Phoenix of Hamble
Well-Known Member
This weekend, Morgana, along with a couple of other forum boats met up at Fambridge...
While we were there we noted a rather worrying situation developing...
A little Vivacity turned up, populated with 4 bare chested young guys (and without being too boorish - of the less intellectually endowed variety) who proceeded to tie up on the downtide side of a pontoon that was straight across the tide.... and then march off down to the pub...
3 hours later they returned, not obviously worse for the wear (so no drink related issues immediately obvious)
However now, they had, along with the 4 original guys, 3 women and 3 kids.... so 10 people on a 20' boat....
What was also abundantly clear was that they had absolutely no idea at all what they were doing.... no fenders, plastic garden string for warps, etc etc etc
The tide by this time had turned, and with a big spring tide, there was already 2+ kts pinning them to the pontoon.....
attached to the back of the boat was a little 3hp outboard, that they could not start.... the adults remained lifejacketless, and the kids sported water skiing style bouyancy aids sized for an overweight male... the kids donned them, and they came down to their knees, while they could have had a small party inside the bouyancy aids themselves....
1/2hr later, the 'lads' had started the outboard after prolonged tugging on the starter cord, when some kind sole (out of frustration at the curfuffle rather than the act itself I suspect) finally pointed out the fuel tap to them...
They then proceeded to work the boat forward along the pontoon by hand assisted by the viscious tide until the pullpit smacked the old wooden boat in front of them hard enough to bend the pullpit.... all this time, the women are bailing the cockpit out which has several inches of water in it, causing the beer cans on the sole to float around all the other detritus including leaves, rubbish and general dirt... (I suspect the cockpit sole was by now below the water line - although I am surprised the drains weren't blocked).... along with various curses in a broad Essex accent, scattered with profanitites...
(at which point their evident lack of tidal knowledge was reinforced after another boat pointed out their follies, with an "its alright luv, we know all about tides dunt we...." while clearly the alpha bare chested male thought the advice to be bonkers as it was quite clearly summer and not spring, so what on earth was she on, and since when has a season been 'big')
Hitting the wooden boat obviously caused a rethink, so eventually they managed to drag it to a suitable position for an exit through brute force, pushed off (sort of, against a 2.5kt tide) all jumped on, and proceeded to bump their way down the pontoon revving the engine to absolute maximum, but not realising that it would have been more effective if they had put in it gear...
Soon enough they ran out of boats to bump their way along and water...
1/2 hr later, we saw the lads alone, still bare chested manage to motor off the pontoon.... no idea where the women and children had gone, and set off up river, against the tide, making perhaps 1/2kt over the ground....cheering as they went... into a rapidly falling tide in an area filled with dangerous mud flats...
Later that afternoon, we noticed (ironically, somewhat relieved) that it was back... tied forlornly to another part of the pontoon, and no one onboard.... still filthy, still full of water, and the outboard removed.... good job if nothing else they'd moved it... their previous location dries to 1.5m...
Now... this was so obviously an accident waiting to happen... they genuinely didn't have a clue... no fenders, no lifejackets, no clue about tide....
Should we have interjected?
While we were there we noted a rather worrying situation developing...
A little Vivacity turned up, populated with 4 bare chested young guys (and without being too boorish - of the less intellectually endowed variety) who proceeded to tie up on the downtide side of a pontoon that was straight across the tide.... and then march off down to the pub...
3 hours later they returned, not obviously worse for the wear (so no drink related issues immediately obvious)
However now, they had, along with the 4 original guys, 3 women and 3 kids.... so 10 people on a 20' boat....
What was also abundantly clear was that they had absolutely no idea at all what they were doing.... no fenders, plastic garden string for warps, etc etc etc
The tide by this time had turned, and with a big spring tide, there was already 2+ kts pinning them to the pontoon.....
attached to the back of the boat was a little 3hp outboard, that they could not start.... the adults remained lifejacketless, and the kids sported water skiing style bouyancy aids sized for an overweight male... the kids donned them, and they came down to their knees, while they could have had a small party inside the bouyancy aids themselves....
1/2hr later, the 'lads' had started the outboard after prolonged tugging on the starter cord, when some kind sole (out of frustration at the curfuffle rather than the act itself I suspect) finally pointed out the fuel tap to them...
They then proceeded to work the boat forward along the pontoon by hand assisted by the viscious tide until the pullpit smacked the old wooden boat in front of them hard enough to bend the pullpit.... all this time, the women are bailing the cockpit out which has several inches of water in it, causing the beer cans on the sole to float around all the other detritus including leaves, rubbish and general dirt... (I suspect the cockpit sole was by now below the water line - although I am surprised the drains weren't blocked).... along with various curses in a broad Essex accent, scattered with profanitites...
(at which point their evident lack of tidal knowledge was reinforced after another boat pointed out their follies, with an "its alright luv, we know all about tides dunt we...." while clearly the alpha bare chested male thought the advice to be bonkers as it was quite clearly summer and not spring, so what on earth was she on, and since when has a season been 'big')
Hitting the wooden boat obviously caused a rethink, so eventually they managed to drag it to a suitable position for an exit through brute force, pushed off (sort of, against a 2.5kt tide) all jumped on, and proceeded to bump their way down the pontoon revving the engine to absolute maximum, but not realising that it would have been more effective if they had put in it gear...
Soon enough they ran out of boats to bump their way along and water...
1/2 hr later, we saw the lads alone, still bare chested manage to motor off the pontoon.... no idea where the women and children had gone, and set off up river, against the tide, making perhaps 1/2kt over the ground....cheering as they went... into a rapidly falling tide in an area filled with dangerous mud flats...
Later that afternoon, we noticed (ironically, somewhat relieved) that it was back... tied forlornly to another part of the pontoon, and no one onboard.... still filthy, still full of water, and the outboard removed.... good job if nothing else they'd moved it... their previous location dries to 1.5m...
Now... this was so obviously an accident waiting to happen... they genuinely didn't have a clue... no fenders, no lifejackets, no clue about tide....
Should we have interjected?
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