Portsmouth dock crash

henryf said:
Mechanical or alcohol.
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A very competent Unlimited Master whom I know, with years of experience was in a similar situation - he hit the engine stop buttons but still did a lot of damage. It was a broken gearbox linkage meaning no astern.

Why question alcohol? Just because it looks like a fishing boat???

Never approach anything faster than you want to hit it...

PW
 
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Luminescent said:
Mm, having read the article most people seemed to think it was mechanical, gears became stuck or something similar.
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Does seem likely, but I wouldn’t take the article as any kind of authority. It attributes the gearbox theory to “the public and others around the harbour” - ie the reporter asked a couple of random passers-by on the quayside and one of them said “maybe the gearbox got stuck?”

Pete
 
prv said:
Does seem likely, but I wouldn’t take the article as any kind of authority. It attributes the gearbox theory to “the public and others around the harbour” - ie the reporter asked a couple of random passers-by on the quayside and one of them said “maybe the gearbox got stuck?”

Pete
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Still better than most of the UK press right now, at least they asked someone and didn't just make it up themselves.
 
We had a variable pitch propellor jam in ahead pitch ( I have a feeling they theoretically revert to fine ahead, if they lose oil pressure?)

It could easily have caused a bump (2500 tons) if it happened at the wrong moment (i.e. approaching a dock, the pilot calling for, but unable to select, astern pitch). More common than being drunk IMO.
 
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Certainly I've made a similar arrival on a smaller scale, when the gear lever of a somewhat scruffy charter boat came off in my hand as I tried to apply a burst of astern.

Fortunately a Sadler 32 bumping a marina pontoon does rather less damage than a 100-ton trawler colliding with a quayside :p

Pete
 
I think the engine failing or otherwise losing astern drive must be a common cause of parking bumps. It has happened twice to me in 30 years, the first a broken morse cable disabled reverse gear and the more i tried to stop the faster the boat went and I realised what was happening as I drove up a beach. The second time on a different boat the engine stopped as I selected astern to slow into my pontoon berth and I bumped my neighbours boat. Hey ho the joy of boating.
The guy I bought my first boat from drove his new boat at 4 knots into the lock gates at Liverpool having lost the astern drive gear cable he also went faster as he tried to slow.
 
Elecglitch said:
Actually a stupid platitude, most people would rather hit things at 0 kn, but virtue of that they'd never get there let alone have steerage way.
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Really?!

No one wants to hit anything (usually) but at 0kts you're not going anywhere to hit anything anyway.

There's a difference between maintaining minimum speed for steerage and being a bumper car driver going flat out without a care.

PW
 
Failed to run astern..... A few years ago a BC ferry fresh out of dry dock did likewise at Horseshoe Bay and charged into a marina full of boats.
 
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