing, trying to walk ashore could be disastrous

 

[SaltIre]

If you ask them nicely the Mods might merge this boaty thread into the one in the boaty forum from April...

 

[LittleSister]

[n.b. this post was written before the two threads were merged]

There was a thread about the incident recently (on the East Coast Forum, perhaps).

Boat hirers on the Broads are told to keep within the marked channel. This is exceedingly well marked, especially on Breydon Water (which is a wide expanse not typical of the Broads), by huge red and green posts at short intervals, and if they stay within that they can't go aground. I can't remember now, but I think there was a suggestion that in this particular case the engine had failed, or some such problem, and they had then drifted out of the channel to the very extensive shallow and drying areas of Breydon Water outside of it.

You are right that attempting to walk to the shore there could be very dangerous. I doubt they are given the level of detailed advice to include that when picking up a boat, but they would be given the telephone numbers of both the yard they have hired from and Broads Control (24hrs) to call if they get a problem.

 

[SaltIre]

Many years ago I did a passage through the Caledonian Canal, and was astonished to see hire boats being "secured" in the locks by means of folk standing in/on the cabin cruiser and holding on to ropes dangled from the edge of the lock. The friction between the soles of their feet and the boat was the only (indirect) contact securing them!

 

[Capt Popeye]

Yes well many many moons ago , family were on a our 35fter and ran aground in the Swale , one fella stated I will take the dog for a walk , so put his Wellies on and Jumped overboard onto a Cockle Bed , mud right over his welly boots , we managed to pull him back out or up from the ozzing mud , but without his Wellies ; He stated , well the shingle and Shells looked firm enough to me I thought ; well guess the Wellies are still there ; bloody good job he did not call the dog off the boat first ?

 

[The Q]

another one on Breydon this week.. not sure why they needed rescuing.. all they had to do was wait for the tide to come back in..

 

[SaltIre]

another one on Breydon this week.. not sure why they needed rescuing.. all they had to do was wait for the tide to come back in..

I read somewhere that if their seacocks happen to be open they can fill up with water instead of floating off. It might have been in an earlier post.

Edit:

There were two boats aground, one had engine failure, I suspect the second tried to rescue the first.. It was Pretty windy here yesterday (I'm about 15 miles away). The boat yard called out the Coastguard as they suspected the water outlets for sinks etc may flood the boat before the boat floats.

As for taking dogs and other animals on board.. Do not confuse these boats with a proper marine boat, they are floating caravans, often complete with a house domestic cooker and washing machine, generator, two toilets and showers....
They were as marine as they are allowed on Breydon water, and in high winds Breydon is closed for those tourist boats..

 

[viago]

Many years ago I did a passage through the Caledonian Canal, and was astonished to see hire boats being "secured" in the locks by means of folk standing in/on the cabin cruiser and holding on to ropes dangled from the edge of the lock. The friction between the soles of their feet and the boat was the only (indirect) contact securing them!

dont know about the caledonian locks but in the canal system docks tying on can cause more trouble than not when going down stream. i never tie on. thread the rope through a ring and hang on to the end tightening or letting out as the water level changes, you are just holding it into the side. for and aft position in the lock is mostly maintained using the engine, the rope largely keeps you to the side. you dont want to get caught on the ledge as the water drops so keep away from the gates with the engine.


i guess a lot of the the boats on the caledonian are vastly bigger than a 57' narrowboat.


the rescue seems to have been successful and no one was injured or hospitalised so all in all nowt to complain about. i would not have agreed to be winched onto a bloody helicopter, that's for certain. i'd rather stay on the boat.

comes to something when the rescue is potentially more dangerous than what you are being rescued from.

 

[The Q]

I read somewhere that if their seacocks happen to be open they can fill up with water instead of floating off. It might have been in an earlier post.

Edit:

Not actually seacocks but sink and shower drains.. well that's the coast guards belief, but in all the years of this happening I cannot recall a sinking that way .
In days gone by, maybe just 10 years ago, they'd just sit there with a boatyard tug boat waiting in the deep water ready to tow them off.

This on the crew tripped over, the helm went to help and left the engine full ahead..

 

[fisherman]

Nautical phrases aren't for show; they, like any other technical language, are there to bring greater precision.

Aha, like my crew, "Wind her in a spoke and check her"

 

[The Q]

just noted on another forum, a boat yard employee was put on the latest grounding on Breydon and reversed her off once afloat..

 

[DanTribe]

Nothing new.
I seem to recall that the Hullaballos came to grief on Breydon water in Coot Club.

 

[fisherman]

Nothing new.
I seem to recall that the Hullaballos came to grief on Breydon water in Coot Club.

....and where was the 'Come Along', when she was needed?

tied up eating his crispy bacon...

 

[Stemar]

It seems reasonable to suppose that anyone here has a fair degree of competence on the water. Broads boat renters may have none. I rented a boat and, apart from the requirement for a pilot to go under Potter Heigham bridge, it was here's how you start the engine and stop it, that's the gear lever, off you go. I'd never set foot on a motorboat before and didn't even know how ignorant I was.

AIUI, boat one had an engine problem and was blown onto the putty. Boat two tried to rescue them and failed. They called the rental co, who got concerned about the possibility of flooding as the time came back in, and called out the cavalry. I can well imagine that ignorant people, unfamiliar with the ways of the water (not a criticism of them- if they were, they had no reason to be otherwise), could be distressed, and I would guess that that may well have played a part in the decision-making. Rescue? I would say so. Lives saved? Unlikely. Good training for the services involved? Undoubtedly; they need to do it regularly to stay sharp.

I'm also reminded of an incident at East Head. There was a decent westerly breeze blowing and a little mobo ran aground a hundred yards or so from Snowhill buoy. We were anchored in a couple of metres of water (low tide) not far from the buoy. As the tide came in, the boat was floating just enough to blow further onto the shoal and ground again, It became apparent that they were going to struggle to get off, so I loaded the tender with all the spare rope I had, and went over. I passed them a rope and tried to tow them off with the dinghy. Not going to happen, so I tied enough bits of string together to bring the line back on board and managed to winch them off. If I hadn't they'd probably have ended up hard aground on the shore, with a nice bill for refloating and possibly damage to the stern drive from bouncing on the shore. I'm claiming a rescue for that one! It's also possible that the Broads boats would have suffered a similar fate left to themselves.

To finish, I'm extremely glad that lifeboats - National and local - prefer to come out to me when I've made an idiot of myself than wait until I've tried to sort myself out and really blown it, and they're looking for bodies.