Trip tomorrow

[foxgoose]

I'm a newbie to motorboating bringing my new 28 footer back from Poole to Dartmouth tomorrow.

Nervous about Portland gale warning earlier this pm but 24hr forecast looks reasonable and accompanying skipper/instructor says it'll be OK.

Any tips, warnings observations gratefully received.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Lucky you! What sort of boat?

Local forecast is NE 3 or 4, all behind you, no mention of gales. Should be a good trip, possibility of a long swell.

Anything with East in it can be unpleasant in Lyme Bay, suggest that you aim to reach Portland around slack water and then have the tide with you so no wind over tide conditions to make for a relatively calm sea. Tomorrows slack should be around 13-30, followed by West going tide, just what you need.

When rounding Portland you either need to tuck right in, 50 - 100 yards off or go 4-5 miles out. I have always taken the inner passage with no problems, but if you have any onshore winds (which hopefully you shouldn't) keep well out. Also if it starts to get bumpy tuck well inshore all the way along the coast, you have good protection in the bay from all the cliffs. You also see more, makes it much more interesting.

Wish I was out there tomorrow, weather looks good. Have a good trip, let us know how it went.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by longjohnsilver on Thu Feb 14 23:33:21 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[ToMo]

You is a greedy pup!...you've already had two trips this week, and Blue Fisher isn't even dampish!
Give some others a go - why not let the parrot have a turn, goodness knows you've tortured the poor little beggar enough.

TôMö
P.S. reluctantly admit it was very good advice!

 

[rogerroger]

there's a good post on the raggie forum about Portland Bill.

Roger Holden
www.first-magnitude.co.uk

 

[foxgoose]

Thanks for tips.

Trip started beautifully, past Portland 5m off at 13.00 ish, big swell as you predicted, then the engine blew up in middle of Lyme Bay with multiple belt failures (Volvo Kad 43 with 7 hrs on clock! - anybody else had this problem?)

Boat is a Botnia Targa 27, heroic fellow Targa owner towed us 30m to Dartmouth at 4 - 7 knots.

Very sickmaking being towed in a planing boat in any kind of sea.

I think I preferred being a raggie.

 

[MarcusMan]

hmmmmmm - you have my sympathy! It seems we both had similar experiences this week!

Mark

 

[adarcy]

Re: KAD43

Sorry about your problem and we hear that the Botnia's are good boats (maybe on the plane only!)

Anyway, I regret (!) we do not have KADs but Piers does have either 42s or 43s and knows a lot about looking afetr them. He's the resident BB KAD guru.

Ty sending him a PM (private message) so he'll see it whenever he logs on

Best wishes

Anthony

 

[Guest]

Oh dear you have my upmost sympathy but it,s a Volvo and a KAD at that, they have revised the belts and pulleys so I wonder if you have ended up with an early engine in the boat that has been in stock somewhere and bought cheap by the builders, anyway youre still here to tell all about it and no lifeboats involved, suppose VP are paying the bill so make sure they get it right this time.

Paul js.

 

[foxgoose]

Got the engineers report on my KAD 43 engine failure today.

Apparently the alternator pulley was misaligned at the factory and threw the belt which then wrecked the water pump and hydraulic pump belts.

This stacks up with the order the alarms went off so is probably correct.

Any idea when Volvo changed the belt set up so I can check the date of the engine ?

TIA

 

[longjohnsilver]

Sorry to hear that all didn't go to plan. Hopefully soon sorted, Targa's a good looking boat with excellent reports. If you're keeping it in Dartmouth I'll look out for you. What's she called and where on the river is she?