What would you do, when your engine fails coming into Berth?

Those of us on swinging moorings are probably reading this with a certain amount of smug satisfaction. However I've had several engine failures over the years (broken valve spring, blocked fuel filter, blocked cooling system etc.) and the first action has nearly always been to drop the anchor to give time to pause and think (being either single handed or with incompetent crew - anchor down, kettle on for a cup of tea stops SWMBO panicking!)
 
Similar thing happened to me this year, except the engine failed as I was starting the turn into the marina berth!
What did we do, well, not alot, crew ran forward to fend off, we bounced off the pontoon and just caught the starboard side of the boat in the next berth and bent his pushpit rail with our bow anchor.
Nothing we could do, lucky for us it was two old moodys, had the other boat been something more modern we may have caused more damage, insurance is a great thing.
 
Am I the only one that always has in the back of his head what happens if the engine fails now?

Its part of a mental or real passage plan as you go in and out of any where sail in to harbour? sail out of harbour? go to anchor? sail to mooring? moor up to another boat? tie up to any available berth? Grab a tow from passing boat? Radio Call? Who to? etc etc etc

In effect I think a combination of the above would generally apply..

Agree with keeping sails bent on and ready till last minute, although cannot say I practice what I preach :eek:
 
Put the sails up and sail into the marina. If it is my home marina, there are a couple of places which you could easily sail to and be able to tie unless you are unlucky with the wind conditions. In which case, drop anchor and wait until it changes. I have tried using the tender to tow, but 2.5hp for 32 tons is not much of match - no noticeable progress!

I have sailed into a few marinas after the starter motor caught fire.
Port Rosas in Spain - no problem to get onto the fuel berth - also plenty of space in the commercial section.

Puerto de Selva - I would normally anchor there, but this time there was space available alongside. Sailed into that - almost like parallel parking (my crew were really impressed after that one).

Puerto Alcadia, sailed onto the fuel berth - but that was hairy. Particularly the guy we trusted the lines to who thought he could stop 32 tons just holding onto the warp - he figured out he needed to put it around a bollard after what seemed a very long time. Just in time before we would have hit the dock - ok we were only moving very slowly, but we would have taken out a chunk of concrete from the dock.

However, no way would I attempt a stern to med style mooring without an engine. It is hard to do well with an engine in a long keeler.
 
Recommend having a look at Francis B Cooke "Seamanship for Yachtsmen" 1923 edition, when they generally didn't have auxiliary engines on smaller yachts. They also generally didn't have pontoon berths, so mostly about sailing on/off moorings or anchor.
 
When my engine broke down half way across Lyme Bay, and the wind had died too, I had a good look at the obvious, tried to pump fuel through to the injectors, then phoned Beta Marine, an engineer there talked me through every possibility, even advising on which size spanners I needed to get out before sticking my head back in the engine compartment.

He helped me get started again, and again and again, he stayed on long after work hours to make sure I got near to Torquay and the wind had picked up, all over the phone. What a star!

Thinking about it now, I guess some would have called the coastguard, but at that stage I wasnt in any danger, just drifting with the tide,
 
Chrissie said:
When my engine broke down half way across Lyme Bay, and the wind had died too, I had a good look at the obvious, tried to pump fuel through to the injectors, then phoned Beta Marine, an engineer there talked me through every possibility, even advising on which size spanners I needed to get out before sticking my head back in the engine compartment.

He helped me get started again, and again and again, he stayed on long after work hours to make sure I got near to Torquay and the wind had picked up, all over the phone. What a star!

Thinking about it now, I guess some would have called the coastguard, but at that stage I wasnt in any danger, just drifting with the tide,
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You should get a surveyor check it out for you.
 
This happened to us as we were coming out of foxes marina in Ipswich, this was our maiden sail on Border Collie(yes, our maiden sail was jut to the fuel berth and back), so we didn't know how she responded to anything. We fired up the donkey, took the lines off and headed to the fuel berth... Half way there, the engine cuts out "Ahhhhh $hit!!". So we quickly threw the anchor overboard and thought through what was up with the engine, we only had 30 minutes to decide before we ran aground and tipped the 44ft fin keel yacht over :S

5 minutes later...

Success! She fired up, so we pulled the anchor up and quickly went to the fuel berth, filled up and started to head back to our berth. Half way back, the engine cut out AGAIN, so the anchor went over, AGAIN! So this time, we quickly asked the harbour master to give us a tow, so he responded immediately given our situation with the tide. About a minute later a small tug arrived. 'Ahhhhhhh' we thought 'safe at last'...

We attach a line to the tug and set off...

Next thing we know, the rescue tug had broken down, so both of us were in the $hit floating down the river...

Anchor - back down, AGAIN.

Could this get any worst?!

Ohhhh yes!!

Another tug came along, quickly towed the broken tug to the nearest pontoon and then attached a line to us, so we switched the winlass on to pull the anchor up :o

Of course.

The windlass had broken!! :mad:

Luckily there was 3 strong men on board and 2 of the tugs crew climbed aboard to help pull the anchor up. 5 men all trying to pull the anchor up!! The bow of the boat was almost at water lever lmao!!

