What Now Skip? WNS April

[timbartlett]

Yes, it's the most eagerly-awaited event of January .... what else can it be other than April's What Now Skip?? Just to distort your sense of time even further, I've set it in late May, or early June, but all you really need to imagine is that it is warm enough for sitting around in a sportscruiser's cockpit to be pleasant, and that paddling in the sea is feasible if somewhat chilly.

Please remember:

* The idea is to offer a nautical puzzle, which experienced skippers will (hopefully) find interesting or entertaining, from which the less experienced may be able to learn something, and from which we can all pick up ideas.
* The WNS skipper is a fictional character. Any resemblance to a real individual is purely accidental, except that he occasionally makes mistakes, and he is not able to make time run backwards. So having got into a situation, he can't get out of it by wishing that he had done something different.
* WNS is not a competition to see who can match some hidden but predetermined solution. Of course I have an answer in mind (you wouldn't like it if I gave you an impossible situation, would you?) But mine may not be the best or only answer.
* If you think I've missed something or given confusing information please ask for clarification.
* Attributed extracts from selected posts will appear in the next issue of MBY.

One morning, in late spring, our hero anchored his 40 foot sports cruiser off a secluded beach. He and Mrs Hero read the Sunday papers for a couple of hours before taking the tender ashore for a stroll along the beach and a pub lunch in the village.

As they clambered back over the sand dunes after lunch, they were surprised to see a boat very much like theirs, so close to the beach that it appeared to be aground. As they got a little closer, they realised that it was theirs, and as they got closer still, they also realised that it was, indeed, aground, and that it was only the outdrive legs that were preventing the onshore breeze from pushing it right onto the beach. On investigation, they find that the boat hasn't "dragged her anchor": what seems to have happened is that the chain and anchor have somehow parted company from each other, and that there is now nothing on the end of the few metres of chain that are dangling uselessly over the bow.

The tidal range is small, and has only another half metre to rise before high water in two hours time, and the wind -- whilst not particularly strong -- is too much for one person to be able to push the boat off.
Mr and Mrs Hero are on their own, and the beach is deserted.They have no spare anchor, and only the four mooring warps that they use for berthing. The tender is a 2.4m roll-up inflatable, with a 3.5hp outboard.


What now, Skip?

 

[jfm]

In those conditions, start engines and tilt drives up a bit and just drive it off. Dont turn it around, so if the stern is in deeper water and the bow closest to beach, reverse it off. If there's a bit of swell/surf, blip throttles as stern rises on the surf and possibly go into neutral in the troughs. Wind in chain first to stop tangling but if it's necessary to mash the propellers a bit then do so - dont worry about them as they are easy to replace

An alternative is drag it off with tender. 3.5hp might budge it full bore, in those conditions

It's important to note there's no danger to life. So other options are possible if wx not worsening (good example of why you should always have a bit of a wx forecast in your head) - do nothing and call a mate to tow you out to sea with a powerful rib; call local inshore lifeboat; raise drives and let it beach and fix it with a powerful tow the next tide; rent a crane before next tide if the crane can access the beach and take it to next port by lorry; etc. But drive it off with possible prop scuffing still seems the best option

In future, take more care on anchor maintenance. And fit a GPS-mobile phone anchor alarm like yacht-sentinel.com (I use this - very effective and nice company to deal with). Or get a crew to do anchor watches. etc

 

[Whitelighter]

Thank your lucky stars you sensibly bought a boat with sterndrives, cos with shafts youd be wel and truel stuck .

Lift the legs to their highest position and reverse with as much power as you can safely use (you dont want to be pushed further up the beach when the legs raise). The boat should naturally lie bow down wind taking you nicely off he beach. Would keep swmbo in the dingy attached to the stern to provide assistance and a bit of extra drag - best to do boht than wait for the backing it up idea to go tits up before trying the dingy

 

[benjenbav]

Aha. This is Jack Haines' dad's adventure on the nudist beach at Studland.

So the answer is, drop yer keks on the sand and the nekkid lads and lasses who are hiding in the dunes will be along to help push out into deeper water.

 

[MapisM]

If you think I've missed something or given confusing information please ask for clarification

Are the outdrives stuck enough to make it impossible to raise and use them, maybe?
'cause if not, the answer (as already given) seems a tad too obvious...

 

[longjohnsilver]

Are the outdrives stuck enough to make it impossible to raise and use them, maybe?
'cause if not, the answer (as already given) seems a tad too obvious...

Even if they're stuck there's still 2 hours of incoming tide to float the boat. As you say, all seems pretty obvious and simple.

And yes I remember reading a very similar tale about the rescue by the nudists. the story was almost word for word the same..................

 

[MapisM]

Even if they're stuck there's still 2 hours of incoming tide to float the boat. As you say, all seems pretty obvious and simple.

Yep, but if they're stuck AND the wind is continuing to push the boat, our hero should at least find some way to tie her while waiting for the tide. I was guessing that this might have been the idea of the WNS... Just a guess, though.

