To Maidstone and beyond (almost)

[Murv]

Weekend trip out with a couple of RCC members.
The plan was to see if a Turbo 36 could get under the low bridges at Maidstone town centre and onward to a peaceful public mooring at east farleigh.
Three boats made the trip, ours, OldGit of this parish and a third RCC member with a new to him boat.

Plenty of clearance under Aylesford bridge

And an uneventful trip upriver with water under the props

Filling the lock at Allington:

Then onward to Maidstone town centre for a brief stopover.
Radar arch back down, left the mooring when annoyingly a violent banging from the port shaft and the screaming of the oil pressure alarm from the now stationery engine indicated that something was seriously amiss down below.
Trip upriver aborted, Fred kindly towed us off and a limp back downstream to the Malta Inn.

Sunday morning and Fred kindly took everyone upriver for a run up to the original destination. The Third RCC boater made a tactical withdrawl from taking his own boat under, and understandably, too!

Linky to the low bridges, not for the faint hearted: http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?457883-Low-bridge-big-boat&highlight=

And a very pleasant run upstream. Even saw a terrapin casually resting on a log!

Then, out through the lock and back home.
Slightly tense for me, I struggle enough with both engines running let alone one but the Turbo 36 seems to be an incredibly forgiving boat and handles pretty well on just one.
Fred kindly held station as we moored, but all went smoothly.
All in all, a great weekend in excellent company

 

[sharpness]

Thanks for posting Murv, some nice pics :encouragement: You lads must have nerves of steel with all those low bridges to contend with. Thankfully we only have one on the sharpness canal, and for that I have approx 5" clearance to top of the radar, so that would be classed as a massive gap for you lads

Bad luck about the port engine, do you know what the fault is yet ?

 

[Murv]

Thanks Jon No, a 5' gap would be considered a bit tight by me, let alone 5" ! Luckily we have our intrepid leader to follow who has slightly more air draft so as long as we just blindly follow we should be OK

No, no idea what the issue is, the river level dropped slightly whilst we were at Maidstone which was obviously just enough to settle us on top of whatever it was down there.
Sounded like a small car from the horrendous noise it made, but one of the club members went way above and beyond the call of duty, donned his drysuit and actually went in for a feel around!
He said it feels like steel cable, or possibly very tightly wound nylon around the shaft but that stretch of river is littered with shopping trolleys so could even be one of those.
He did say that the prop blades he could feel felt OK so fingers crossed.
I did tentatively try engaging gears afterwards, and things had improved. Fred had a go as well and although there is a heavy vibration there, there is drive so hopefully it is just something wound around the shaft and no actual damage.
Hoping to get a look this week and see where we stand.

 

[superheat6k]

Murv

You really are not having much luck. Hope this is easily sorted.

My Turbo was a pig on one engine below 5 knots , so you did well to get back on just one.

Low bridges - no problems - I almost scraped the plexiglas screen under Bursledon bridge once when I was just a bit close on top of a 5m tide. Next time I waited at the Jolly Sailor for a couple of hours, still worst places to wait !

 

[Murv]

Thanks Trevor should be getting her out this afternoon, fingers crossed there's no damage!

We've actually been very lucky with this boat though, we've done 48 engine hours in her now with no faults at all that weren't present when we bought her.
By this stage, with the last boat, we were well over £3K down in repairs and lift-out fees.

There's always a small element of risk in this trip upriver, lots of debris in the water on the tidal stretch (I've personally seen upturned picnic tables, submerged boats and railway sleepers as well as hundreds of logs etc) and the low bridge at Aylesford. Too much water and you won't get under it, but leave it too early or late and the river dries out!
We're incredibly fortunate in having a tame Fred to follow around to get us used to it

Once through to the non-tidal stretch, it's probably fair to say that our little flotilla probably draws a little more draft than most of the boats up there, boats in the 15-30' range with outdrives make up the large majority.
So, mooring at the town centre, we're probably acting like a trawler and scraping the bottom of debris that other boats cannot reach!