Got the tow back onto our pontoon... We tried EVERYTHING to figure out the problem with the engine... About a year and £1000 of new parts later, the problem consisted. So we thought "**** it, just get a whole new engine".
And that's what we did! But the problem was still there?!!!! :mad::mad::eek:

Second to lastly, we replaced the fuel tank with a much larger version, still, the engine cutting out problem still consisted. LASTLY, took the fuel lines out, there was NOTHING more that we could replace with new parts!

Ahhhhaa, one of the fuel lines had a BEE inside, causing fuel starvation. Yes, you read correctly, A BEE. This single BEE had cost us thousands...

haha :)
 
My water separator had bayonet fittings coming out to the hoses, but one of the bayonet fittings had started separating from the main body, a small crack, but enough to let in air and cause repetative failures. I had to strip and examine every component from the tank onwards to eventually find it, one of the last items I checked as I was running to desparation by then. My engine got the best service ever whilst covering every eventuality in my search.

Bit like the bee above, such a small thing with such major consequences
 
Keep it simple

onesea said:
Am I the only one that always has in the back of his head what happens if the engine fails now?

Its part of a mental or real passage plan as you go in and out of any where sail in to harbour? sail out of harbour? go to anchor? sail to mooring? moor up to another boat? tie up to any available berth? Grab a tow from passing boat? Radio Call? Who to? etc etc etc

In effect I think a combination of the above would generally apply..

Agree with keeping sails bent on and ready till last minute, although cannot say I practice what I preach :eek:
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At short range to berth, warps out both sides, all fenders out, roving fender(s) ready, and 'All Hands to Prayers'.
Wind picks up at once, of course, off your berth!
 
no engine

Engine seized as we were making the approach to Yarmouth, IOW. Very rapid up sails and turned around into clear water, we had plenty of time so decided to sail back to our mooring in Gosport. Called the CG who said they would monitor us as we came back up the Solent, approaching P.Mouth called the QHM who gave us permission to sail through the entrance, ( slack water), we sailed on to the mooring like we did this sort of thing everyday!!. That was with SWMBO and her friend who doesn't sail much, couldn't have done it better if we had a team of professionals on board.
All credit to CG & QHM for their concern and readiness if we needed help. Mike
 
Drop an anchor to see if you can fix the engine. If not and you have a dinghy and an engine powerful enough to move the boat then tie it on overlapping the aft quarter. If you don''t call the marina they normally have a boat that can take you in. You could ask a passing boat to give you a tow. The last resort is the coastguard/RNLI.
 
TamarMike said:
Those of us on swinging moorings are probably reading this with a certain amount of smug satisfaction. However I've had several engine failures over the years (broken valve spring, blocked fuel filter, blocked cooling system etc.) and the first action has nearly always been to drop the anchor to give time to pause and think (being either single handed or with incompetent crew - anchor down, kettle on for a cup of tea stops SWMBO panicking!)
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spooky !!! this what i would do, anchor down, kettle on, radio 4 on, a quick look at the donkey. then concoct a cunning plan, check food and water levels in case i want to sail on to madiera, discount former as i have to get the 8 45 woking to london monday. actually it would be a pain, but really it wouldnt bother me too much. roller reefing main and jib 2 seconds to get going, dinghy with out board lash alongside there are allways options,
 
GinjaNinja said:
Hypothetical Scenario:-

You have a Yacht, and your a mile out of harbour. You drop your sail and switch to engine ready to come in (number 5, your time is up). Your engine then fails after a few mins and you can't get it started.

What would be your actions to get back to berth?

I was wondering what everyone would do if this happened to them. This of course could also include MoBo's ;-)
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Happened to me several years ago - just outside the marina. Thought about sailing in and onto the visitors pontoon, but instead contacted marina who got their workboat to tow me in. Don't think you are supposed to sail in... Could have saved some £££ by inflating the tender and using the outboard, but short handed and wouldn't have been able to get into the berth.
Now? Would sail onto my mooring without using the engine - so the problem wouldn't apply! :D
 
mrtreeboy222 said:
... We tried EVERYTHING to figure out the problem with the engine... About a year and £1000 of new parts later, the problem consisted. So we thought "**** it, just get a whole new engine".
And that's what we did! But the problem was still there?!!!! :mad::mad::eek:

Second to lastly, we replaced the fuel tank with a much larger version, still, the engine cutting out problem still consisted. LASTLY, took the fuel lines out, there was NOTHING more that we could replace with new parts!

Ahhhhaa, one of the fuel lines had a BEE inside, causing fuel starvation. Yes, you read correctly, A BEE. This single BEE had cost us thousands...

haha :)
Click to expand...

Very frustrating I am sure. Would EVERYTHING not have included a thorough investigation of the fuel lines? The diesel engine failures I have been party to have all involved stuff getting into the fuel system somewhere.
 
KenMcCulloch said:
Very frustrating I am sure. Would EVERYTHING not have included a thorough investigation of the fuel lines? The diesel engine failures I have been party to have all involved stuff getting into the fuel system somewhere.
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Sorry I forgot to put that the fuel lines were all only 'a year old' according to the person who sold us the boat. So we didn't even consider changing them until they were quite literally the last thing that we could possible change. :o
 
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