Towing - why do I bother!

[tcm]

Re: Salvage

ah, the point I made was that you have to put YOURSELF in danger. It was in one of those legally boat books or summink, i think...

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[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

A tow home

I towed a new friends into Porthmadog at the beginning of the season. We had met and been on the wall together at Barmouth and had all been chatting ending up drinking together in the SC that evening,

On the way into Porthmadog on a mirror his impellor had decided to pack up. I passed him anchored and called up to see if everything was ok, thus we established a tow and crawled into PM against current, side towing is great you get to sit at the helm and have a laugh with the other helm.

They invited us for a meal that evening, I felt terrible all we did was offer a tow, I was going that way anyway. The meal was in the club so was not a great expense as it is reasonable food, but we tried to buy the drinks all night as we still thought it too much.

But we have two new friends and will always do the same again. I did keep saying to them that I did not expect anything in return, my philosophy being >>

"Pass it on"


<hr width=100% size=1>Julian

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk/Honda_00.html>Honda Formula 4-Stroke racing</A>

 

[charles_reed]

I've only once had a tow, behind the Barmouth RNLI, after my rudder blade broke in the surf on Dyfi bar. On that occasion the crew drank all 11 bottles of wine in the boat so honours were done.

I've given about 10 tows myself, 5 in the UK and 5 on the european continent.
Only once have I had a reciprocal pressie in the UK, but on every occasion I've had a bottle or been taken out by the French, Germans or Dutch, to whom I've given a pluck.

Perhaps it tells us something about our national courtesy?

Personally I'm unfazed by not getting anything and certainly the Brits were effusive in their thanks (like the powerboat, rather larger than I, towed back into Pwllheli, because he'd forgotten to turn on his raw water cocks on the first outing after lay-up).



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[tcm]

Yes, there should be effusive thanks. 10 tows eh - you should paint the boat yellow!

On a long drive along a french coast road, probably going far too fast, a french-reg Golf sometimes ahead and sometimes behind took a rat run, and i came across him again 5 miles later. He suddddenly slowed for no reason, so i stopped ahead of him, and as I have a towrope inthe car i dragged him to the nearest garage in pouring rain. Prezzies weren't appropriate of course, but he was thankful and did make remarks that I was "obviously British", muttering that he had never heard of such a thing happening from a french person. So, we're not at all bad.

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[h4nym]

Funny... wandered thru this thread last nite, and what would happen today? Gently cruising up the river, I spot a boat in the middle of the stream... making lots of smoke and not moving anywhere.

"Are u ok?" I ask... a big plume of smoke later, "I'll take that as a no then!" Couple of young lads...

Now - their rope went onto our bow cleat and mine onto their stern. Brought them back to Kingston - all of about a mile - brought them gently up to the pontoon, and made sure all was well.

Were they grateful? Absolutely! Did they offer money? Absolutely? Did I accept? Only their thanks...

I hope that they will remember me when they next see a colleague in trouble while they're under way.

A couple of years ago, fouled sterngear meant that we called out the French SNS to help us in. On getting back to port, we found a diver waiting for us there - the guys on the lifeboat had radioed ahead and made sure he was there on our return. Was I grateful? God was I ! Did I pay up? Just getting a price out of them was difficult enough, but yes, I made a contribution. They, however, were most grateful for the copious beer, wine and coffee that was consumed on board while diver man was busy hacking away at our props!

Gentlefolk, let's not get this out of proportion - I would hope that anyone who sees anyone else in trouble would do all they could to assist... that's what humanity is all about.

H

<hr width=100% size=1>Life balance?

 

[longjohnsilver]

It's a funny old world, coming back from Babbacombe on Wednesday evening saw a dinghy about a half a mile off Dawlish with 2 blokes and a girl, no engine and they were paddling towards shore into a good F3 offshore breeze. Altered course as I thought they might be in trouble and offered them a tow back to the beach but they waved me away saying they were ok. as I was not convinced I called Brixham CG and reported what was happening and they requested I remained there until it was clear as to their progress. this I happily did and after about 10 minutes it was clear that they were making good progress towards shore, so reported back to CG and set off.

