Single Engine Boats: Use of Get Home System

[westernman]

For those of you who have single engined vessels with some kind of get home system (wing engine, generator PTO, sails etc), how often have you really had to use it?

Was it essential, or just more convenient than for instance towing with the RIB alongside, or anchoring/drifting while you fixed the problem?

 

[westernman]

Can you tell us why you needed your get home system? What went wrong?

 

[No Regrets]

I had a Broom 30 with a single Perkins, but also an unusual 'wing engine' which was a little 11hp Nanni on a shaft, offset to the Port side.

It was a good mixture, the Wing was only used while berthing, as it offered almost twin engined manoeuvrability, and when at top speed, a tad more speed and stability than the single.

However, most of the time it was left off.

When a Diesel pipe split though, the tiny engine took us back along the Thames at 5mph in near silence, and saved the day!

Highly recommended setup...

 

[landlockedpirate]

About a mile off the South Coast of Menorca heading towards Cala Porta, the engine simply cut out (Single V8 Petrol) and all electrics went dead. Spent about 10 minutes fault finding without success as we moved steadily away from land.

My get you home system for that boat was to strap the tender alongside at the stern, lock the outboard (3hp Malta) ahead and twistgrip throttle on full. I then steered via the leg on the boat.

System worked fine, made around 1kt over ground against 10kts wind, no current.

Anchored in Cala Porta with help from another couple of boats that were there. Spent the afternoon with a multimeter to find a faulty switch on dash, bypassed that and all was fine.

Without the get me home system I may have been in trouble. However when boating in the UK you always have the RNLI for emergencies.

That was 12 years ago and I have never needed it before or after.

 

[julians]

I had the gearbox in a single engined boat fail, resulting in needing a tow home due to no other method of propulsion.

I also had to be towedin in a twin engined sealine s34. One of the engines had overheated and couldnt be fixed whilst out at sea, no problem I thought, just switch off engine and cruise slowly home on the remaining engine. The engine that had failed was also the engine that drove the power steering, but no problem I thought, steering will just be a bit heavier than usual. So off I went and for a few miles all was fine, steering was quite heavy, but manageable. After a few miles, something snapped in the steering, leaving me with no steering and one engine. At that point I gave up and got a tow home from a passing fisherman. I didconsider trying to drive it home using the bow thruster as steerage, but the drives were hard over to port when ghe steering failed, so that was a non starter.

It turned out there was sheer pin of some sort effecting a mechanical connection between wheel and drives, and this was not man enough to take the force of moving the drives without power assistance.

 

[Scubadoo]

I have an idea of a get home system (well more an emergency to move), basically the tender is on snap davits and with the 3.3hp outboard on the tender turned 90degrees will push the boat along. However a few years ago when I had a bracket bolted to the engine shear off and fall onto the belts shredding them all, I called sea start and they fitted my spares and check for damage etc.

 

[galeus]

This is what we have though we have not needed it yet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnyXMznqpwY&list=UUMNXW4AotLX__uuVifU5CEw

 

[AndieMac]

This is what we have though we have not needed it yet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnyXMznqpwY&list=UUMNXW4AotLX__uuVifU5CEw

I like this, can you explain the operation please?

Noticed the other aux. bracket on the starboard side, why not mount this (new?) system on the same side?

 

[OldBawley]

Not getting home but getting out.

