Why a bow thruster is useful in the Bay of Biscay.

[GHA]

School is when you learn something new.

You have learned a new one for the check sheet, given freely and in good humour

Before heading offshore on a boat you know nothing about turn everything you can find on for a good while & see how the voltage stands up.
At least then you'll know the batteries are trashed before setting off instead of finding out in the middle of Biscay.. ?

 

[capnsensible]

I hope I can express this without giving offence as you are obviously highly experienced and a great contributor to this forum but....
You've posted this thread to demonstrate a good solution to a problem encountered at sea. In my field of (paid) work, when a problem is encountered, a quick solution is obviously valued but then we sit back and say "how could we have prevented this happening in the first place?"

I apply that methodology to most things in life, including sailing.

In some cases the "cost" of checking may vastly exceed the product of the "cost" of the problem and its likelihood.

GHA's suggestion is not a :"You should have..." criticism and doesn't detract from your good solution to a problem. Rather than take it as criticism and trying to think of reasons why you couldn't have done it, think how you *could* have (leave the fridge open for 6 hours?). It may well be that "cost" of the check may be impractical or exceed the cost of just dealing with the problem. But it's really not a bad exercise to think that stuff through to arrive at that conclusion.

Ok. For perspective a hardly used less than 3 year old yacht should not be expected to have such issues. It's a fair assumption that a boat that has been looked after by someone on behalf of the previous owner is in good order.

Arriving at the departure port with 4 hours grace from the port authority for air crew and Mariners with a minus one hour on that for tide meant putting trust into the work done like lift and antifoul, backed up with pictures means exactly that. Trust.

So we left, something unexpected broke and Padz as usual wants to nit pick it to death. good for him.

We leftbayonna two hours ago and are confidently on our way. I've not included all the other things we have done or the fault finding processes to deal with the situation.

So basically I hope such things may be of interest to some but if others choose to take a 'you dindt want to do it like this you ought a done it like that' approach then I'm afraid I'm not overly concerned.

 

[capnsensible]

You have learned a new one for the check sheet, given freely and in good humour

Before heading offshore on a boat you know nothing about turn everything you can find on for a good while & see how the voltage stands up.
At least then you'll know the batteries are trashed before setting off instead of finding out in the middle of Biscay.. ?

Been out on your boat recently?
Been on a new boat recently?
I seriously do not need your advice, thanks.

 

[Blueboatman]

“School is when you learn something new”

What I take away from this is the “Chain of Events” learning
Or the compounding of individual mistakes making for a “ how on earth did that happen “ disaster in the air or on the road..
Two pilots mishearing and assuming they gave permission to use the sane runway
Two impatient drivers runnings crossroads...

New boat “ assumed all new”
Assumption is The Mother of all Fxups

Leaving with onlyhalf the promised fuel
And a no wind forecast
Now relying on batteries without the reserves to burn fuel to keep them in a functioning state
No wind vane back up to drive the boat
Etc etc
Luckily , resourcefulness to the rescue , bow thruster ??
Pretty good useful post , I would say
As I would expect from a seasoned sailing school and delivery base. The best plans evolve ?

One of those YM “ What now, Skip?” articles

 

[GHA]

So we left, something unexpected broke and Padz as usual wants to nit pick it to death. good for him.

Not at all, it's dead simple and will tell you a lot. If you can't take on a very simple valuable suggestion that's your loss.
Maybe you need broader shoulders ....??

Oh, toys thrown out of the pram now, time to go ?

 

[Kelpie]

Will I thought it was a useful anecdote, thanks Cpt Sensible for sharing, and if someone remembers this in a moment of panic and it improves their situation, that's all good.
Shame that the thread had to be hijacked by Captain Hindsight.

FWIW I'm installing an electric windlass; rather than run huge cables the length of the boat I'm going to try using some spare equipment I already have- a 110Ah battery and a 30w solar panel. So I will have a totally separate 12v system. Obviously potential downsides if I anchor more than the sun shines, but equally it gives me a possible backup emergency power supply.

 

[Beelzebub]

We once lost electric power on a trip to northern Spain. The difference was that the boat only had one 65 Amp Hour battery so we reverted to first principles:- steer manually (which we were doing anyway; no autopilot), sextant for sun-sights, Sony shortwave radio for time checks, oil lamps for lighting, Walker trailing log; no big deal.

 

[TernVI]

It's easy to say 'you should have tested the batteries before you set off', but it's quite possible they would have passed a reasonable test before being subjected to extended motoring.
No mention of an independent engine battery?

 

[Neeves]

We once lost electric power on a trip to northern Spain. The difference was that the boat only had one 65 Amp Hour battery so we reverted to first principles:- steer manually (which we were doing anyway; no autopilot), sextant for sun-sights, Sony shortwave radio for time checks, oil lamps for lighting, Walker trailing log; no big deal.

