Bertramdriver
Well-Known Member
Left Aegina in high spirits and did the 25 miles to the eastern entrance to the Corinth canal at a steady 15 knots in good conditions. As we entered the passage towards the canal we hit the notorious headwind / current and speed dropped to 11 knots so had to go off the plane. As usual there was a lot of hanging about at the entrance as canal control shuffled boats around and gave conflicting instruction "get ready" "wait" etc.
Whilst we were hanging about I noticed the Bertram was getting difficult to control and the combination of wind,current and crazy response to controls was perplexing me. Then we were called to tie up on the quay to pay the fees. Trying manoeuvre to Dock became a nightmare. The helm wouldn't respond and the engines had no effect on close manoeuvring at all. Never the less I shuffled the Bertram onto the quay, collecting some serious scratches on the gel coat and an angry tirade from the wife.
Went into the office to pay my dues, and by then the fuel tanker had arrived so I took the chance to top up. All these distractions took my mind off the key issue. Why wasn't the boat steering?
Just as I cleared all the fussing the control called to tell me to lead the next convoy through the canal so I fired up and the wife let go the warps. Then chaos. The boat wouldn't steer and to get off the key I had the pump the throttles hard. The result was that the mixture of over revs, wind and current sent me sideways across the canal entrance. By now the rest of convoy had closed up, restricting the space even further and as I shuffled backwards and forwards ( the canal entrance is less than 50 metres wide) the sightseeing crowds in the cafe and on the trip boats were audibly gasping at my increasingly frantic manoeuvring. Isn't it funny how the more people scream at you the quieter it goes in your head.
Anyway after 5 minutes of death defying boat handling I called quits and requested assistance from canal control. The pilot boat came over, took our warps and towed us back out into the bay, leaving an angry hum from the delayed convoy and the finger pointing laughter of the sightseers. As we were towed the boat screwed over to starboard on a parallel track to the pilot boat so it became obviousness that the rudders had locked over.
Once anchored I was able to check all of the systems and could see that the autopilot was very unhappy, with the pump clicking away beside me in a locker. I disconnected the pump, switched off the autopilot and hey presto I had steering.
On the next convoy through they put the Bertram in front with the pilot boat behind and held the other boats well back. Now being a little stressed at this stage I held speed at 1100 rpm which would normally be 8/9 knots but was only getting 4 knots in the current. Steering was good and I started to relax, then the pilot boat came up behind (very close) and shouted for me speed up. I ignored him knowing what would happen. By the third time this happened I lost it and snapped.
I cranked up the revs and hit the hump, up she went and 17 tons of water went barrelling down the by now 30 metre wide canal. The pilot boat shot up into the air and then did an impression of a cork in a washing machine. My last glimpse was of the pilot stuck sideways across the canal trying to get his bow round. The exit in sight I throttled back to pootling speed and we motored serenely into the sea of Corinth.
I have now idea of what caused the autopilot to behave like that, and further investigation and testing have not revealed any solutions, neither have I been able to recreate the problem. But I don't think we'll be going through the canal again anytime soon.
So the moral is make sure you can isolate and turn off your autopilot before you try anything fancy
Thanks to Alf for giving me the courage to own up, and apologies to any boat following last week who found their passage through the canal a little scary.
Whilst we were hanging about I noticed the Bertram was getting difficult to control and the combination of wind,current and crazy response to controls was perplexing me. Then we were called to tie up on the quay to pay the fees. Trying manoeuvre to Dock became a nightmare. The helm wouldn't respond and the engines had no effect on close manoeuvring at all. Never the less I shuffled the Bertram onto the quay, collecting some serious scratches on the gel coat and an angry tirade from the wife.
Went into the office to pay my dues, and by then the fuel tanker had arrived so I took the chance to top up. All these distractions took my mind off the key issue. Why wasn't the boat steering?
Just as I cleared all the fussing the control called to tell me to lead the next convoy through the canal so I fired up and the wife let go the warps. Then chaos. The boat wouldn't steer and to get off the key I had the pump the throttles hard. The result was that the mixture of over revs, wind and current sent me sideways across the canal entrance. By now the rest of convoy had closed up, restricting the space even further and as I shuffled backwards and forwards ( the canal entrance is less than 50 metres wide) the sightseeing crowds in the cafe and on the trip boats were audibly gasping at my increasingly frantic manoeuvring. Isn't it funny how the more people scream at you the quieter it goes in your head.
Anyway after 5 minutes of death defying boat handling I called quits and requested assistance from canal control. The pilot boat came over, took our warps and towed us back out into the bay, leaving an angry hum from the delayed convoy and the finger pointing laughter of the sightseers. As we were towed the boat screwed over to starboard on a parallel track to the pilot boat so it became obviousness that the rudders had locked over.
Once anchored I was able to check all of the systems and could see that the autopilot was very unhappy, with the pump clicking away beside me in a locker. I disconnected the pump, switched off the autopilot and hey presto I had steering.
On the next convoy through they put the Bertram in front with the pilot boat behind and held the other boats well back. Now being a little stressed at this stage I held speed at 1100 rpm which would normally be 8/9 knots but was only getting 4 knots in the current. Steering was good and I started to relax, then the pilot boat came up behind (very close) and shouted for me speed up. I ignored him knowing what would happen. By the third time this happened I lost it and snapped.
I cranked up the revs and hit the hump, up she went and 17 tons of water went barrelling down the by now 30 metre wide canal. The pilot boat shot up into the air and then did an impression of a cork in a washing machine. My last glimpse was of the pilot stuck sideways across the canal trying to get his bow round. The exit in sight I throttled back to pootling speed and we motored serenely into the sea of Corinth.
I have now idea of what caused the autopilot to behave like that, and further investigation and testing have not revealed any solutions, neither have I been able to recreate the problem. But I don't think we'll be going through the canal again anytime soon.
So the moral is make sure you can isolate and turn off your autopilot before you try anything fancy
Thanks to Alf for giving me the courage to own up, and apologies to any boat following last week who found their passage through the canal a little scary.
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