Overfriendly Dolphins

efitz

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Had a rather nervewracking experience on saturday while out sailing. Some dolphins appeared and apart from the usual escort duties started occasionally clipping the rudder. I presume intentionally.
The wheel felt as if it was being kicked out of my hand.
I didn't see the dolphins at first and I thought I had caught a pot line, until the culprits surfaced at my quarter as if to tease me. This went on for about 20 minutes until a passing ferry presented a more challenging playmate.

I must admit that while I normally find dolphins at close quarters quite exciting and indeed a privilaged experience, this was quite different. I was terrified that they would damage the rudder. Our's is quite deep and extends to almost six feet below the waterline, which makes it seem a bit vulnerable. It is not skeg hung, so all the stresses are carried on the mounting structure inside the hull.

The steering seemed fine afterwards and I could see no evidence of structural damage.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Also what are the chances of suffering damage from such an encounter?
 

Seajet

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I've not heard of structural damage by dolphins, but once off Gorey, Jersey, we spotted a few, and I suggested we turn on the depthsounder to attract them closer.

This worked rather better than I'd imagined, with the dolphins streaking towards us doing a very good impression of torpedo's, causing me to yell " turn it off, turn it off quick ! " :rolleyes:

Have had dolphins alongside since, playing in the bow wave, everyone happy, it seemed them especially.
 

Salty John

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I'm sure they were being hit by your rudder accidentally, rather than the dolphins deliberately hitting your rudder.

It's not unusual for dolphins to be caught by boat appendages and propellors, you can sometimes see the scars on visiting dolphins. More often than not, though, they play around without ever coming into contact with the boat.

You could try a very bright antifouling colour to warn them off!
 

Ric

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Had a rather nervewracking experience on saturday while out sailing. Some dolphins appeared and apart from the usual escort duties started occasionally clipping the rudder. I presume intentionally.

Do you know what sort of dolphins they were? Could you provide a description?

I have never heard of dolphins bumping boats, but this is not uncommon behaviour for pilot whales (that some mistake for dolphins). In fact, there is a concurrent thread on the Liveaboard forum about this.
 

efitz

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These were bottlenose dolphins (I think!) about 10-12 ft in length. Quite dark - almost black - on the top half, with a creamy white colour underneath.

I think they were deliberately playing with the rudder as they were sometimes swimming upside down under our stern. They would often race to the bow and then come flying at us from the beam before resuming the stern or quarter position.
Maybe the fact that our bottom is black might be an issue, but we've often had dolphin escorts before without any contact.

I might try turning off the instruments next time to see if this makes a difference, if my nerves can stand it!
 

Dipper

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Has anyone else had a similar experience? Also what are the chances of suffering damage from such an encounter?

Yes!

A few years ago, a small pod took up residence in Portland Harbour. Every time I left my mooring they came over to my boat only deserting me if they found a Hobicat or similar sailing nearby. One of them used to swim upside down bashing my rudder with its body nearly wrenching the tiller out of my hand. I heard later that a boat based in Weymouth suffered rudder damage as a result of these dolphins.

A couple of years after this, the welds on the tangs inside my rudder failed. Luckily I had just cast off from my swinging mooring in a flat calm so it was interesting rather than frightening. Whether the weld failure was related to the dolphin's attention I don't know. It may just have been coincidental.
 

KellysEye

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That's really strange I've never heard of Dolphins playing at the back of a boat, they like the pressure wave at the bows. We've had 70 plus Dolphin encounters including a group of over one thousand near Cape Finisterre, they were as far as we could see in all directions. All have only played on the bows. From the evidence they do seem to play with dinghy sterns so a boat must be possible.
 