 

[Firestone]

Book-in to a b+b in the village, then go to the pub and the following morning, go beachcombing with the locals!!!

 

[timbartlett]

Just a reminder...

Just a reminder that what seems obvious to one person might
(a) not seem obvious to someone else (possibly without as much experience of sterndrives)
(b) not work. If your first choice seems too simple, there is always the option of saying "I'd try X, and if that didn't work then I'd try Y".

Keep 'em coming!

 

[Bajansailor]

I am gob smacked re how they have no kedge anchor at all, but hey ho, such is life.

Now, assuming that there is no way that they can use the outdrives at all - would it be reasonable to assume that they have a mask (and perhaps a snorkel) on board, and that there is reasonable underwater visibility?
Or are they in the brown soup that is the Solent?

If the water is reasonably clear, and Mr or Mrs Hero are well padded and can cope with a swim at this time of year (it would be asking too much for them to have wet suits on board!) then maybe one of them could go looking for the anchor?
If water is too cold for more than a few minutes of immersion, then peer over the side from the tender using the mask while searching a rough grid pattern.

Hopefully they are in shallow enough water to be able to dive down to get a rope around the shank (or some other way).
If they cant dive more than say 2m, but can see the anchor and chain from the surface, and have a wee grapnel anchor for the dinghy (but I doubt it, if they dont even have a kedge for the big boat!), then they could try grappeling for the chain?

Hoik it up, take it back to the mother ship, get the only spare shackle out from the spares box (big assumption here!), re-attach anchor to cable, drag it out with the tender as far as possible, and drop it so that as the tide rises some more they will be anchored afloat.

Although it is quite possible that by the time they have done all of this, and had a tea (or rum...) break to warm up along the way, the tide is now dropping again.......

At this stage Mr and Mrs Hero might admit defeat, and call up mates on the cell phone, and be prepared for a hefty bill in the pub later after they have been 'rescued'........

 

[MapisM]

If your first choice seems too simple, there is always the option of saying "I'd try X, and if that didn't work then I'd try Y"

Hmmm... and if Y doesn't work, then Z?
Along these lines, any WNS would be a never ending story...

Anyway, ok, let's assume the worst case: outdrives stuck enough to be useless, boat not moving one bit if towed with the rib, and no way to find the lost anchor.
Now, half a meter is surely enough to float a 40' cruiser under those circumstances, but the onshore breeze is likely to further push the boat towards the beach, while the tide rises.
So, the problem is, how to prevent that?
I'd use one of the tender paddles as a kedge anchor, sticking it into the sea bottom, as far from the boat stern as feasible (but still reachable with the mooring warps obviously) and properly angled against the warp pull. Considering that they deployed just a few meters of chain, the water around the boat should be shallow enough to allow that.
If there's a way to detach the anchor chain, attaching it to the paddle would also help.
Now, attach a mooring warp to the chain (or missing that, directly to the paddle), secure it to a stern cleat on the boat, wait for the tide, reverse, recover the warp/chain/paddle - job done.

Failing that, then Z of course!

 

[mjf]

The anchor of course was buoyed so easily found.

Just a question of finding the cable and then re- attaching the cable where it was parted with the nice s/s shackle you keep for just such an eventuality.... Once craft re-anchored by paying out additional chain the skipper simply raises the legs to avoid any further damage and heaves up the anchor which will reposition the boat in the deeper water as before. Easypeessy

 

[colingr]

Assuming the raising of the legs method fails or is impractical due to them being all that is holding their pride and joy use the outboard off the tender as a kedge. Got to be cheaper than trashing the legs on the main vessel.

Must be some heavy objects aboard to help the outboard dig in.

Winch off and clear off promptly before the locals turn up and start "salvaging"

 

[DAKA]

I always carry spare anchors but assuming I had already lost no1 and no2 then I would fasten all my mooring lines together and all tow ropes, motor the dinghy out as far as the mooring lines allow and chuck the outboard in as anchor.

As the tide rises lift the legs and haul the boat into deep water.

Use the engines now to pull the outboard into safe water , recover, hose down and sell it on ebay.
edit
joker beat me to it !

 

[Nick_H]

In lightish winds on a rising tide, i've no doubt that lifting the legs and reversing off would work, but lets assume it doesn't. We still have all the chain, so we could search the boat for anything heavy and attach it to the end of the chain. Then using the tender we could lay out all the chain we have, though I think that's much easier said than done in a small tender with a 3.5 hp outboard. Anyway, we lay out as much as we can, then take in any slack, and hopefully the catenary effect plus the dead weight should be enough to hold us while the tide rises so we can gently motor off, retrieving the chain as we go.

 

[colingr]

I always carry spare anchors but assuming I had already lost no1 and no2 then I would fasten all my mooring lines together and all tow ropes, motor the dinghy out as far as the mooring lines allow and chuck the outboard in as anchor.

As the tide rises lift the legs and haul the boat into deep water.

Use the engines now to pull the outboard into safe water , recover, hose down and sell it on ebay.
edit
joker beat me to it !

Great minds.........