We have done the same crossing from Manila to HK. To compound the issue in the 6 day crossing we have virtually no wind and had to buy some extra diesel from a Taiwanese fishing boat, paid for with rum. The alternator had burn out on the way to Manila - and I can't recall, it was 35 years ago, why it was not repaired/replaced.

Its roughly a 500nm crossing and when we got to HK we were 10nm out on a DR. There was probably a current of which we were unaware. Walker log, assiduously marking a paper chart and recording the log every hour. It was traffic free, apart from the big fishing boat - we did not use lights, but had 2 on watch all the time. It was easy at night to know roughly we were on course - aircraft then, effectively, only went to or from HK

Jonathan

 

[Neeves]

It was interesting rather than a big problem. 38 foot Beneteau really doesnt need full time crew....

I must live in a different world

Surely a 38' Benny does not need a bow thruster.

Surely if you buy a 38' Benny and you are on the yacht then ...... you don't need a delivery skipper (you just need a back packer, maybe better a friend, or even your wife). Given a well found yacht, and a return ticket, I am sure many people would welcome the chance to crew across Biscay.

Being completely ignorant of such things - how big are bow thruster batteries, for a 38' Benny - are they so large they replace house batteries? Me thinks you had to run the engines pretty constantly.

No wonder the owner had a delivery skipper.......???

Capnsensible - I hope they pay you well.

Jonathan

 

[RupertW]

I must live in a different world

Surely a 38' Benny does not need a bow thruster.

Jonathan

In this marina and many similar you either have a bow thruster or like us have to use fenders and hands to get your bow past the bows of the boats opposite.

 

[Neeves]

In this marina and many similar you either have a bow thruster or like us have to use fenders and hands to get your bow past the bows of the boats opposite.
View attachment 117387

Now I understand - This is why we poor people cannot mix with the Hoi Polloi and why marinas are so exclusive.



No wonder its called the lucky country

Jonathan

 

[RupertW]

Now I understand - This is why we poor people cannot mix with the Hoi Polloi and why marinas are so exclusive.



No wonder its called the lucky country

Jonathan

Ah, only by Australians. For the rest of the world it’s, “The country where the animals are all too big or too small or the wrong shape or poisonous or all of the above”. Scary.

 

[capnsensible]

I must live in a different world

Surely a 38' Benny does not need a bow thruster.

Surely if you buy a 38' Benny and you are on the yacht then ...... you don't need a delivery skipper (you just need a back packer, maybe better a friend, or even your wife). Given a well found yacht, and a return ticket, I am sure many people would welcome the chance to crew across Biscay.

Being completely ignorant of such things - how big are bow thruster batteries, for a 38' Benny - are they so large they replace house batteries? Me thinks you had to run the engines pretty constantly.

No wonder the owner had a delivery skipper.......???

Capnsensible - I hope they pay you well.

Jonathan

It all goes with the territory.

No idea why she's got a bow thruster. Just happy!

Many yacht owners dont have the confidence for long distance sailing and want an experienced person to guide them. Paul who posted the link on here for our tracker is familiar with boats but wanted exactly that.

Oztralians do it too. A few years back an oppo arrived in Lanzarote with an ageing ocker on his tired Bavaria 46. No bow thruster.. I was then contracted to get him through the Panama canal to a Pacific marina. Mm. Interesting. This guy had short arms, deep pockets..

 

[capnsensible]

Despite him living aboard for six months he hadnt taken care of the batteries that gave up and needed changing. There was a whole bunch of whinging about that.

We got to Cape Verdes and a previous poor repair to the engine alternator bracket gave up. Got it welded back on properly. There was a whole bunch of whinging about that.

Halfway over the crimp on the wire halyard for the headsail broke. Fixed inSt Lucia. There was whole bunch of whinging about that.

So no matter what the armchair hindsighters say, stuff breaks.

And yeah, they don't pay delivery skippers enough!!

 

[capnsensible]

Btw yes there is a separate engine start box of electrical magic. And the bow thruster batteries lasted well with a busy autopilot. 2 hour engine every 12 hours is enough.

 

[newtothis]

Oztralians do it too. A few years back an oppo arrived in Lanzarote with an ageing ocker on his tired Bavaria 46. No bow thruster.. I was then contracted to get him through the Panama canal to a Pacific marina. Mm. Interesting. This guy had short arms, deep pockets..

In NZ we call that the Australian Haka... a bar dance that involves patting every pocket while chanting : aww, mate, I forgot my wallet.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

So no matter what the armchair hindsighters say, stuff breaks.

 

[Neeves]

In NZ we call that the Australian Haka... a bar dance that involves patting every pocket while chanting : aww, mate, I forgot my wallet.

What's this wallet thingy - doesn't everyone use their phone now. Odd, people all have bow thrusters but use antiques like paper money and coins - bizarre

Jonathan

 

[GHA]

Though no one said stuff doesn't break did they?
It was the suggestion that it's a good idea to put some effort into seeing what's already broken before setting off into the Atlantic that got the toys thrown out of the pram.