JimC

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I had exactly the same experience when crossing the Bristol Channel from Padstow to Milford Haven a couple of years ago. A family of about 12 dolphins accompanied us practically all the way across, sometimes close to & sometimes a little distance away. At one point when they were sporting all around and under the boat one of them hit the rudder - hard. The boat lurched and the tiller was nearly knocked out of my hand but no harm seemed to have been done. I examined the spade rudder when the boat came out of the water and I couldn't find any stress cracks or other signs of damage. My impression at the time was that one of the dolphins had simply made a misjudgement and got a bit too close.
 

dt4134

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I've only seen it once. It was a large group and they seemed to be shoulder charging each other playfully each time they came around to jump on the bow wave. Didn't feel much on the rudder but when the boat was lifted for a scrub before the next regatta you could see where they'd rubbed strips of slime off the rudder.
 

efitz

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Looks like this isn't quite as rare as I thought.

These can be big beasts, so the potential for damage must be high if they get it wrong.

Many thanks for all the replies.
 

efitz

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Heard yesterday that a yacht had to be lifted out last week after a dolphin encounter. Apparently the lower part of the rudder was split apart.

btw this is going on in Cork Harbour.
 

Zaria

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Have just found this thread. We recently purchased an Elan Impression 384 on Lake Macquarie, Australia, and the old owner mentioned to watch out for the dolphins in the lake attacking the boat. We obviously thought he was joking. But sailing today we encountered 2 large dolphins smashing into the Rudder. I was very concerned that they might cause damage, so I rang the old owner who advised to turn on the motor, which did cause them to stop.

But due to dolphins being attracted by sonar, we think the depth sounder, or chart plotter/satellite is what attracted them? Did any of you above happen to have their instruments on. Did they try to turn off their instruments to stop the dolphins?
 

Seajet

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Zaria,

as in my post #2 here, depthsounders seem to attract Dolphins; it was frightening as they came at us like torpedos but I think that was just their sense of fun, and they'd smile even more if they knew the effect !

Very surprised to read of the physical contact you mention.

All I can think of is maybe Dolphins have suffered injury or even persecution by fishermen there ?

There was the true book ' 117 Days Adrift ' where I seem to remember the boat was attcked by killer whales which don't normally bother boats, but one of their young had just been killed by a fishing boat so they were understandably upset.

The one time we saw a REALLY big shark in British waters off Salcombe - defnitely not basking, we were used to those - we were motoring but it still dived slightly and homed in on us just under the surface, we suspected it too had been hassled by diesel fishing boats so was peeved by our sound - we were quite keen to oblige by steering to clear away.
 

rob2

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Dolphins are remarkably tactile creatures. They love to make contact with anything that takes their interest. Divers have told me that the males tend to investigate by rubbing their penis over the item of interest!

Just tell them - no means NO.

Rob.
 

Ian_Edwards

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Over the years we've had many occasions when dolphins have made contact with the boat, but never anything so violent as reported above.

They often seem to rub their backs on the keel or rudder, or turn over and rub their stomachs. You can certainly feel them make contact with the rudder and it feels much more like a rubbing action than a bash.

We've always assumed that they are just rubbing a bit of skin that irritates or they are trying to get rid of sea lice, a bit like a cow rubbing against a fence post.
 

colind3782

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A few years ago, while crossing the Straits from Gib to Morocco, we were regularly rammed by Dolphins on the port side of the bow. Various theories were expounded by those on board but none made much sense.
 

bobgarrett

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We have had something similar in Hayling Bay. Dolphins were around the boat and we were busy watching them when I realised I could not turn the wheel. I feared I had snagged a lobster pot through inattention but looking down behind the boat I could see a dolphin against the rudder. It wasn't hitting it just rubbing against it.
 

Seajet

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We have had something similar in Hayling Bay. Dolphins were around the boat and we were busy watching them when I realised I could not turn the wheel. I feared I had snagged a lobster pot through inattention but looking down behind the boat I could see a dolphin against the rudder. It wasn't hitting it just rubbing against it.

I'd love to see the insurance claim;

" we were unable to steer and thus collided with the gas tanker, the explosion was entirely down to Dophin Rubbing Syndrome " :)

In cases like that of colind3782's, I presume the ideas of depthsounders - or music playing onboard - were postulated ?
 
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