Anchored in front of a small village in a Turkish cove-like bay to get some food and wifi.
First thing to do was get a weather forecast. A South East 8 was predicted for the next night. Whilst Swimbo went shopping I had to do some paperwork and mail it. Took me a long time.
Then we had to move out, that bay is a death trap with SE.
Could not start the engine, battery’s flat. A combination of old battery´s, wintertime, short days, and a lot of power consumption.
I have no dedicated starter battery, use two similar banks of house battery´s, alternating week for week from bank A to B. The not used bank is my “Starting “ bank. Worked fine for 30 years of which 15 years of continues cruising.
Now, both ware empty. Yes, I know.
We have a manual windlass, so could take the anchor up and just sail out of that difficult spot to a place I knew would be safe.
Not easy, anchored just yards from a rocky shore, on-land wind and narrow bay, the new anchoring spot between the “Seven islands”
Some difficult tacking up between those small islands.
I make it a sport to do most manoeuvres under sail, ( Not in harbours ) sometimes frightening other anchored yachty´s. Practising using the boat without engine for all these years proved to be a wise
decision.
The weather was still fine so in need I could even pull our boat with the dingy and trusted Seagull while the wife steered.
I see lots of sailors who only roll the sails out when half a mile out. Some are so afraid the engine would stop they start the diesel half an hour before leaving. Practising handling the yacht under sail alone is out, at least here in the Med with all its big expensive easy to sail yachts.

 

[westernman]

Thank you to all who have shared their experiences.
Interesting to find out.

 

[galeus]

I like this, can you explain the operation please?

Noticed the other aux. bracket on the starboard side, why not mount this (new?) system on the same side?

Hi AndieMac, The o/b bracket is powered by a HIWIN actuator which is not designed for marine use, hence I am on my third one but keep improving its resiliance to corrosion. The o/b itself is e/start so it,s as near as we can get to two engines.
The other o/b bracket on the s/b side is used to carry a little 2.3 Suzuki for our dinghy

 

[OldBawley]

Despite having vaguely similar yachts I do realize that with 32 tons displacement maneuvering on sail is a lot more challenging than with our 8 ton yawl.
The yawl sail is in fact a wind rudder, it can do magic to the boat. Even sailing backward at slow speed is controllable despite the long keel.
I often dreamed of a 1,5 version of our yacht, however I am pretty sure sailing such a boat single-handed would be out of the question.
I have known two wooden classic motor yachts who had a big diesel for the sea and small one on a extra offset shaft. The little diesel was fine for the canals and rivers ( Downstream )
On a big yacht constructing a hand started small diesel that drives the propschaft with belts in case of emergency should be relatively easy to construct.
Guess even a small Petter could drive a big boat as yours at 3 knots in calms.

 

[OldBawley]

Forgot this one.

In the 90s I had a 4hp long tail Seagull mounted at the stern with a self made system to lift and lower the Seagull. I also had a 4 yards long sculling oar, mainly because it was required safety equipment for some time in Belgium. ( That, a bucket and two 20 yard ropes. )

I was bringing the boat from Gent to Zeebrugge by canal, mast down. Behind me a big river barge.
Sudden bang, motor stopped, starting not possible. Huge sheet of plastic in propeller.
The empty barge was closing fast, probably could not even see us. Blind spot. To far from the shore to throw a dredge anchor in the trees, I lowered the Seagull ( One grip) and started.
I was so nervous I forgot to flood the carburettor, no running. Then remembered, flood, close choke, full throttle, start. We made it out the barges way by seconds.

 

[fisherman]

Don't know about a system, but have come back on a pipe syphon from a fuel can, and steered with a buff streamed from the end of the landing boom out to stbd, boat screws to port. Never used the PRM get you home system, but know someone who did, PRM boxes run happily either way and his GYH was astern......for 20 odd miles.

 

[westernman]

If there is a reasonable amount of wind (i.e. enough to move the boat, but not so much that it is a real struggle to haul anything in) - F2-F4/5, then I can easily manage my boat single handed without the staysail up (otherwise managing two headsails in F5 is too much single handed when short tacking). It is very manoeverable - although with a F5 behind her it will scare the willies out of anybody who sees the bow sprit coming at them at 6knots or more.

My interest was really for mobos. Is a wing engine really necessary on a single engined boat - after all your average mega ton oil tanker only has a single engine and they don't often get towed from the middle of the ocean to somewhere.

I think the answer is pretty much yes - although most fishing boats have no back up, I guess they are usually not too far away from some mates who could give them a tow. If you are on your own, in the middle of the atlantic, then I guess if something unforseen happens which could not be fixed, then you will be very happy for a wing engine of some kind.