We're also very much getting used to the larger boat, and with hindsight it's probably foolish to use the inside engine to leave or approach the river bank and its shallow edges.
Next time I'll limit it to just the outside engine with thruster if necessary.

 

[Newbroom]

Hope not to much damage mate.
Otherwise sounds like you are getting plenty of use out of her,

 

[oldgit]

Murvs off up the Thames in August......
The Medway is ideal to practice dodging sofas,oil drums,dead sheep and the splenetic rowers he is very likely to encounter on the long duck pond aka The Thames..

 

[Murv]

Thanks Dave, great to see you back on your feet

 

[superheat6k]

...
We're also very much getting used to the larger boat, and with hindsight it's probably foolish to use the inside engine to leave or approach the river bank and its shallow edges.
Next time I'll limit it to just the outside engine with thruster if necessary.

You didn't say you have a thruster - that's cheating !!!

 

[Murv]

You didn't say you have a thruster - that's cheating !!!

In my defence, I only use it if things are going pear shaped. Once I can handle the boat, I'll happily use it but for now, it's my emergency bail out!


Huge thanks to Fred (yet again!) for helping get the boat down to the club and onto the scrubbing berth.

Once the tide had dropped sufficiently, the culprit was revealed.
Happily, no damage (except the rope cutter) but it was a length of steel wrapped around the prop. My guess is it was a shopping trolley which seems to have come off a lot worse in the skirmish, but open to any other suggestions!

Once removed, and after dinner at the club I spent a restless night aboard hoping that the boat didn't fall over after the acro prop was removed...
Dozed off about 11:00 and up again a 1:45am to start checking lines and get ready as the tide flooded.
Finally departed at 4:00am once the flow had slackened a bit and after hoping it was going to suddenly get light (it didn't)

Back upriver to my mooring, and a day of firsts for me. First "night" voyage, first single-handed trip and first single-handed mooring!

First attempt at mooring, plan was to snag a cleat with a midships line...which I missed and by the time I'd got ready for another go the wind had blown me back out.
Held station for a while waiting for the tide to ebb, then decided to have another go whilst waiting.
Happily, this went a lot better, got the cleat lassoed, followed up with a bow and stern line and was finally able to get secured and everything shut down

Job done, harmony restored and for an awful lot less money than the £550.00 a local-ish marina wanted for a 10 minute lift and hold...

 

[[2068]]

Yes, it's a bit much to expect a rope cutter to also act as a trolley cutter.
Cheap fix = a good boating week, although the boat resting on that jack does look a bit precarious.

 

[oldgit]

Post Mortem.

Well done Chris.
Still not convinced thats a bit of shopping trolley.
Trolleys tend to be galvanised or chromed and would have thought somewhere on it would be signs of welding.
Why not take the boat up again this weekend and see if you can "collect" the rest of it ?
Still best of all you are available for the Valiant Cruise.
If you can muster around 10.00 would like to get underway by 11.30 (ish)
Back by 14.30 Tea and buns after wards in the clubhouse.

 

[Murv]

Re: Post Mortem.

Yes, it's a bit much to expect a rope cutter to also act as a trolley cutter.
Cheap fix = a good boating week, although the boat resting on that jack does look a bit precarious.

It felt a lot more precarious sleeping on it when the jack was taken out! It is leaning into the supports slightly, and heavily weighted on that side but it was certainly a fair drop down if it had fallen.

Well done Chris.
Still not convinced thats a bit of shopping trolley.
Trolleys tend to be galvanised or chromed and would have thought somewhere on it would be signs of welding.
Why not take the boat up again this weekend and see if you can "collect" the rest of it ?
Still best of all you are available for the Valiant Cruise.
If you can muster around 10.00 would like to get underway by 11.30 (ish)
Back by 14.30 Tea and buns after wards in the clubhouse.

Thanks Fred, all quite straightforward really, just a case of building confidence I think.
We will certainly be down for that, 10:00 suits us fine as it allows us to get out before LW.
Even though it's a small tide, I want to try and keep well away from the bottom so leaving halfway through the ebb will be ideal. We can stop on the pier if necessary