Something went crunch, bang, wallop....

[Nautical]

Out playing about from hamble this pm and on way back saw fishey boat stuff himself onto shingle bank, made a horrible (and very loud) crunching noise, enough to make you think something's bent. However he gave it loads of go go juice and heapo loads of black smoke everywhere and mangaed to extract himself and sauntered off.

Just wondering what the normal tactic would be in pleasure mobo, would you let her settle on the ebb tide and check the hull and running gear and refloat later or would you stuff it astern and pedal to the metal and try and extract yourself and hope no damage done and scrape home without major disaster.

 

[chippie]

A lot of fishing boats are steel hulled, so can take a lot of abuse. As a pleasure boat owner I would do what you suggest and check for damage or water ingress before trying to get off, of course on an ebb tide speed in doing so is of the essence.

 

[oldgit]

Most of them things are built like the proverbial brick whatsit with loadsa rubbing strakes and things welded onto bottom to protect stern gear and to enable them to take the ground and stay upright when ashore.Suspect that most gin places would flex very unhappily in all directions if full bore applied to extract boat from contact with bottom,with not very happy results.

 

[tazzle]

Love it!

Must admit, my IP24 hull and keel is sister to a Panzer - the reason the hull is so popular with <8m commercial fishers - and while I certainly don't intend to navigate any shingle banks in the near future, should one hapchance present itself under these circumstances I would probably try the same solution - maybe after swinging out a kedge a few metres just for posh.

 

[Medskipper]

It does depend on the weather, If I thought it was really going to blow up badly I would try and get off, but I would try getting off using a kedge anchor first. If that didnt work and I thought the weather was going to be good until next tide I would wait it out. The chances of damaging props, shafts and rudders being the worrying factor.

Barry

 

[ShipsWoofy]

We used to use this as a wake me up on the way home on one of the small trawlers I worked on for a bit. The first time I was in total shock.

If we had had a good trip there would be a lot of fish for two of us to gut and clean, so the skipper would set the autopilot and have the boat doing about 2 knts home, while we both worked aft. We would always nudge the sandbank which would tell us we were nearly there and needed to take control, reverse out and take her in.

So the moral, if you see a trawler heading home with 10,000 seagulls following, stay out of her way! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Um, well, yes, I have to admit to having some experience in this matter. First time, I put a Princess very lightly on some shingle bank in Poole harbour and managed to reverse off without too much trouble but it was immediately apparent because of the vibration that I'd damaged the props and so I had. Cost several hundred squids and 3 weeks lost boating but thank god for insurance. Second time, drove a Broom onto a mudbank in Chichester harbour again at slow speed and again managed to reverse off but this time without damage which I put down to the fact that Brooms have a keel which gives some protection to the props
I've also managed to stuff a charter mobo onto a coral reef in the Carribean again at slow speed and that did make a terrible crunching noise. I tried reversing her off gently and pulling her with the tender, we tried redistributing some weight but all with no luck. We waved furiously at a passing yacht but they ignored us and nobody responded on the VHF so we just sat there for about 1hr. Then, all of a sudden, I felt the boat lift a bit off the coral in some swells and rushed to the start the engines. With much grinding we reversed off and limped back to harbour. Bent a shaft and prop but no major damage to the hull
So, what I reckon is this. Even grp hulls are pretty strong so you'd have to be going at speed to seriously damage the hull. A keel does help protect the sterngear but it is pretty easy to damage the sterngear. Whether or not I would try reversing off in the future would depend on whether there was any tide to help float the boat off, what kind of seabed material (in soft mud I might try it but not on shingle or rock) and what danger the boat would be in by staying aground (swells would damage the boat more)

 

[tcm]

Briliant! Now THAT's real experience you just can't buy. Well, yes you can, but quite expensively i spose....