The point of this is that I am more than happy to assist others where required, what I did object to in the original posting was that the skipper of the boat I towed made no effort to return my warp, I had to ask to get it back! I call that taking the piss. A word of thanks would have cost him nothing. Is that too much to expect?

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[MainlySteam]

Re: \"Valid case for salvage\"

What is the insurance or legal (like the law of the jurisdiction one is in) situation in the case of damage to ones own boat through putting it at risk (say grounding), or damage to ones own or/and the other vessel through collision or whatever during the towing or salvage operation?

John

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[Rob_Webb]

Re: \"Valid case for salvage\"

I think that if you achieved a 'useful result' but during the process damaged your own craft then this would be taken into consideration during negotiations for reasonable settlement. The limting factor is that any salvage payment would never exceed the combined cost of the saved vessel and it's saved cargo. If any amount of damage was left unpaid for by this, then your own insurer would need to step in. In reality, you would probably be best just introducing your own insurer to the salvaged vessels insurer in the first place and taking it from there.

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[vyv_cox]

A good friend was sailing along the N. Wales coast when he spotted a speedboat stationary in the water a mile or so away. He sailed to them, to find a young couple, dressed only in bathing suits. They had run out of fuel, had been drifting for a couple of hours and were very cold. He took them aboard and warmed them up, then offered to tow them back to their home port. At this stage they began to become very agitated, which baffled my friend somewhat. More questioning revealed the source of the problem. They had launched from a beach at low tide and had left the car and trailer at the water's edge, ready to recover the speedboat!

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[ccscott49]

Poor buggers!!

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[ccscott49]

Poor blighters!!!

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[h4nym]

Agreed, LJS - it is taking the piss! Funnily enough, purely as a result of reading your post the night before, I made sure I asked the guy for the name of his boat!
When I got back there this morning, boat was gone - either towed home or repaired...

lol at the car/trailer/tide story tho!

H

<hr width=100% size=1>Life balance?

 

[MainlySteam]

A friend of mine was involved in rescuing a man and women from a trailer sailor that had turned turtle. As the rescuing vessel was a coastal sized ship, they then had the problem of how to save the trailer sailer - however, it turned out the rescued couple had more important things on their mind - they were both married but not to each other and apparantly being found out cruising together for a few days conflicted severely with the stories they had given their respective spouses.

John

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[Sybarite]

Re: \"Valid case for salvage\"

I seem to remember reading (a long time ago and so I am not sure of my facts) that salvage is treated differently if it applies to private vessels precisely to avoid a mass of petty legislation for the numerous tows that are given.

As far as delaying the signing of a form is concerned this is a well-known situation where the stricken boat's captain holds off as long as possible in the hope that a competing boat might offer a negotiated tow rather than the open form and the tugboat delays in order to let the fear factor work.

John

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[philmarks]

Ben, I've PM'd you

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[BrianJ]

Re: Towing - a different view

A few years ago, while sailing in the South Pacific; we (three of us), left Fiji en route to Auckland, before returning to OZ. About 8 days out we came across an abandoned yacht that had been dismastered.. We called AKL Radio and within 20 minutes were talking to the owner. We agreed to take the yacht in tow.

Over the next 24 hours the owner organised another yacht (with him on board) to come up from NZ and meet us.

WE struggled with the tow for about a week, lost her many times in severe conditions, but early one morning saw the lights of a yacht on the horizon.. We made the exchange, sailed on to Auckland, where we were treated like royalty… Those of you who know that City, will understand what a great sailing community it is, and will understand when word spread that our “ tow” fee , was one cold beer each. People came down to meet us with slabs of beer, bottles of rum , ladies baked cakes for us and one chap handed me his mobile phone and said .. here phone someone and tell them you have arrived safely. I said I don’t know anyone in NZ, he said ya dill, phone someone in OZ. I did.

All the time we were looked after, hosted at various functions etc, it almost got embarrassing. But that’s NZ and the sailing community, so there can be a different side to taking someone in tow.

Sure, I have towed many local yachts over the years and at the time have had them say “thanks" see you in the bar.. You never do. But I guess it won’t stop me from doing the right thing.
BrianJ

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