Waverley has done it again.

[LittleSister]

I was surprised to learn how late she'd been built.

I imagine that simply fairing that rudder and its shaft would make some improvement on how controllable she was.

 

[ProMariner]

Such a shame, it has brought joy to the heart to see her charging about the Clyde after a 2 year absence, hope they can get running again soon.

I guess that there are just fewer ship drivers about who can still manoeuvre single engine with no thrusters, can't blame the ship for this.

I guess the MCA will want more robust berthing plans from now on, but watching her berth in tight places with speed, grace, springs, luck, and balls the size of cars, was always fascinating to me.

Long live the Waverley.

 

[mainsail1]

As already said, I suspect we will find the problem here is engine control failure but I still think it would not be beyond the wit of man to install some kind of bow thruster to help with manoeuvring. I'd chip in a donation towards the cost as I am sure many would.

 

[mjcoon]

Such a shame, it has brought joy to the heart to see her charging about the Clyde after a 2 year absence, hope they can get running again soon.

I guess that there are just fewer ship drivers about who can still manoeuvre single engine with no thrusters, can't blame the ship for this.

I guess the MCA will want more robust berthing plans from now on, but watching her berth in tight places with speed, grace, springs, luck, and balls the size of cars, was always fascinating to me.

Long live the Waverley.

I gather you need balls to drive her, but that big sounds awkward...

 

[rotrax]

As a schoolboy in the early sixties I would treat myself to a bus ride to Woolwich and ride the steam paddle wheel free ferries.

I would get a bag of chips and then walk under Brunel's Thames pedestrian tunnel before going back for a few more trips on the Woolwich ferries.

Paternal Grandfather worked for Dewrance and Co., innovators of steam valves. He was a highly skilled engineer. He was with them for 57 years. I like to think his firms bits were in use on those ferries.

They seemed to steer OK, but no doubt the docks were positioned just so for the regular crossings.

 

[JumbleDuck]

As already said, I suspect we will find the problem here is engine control failure but I still think it would not be beyond the wit of man to install some kind of bow thruster to help with manoeuvring. I'd chip in a donation towards the cost as I am sure many would.

I'm sure I have seen a discussion of this before, and as I recall there are structural reasons why it would be very difficult.

 

[DJE]

Just spent a few days in Dartmouth and noticed that the paddle steamer Kingswear Castle does indeed have a bow thruster.

 

[ProDave]

Would there be merit in having a small tug follow her about to assist with berthing?

 

[DJE]

Would there be merit in having a small tug follow her about to assist with berthing?

She uses a large launch as a tug to
turn round in Portsmouth Harbour.

 

[DJE]

Then there was this occasion during the Yarmouth session of a Scuttlebutt Cherbourg Rally:
Waverley whoops!

 

[TernVI]

She uses a large launch as a tug to
turn round in Portsmouth Harbour.

Some years ago, I watched her turn around from the Harbour Station.
They seemed to set off at full throttle, I initially thought they must be going up harbour, but no, they turned hard to port and kept the power on, as if they hoped the rudder might work better the faster they went, or maybe hoping for a bit of heel from cetrifugal force to assist the turn. I really thought they were going to ram everything in Camper's!
As it happen, they cleared the Gosport ferry pontoon by not a huge margin and exited the harbour at a pace.
There were comments made on Ch11.
Not surprised they use a tug now!

 

[chrisclin]

I don't know what it was like on the Clyde last night but it was blowing a hooley at North Berwick. One of those gusts would have quite an impact. I also wonder if they were a bit out of practice as they've only been running for a few days after nearly 2 years in Dock.

 

[Kukri]

It won’t quite buff out but I think that damage won’t take too much to repair. I like seeing her around.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

I hope she gets sorted, she is a lovely craft and took us to our first visit to Lundy in the Bristol Channel.

And yes she is run by enthusiasts including a not so old female contingent who collar one and try and extract donations, signing up etc. Just like heritage railways in fact.

Seems like the skipper forgot the old rule of boat or car: if in doubt go slower!

 

[Elessar]

Seems like the skipper forgot the old rule of boat or car: if in doubt go slower!

You missed the bits in the thread about how small the rudder is then?

 

[mbroom]

Would there be merit in having a small tug follow her about to assist with berthing?

Could be a tad pricy! I suspect reverse gear failed, but let’s wait for the inquiry. However the repairs will need a bit more than T Cut and a hammer. Would the engine mountings survive such an impact?

 

[JumbleDuck]

Could be a tad pricy! I suspect reverse gear failed, but let’s wait for the inquiry. However the repairs will need a bit more than T Cut and a hammer. Would the engine mountings survive such an impact?

Paddle steamers like the Waverley don't have engine mountings, as the whole engine is an integral part of the hull structure.

When she hit the prom at Rothesay she did this

and was in dry dock for a week having it sorted. The latest damage looks rather worse, though not catastrophic:

It may be a trick of the light, but from the paint colour and lack of rivets it looks to me as if, lower down anyway, the brunt of the damage this time may have been to metal replaced last time.

According to MarineTraffic, she was still in Brodick four minutes ago. I speculate wildly that there is indeed something wrong with her engines so she can't (yet) leave under her own steam.

 

[LittleSister]

The latest damage looks rather worse, though not catastrophic. It may be a trick of the light, but from the paint colour and lack of rivets it looks to me as if, lower down anyway, the brunt of the damage this time may have been to metal replaced last time.

They could replace the bow plating with something more solid, but then it'd be demolishing piers left right and centre, rather than just scraping and denting them!

 

[JumbleDuck]

They could replace the bow plating with something more solid, but then it'd be demolishing piers left right and centre, rather than just scraping and denting them!

The GPO had Morris Minor vans with rubber front wings so they could bump things with impunity. Maybe a nice rubber bow for the Waverley?

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I read that having paddlewheels able to go in opposite directions, as seems intuitive for turning, was in fact lethal causing dangerous heeling - after a fatal accident, on the Thames I think - such setups were banned for commercial vessels.

When I first started Solent sailing in the early 70's they still had paddlewheel tugs like ' Bustler ' in Portsmouth which I think did have independent drives in her job as a harbour tug.

The sadly departed Ryde had a small rudder at the forefoot of the bow, I understand for when going astern - but might be rather handy going ahead at close quarters, if the mountings and gear could handle the loads !

Seems there have been rules, or alleged rules, about passenger carrying paddle steamers not being allowed to run their paddles independently whereas non passenger carrying ones could, but there also seems to be some dispute or lack of hard evidence as to why. The Wikipedia paddle steamer article briefly mentions passengers all moving to the dock side of the boat as it approached its berth, but that would affect fixed paddles configuration ships as well. There's also this article which seems to raise more questions than it answers, but it's an interesting question as to why in protected waters independently running paddles would cause roll instability.

PICTURES OF THE MONTH - February