However, the cases mentioned here could mostly be fixed within a few hours or so without outside intervention using spares/materials/tools which you would commonly have on board.

Towing a boat using a petrol powered outboard is not going to get you very far with the amount of petrol you would normally be carrying.

I did once try towing my boat once when I had a problem with the starter motor. I left port because I could not get a replacement for a few days to sail back. We anchored in a bay overnight on the way back and got becalmed leaving the bay. I tried towing the boat to get a little further out where it looked that there might be a bit of wind. However, towing 32 tonnes with a 2.5hp outboard does not work. At least there was no noticeable forward movement!

However, this should not really have been a problem - just need to wait until there is some wind. But the need to be home before a certain time to catch trains, go to work etc interferes.

 

[OldBawley]

Agree that towing 32 tons with 2,5 HP will not work as soon as even the lithest breeze is against.

Pauline Carr towed the Curlew rowing the dingy. Trick is to use the damping force of (anchor) chain to transmit the pull from dingy to yacht. Curlew is 11 tons.

I have made oar locks that fit on top of the sheet winches. Even using one oar I can do 1 knot, the auto pilot steers our long keeled boat. Any wind on the nose will stop movement. Very hard work moving 8 tons, half an hour is more than enough, guaranteed blisters. Been a bit mad helps.

The wing motors on those classic mobo´s ware not intended as safety but pure for fuel efficiency.
One of them did each year the trip Antwerp Paris LeHavre by canals with the small diesel and Le Havre Antwerp by sea with the big engine. Guess in those days speed was not the main goal of boating.

Modern times : in summer season I see almost daily sailing yachts been towed into Poros town.
Probably the huge power consumption empty´s the battery´s, or some other reason, engine don´t start. In stead of sailing into the harbour lots of charterers prefer to pull their cell phone and call the charter firm. After all, not their problem right ? Charter company connect with port police, then the call is connected to a guy with a big boat. That guy pulls the yacht in, mooring it directly in front of the port police office. Surprise, a salvage claim is made. Usually just 1000 €, not to much for the 12 bowling club members that sail the charter yacht. What is 100 € / head if you have fun?
No pay, end of sailing holiday.
Everybody happy.

 

[prv]

after all your average mega ton oil tanker only has a single engine

They do, however, have a full engineering department, plenty of spares, and tools and facilities to repair or make many of the things for which they do not have spares. The same engineering department also spends a great deal of time making sure that the engine doesn't fail in the first place.

Pete

 

[westernman]

They do, however, have a full engineering department, plenty of spares, and tools and facilities to repair or make many of the things for which they do not have spares. The same engineering department also spends a great deal of time making sure that the engine doesn't fail in the first place.

Pete

And I understand that they can disconnect a single cylinder from the crank shaft and work on it while the rest of the engine is still running - or is that history these days?

 

[AndieMac]

Hi AndieMac, The o/b bracket is powered by a HIWIN actuator which is not designed for marine use, hence I am on my third one but keep improving its resiliance to corrosion. The o/b itself is e/start so it,s as near as we can get to two engines.
The other o/b bracket on the s/b side is used to carry a little 2.3 Suzuki for our dinghy

Cheers for that galeus, I like the retro fitted additions concept.

I have a 15 hp aux. which is quite heavy to retrieve from the lowered position, as you perform the lifting process with your arms extended (even with the slight assistance of a Tenob spring loaded bracket).
I rigged up a couple of small blocks and light braided line from a dinghy sailing kit attached to my hardtop roof, which allows a simple but effective lift mechanism.
Mind you the aux. engine is only run a couple of time each season just to make sure it still operates.

 

[OldBawley]

Bit of thread drift,

Barges. Towed by horse or human in France and Belgium, sailing in Holland.
Then came engines. The barges had no engine room so a small diesel was bolted on the foredeck or the hold and with belts and gears a lifting side arm with propeller pushed the barge.
A 15 HP diesel could push a loaded barge at good speed.
Google “ Lamme arm” or “Zijschroef.” or look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hFqhs9ILac
Have seen 35 m Peniches with this type of propulsion in France.