yacht on rocks -Help !

grafozz

grafozz

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a friend had his anchor chain break ? yesterday and his yacht is now in 1.0m of water resting stbd side on rocks ,
we tried to pump her out last night but only managed to drop water level 3 " .
the hull is planked Iroko and one has "sprung " and is letting water in faster than 3 x large pool 240v pumps running on a genny can manage ,
so we had to leave her sitting there last night after 7 hours of unloading / pumping trying to figure a way off .

can we ask the forum for suggestions for floating her off ?

no tide here and little equipment on the Island ,
too far for the local crane to reach /lift .
winds off shore F5 later today
yacht draws 1.8 m , keel is laid on the same low rock as the hull .
we can lift her slightly by 3 x men hanging from the main halyard .
boat weight 6/7 tons , plenty of bodies around ready to help plus a few fishing boats / ribs

quick thinkers please ?

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Can you get some underwater setting epoxy filler. Force it down over the leak under a panel of plywood?
Can you get a small sail under the hull in the area of the leak.
Can you force empty plastic jerry cans into the in hull water?
 
Can you take a halliard seaward at max length and with the assistance of ribs / fishing boats, tip the yacht seaward ?
You may need to tie on additional sheets to get the leaverage
 
Seal the hole as best you can by whatever means you can. Pump and pump some more.Lighten her as much as you can if you haven't already. Maybe something under the hull close to the damaged area so she doesn't bash the repair open again? Maybe a combination of pushing her off with all the muscle aswell as pulling?

Good luck
 
thanks , keep it coming .

we cant get anything under the breach as the rock is still pushing the plank in .
pulling her over will pull her down onto port side where there are more , and worse , rocks which would damage the hull on
this side also .
but a variation would be to lift the boat high enough to allow access to the damaged plank so a ply panel could be screwed on .
but it will take some severe effort to pull her up onto her keel ?
we will look at it again pm along with any more ideas ?

just another busy day in Greece ,
we have a huge fire at the top of the village with no less than SEVEN waterbombers in action !
 
Any divers available as they may have lifting bags or something they can substitute. Basically anything that will provide extra buoyancy, lifting bags strapped to hulls then filled with compressed air. Divers definitely your best bet, good luck!
 
First build a cover on the inside over the sprung plang to restrict inflow.
Is keel bolted on or encapsulated? If bolted on clear the boat of everything and drop the keel.
 
I don't think you are going to be able to lighten her by .8m and float her off(maybe with enough flotation bags) so apart from a crane or helicopter the only way I would suggest would be to protect the port side as much as possible with sheets of ply screwed to the hull,then pull her over onto the port side using a power boat attached to the mast(half way up) and drag her off the way she came in?Obviously plug the stb side before attempting to pull and fill the inside of the hull with bags if you can get them.Also it's full moon so you must have a rise of about .4m.
Best of luck,
Mad Pad
 
Sorry to hear this.

Suggestion below

1. Lighten ship as much as possible ashore
2. Need to stop the water flow coming in. Suggest use a storm sail (thicker canvas) over the hole on the inside. Use tacks / nails to secure it over the sprung plank(s).
3. Secure un-inflated dingy too ships rail as close to lifting point as possible.
4. Start to pump out the water from inside, same time inflate the boat to act as a lifting bag.
5. When vessel upright put patch on from outside of damaged area (another sail? or sail cover?)
6. get her ashore or on to a safe beach asap to finish repairs
7. investigate why the anchor chain 'broke'.


other option if not possible to put her on an even keel due to draft, perhaps heel her further over to Stbd when you have started to pump out the water until you can tow her in to slightly deeper water.......poss more risks doing it this way and wouldn't know how to start with this option...but food for thought.



good luck~!
 
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As there are rocks underneath you have a firm base? Hence is there anywhere to hire aquaprops. You may be able to jack up the starboard side high enough to get to the sprung plank.
 
I don't know that divers have the sort of airbags you want, theirs are usually just for lifting objects off the bottom. Commercial vehicle recovery people have the big heavyweight bags for righting capsized trucks - they might be worth a look but I don't see an easy way to get her off without lifting at least the hull clear of obstructions and then dragging her. Dropping the keel sounds fraught with difficulty as she'll probably not stay upright with the rig in place. Forget helicopters - out of the question! FAR too heavy for that.

A big airbag (Dinghy may not be big or strong enough) under the boat fore and aft to lift her off the sprung plank so you can slap on a patch and pump out is the start. Then figure how to prop her there and use more bags/repositioned bags to lift her enough to tow her off.

So sorry - good luck.
 
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Its difficult to tell from the photos but it looks tantalisingly close to the beach. Is it possible to get a mobile crane down to the waterline (or even part in the water) and lift out completely?

Alternatively, in the absence of lifting bags is it possible to get a part inflated inflatable (or two) lashed in place under the hull either side of the rock doing damage and then inflate. This may give the opportunity to get a sail or similar over the sprung plank.

Is it possible to bend a mast head halyard to an anchor and chain laid out to the seawards side and start to winch the boat into a more upright position to allow repairs. To support the winching effort you could use the dinghies as described above or alternatively lever and chock on the rocks with oars or any other levers available. When the hull is repaired you could consider hauling the boat through the vertical so she is floating on her good side and away from the rocks, perhaps first screwing in place some sacrificial ply to avoid further damage as you winch the boat out seawards.

The breaking strain of the halyard is probably in excess of 1 tonne and the mechanical advantage/leverage delivered by the mast should mean its strong enough to pull the boat upright.

If removing sand from around the rocks will allow the boat to stand more upright on its keel, then I have seen a useful technique . In a video, in a similar position, dinghies with outboards were lashed to the side of a fin keel yacht drawing 6 feet or so and over at an angle of 45 deg. The boat was (I thought) hopelessly beached in hardly any water at all. The outboards were run flat out and, over a period of an hour or two, their prop wash eroded a channel in the sand deep enough for the yacht to float upright and later be towed seawards by another yacht.



Finally if all else fails could you consider hauling the boat ashore over the rocks using a crane or vehicle operated winch? It would probably do more damage but avoid a total loss.

Good luck
 
grafozz said:
we cant get anything under the breach as the rock is still pushing the plank in . . . . . .
Click to expand...

DAMAGE CONTROL is the Royal Navy name.

With the plank pushed in and 'held open by the underlying rocks, you need to push, jam and ram soft cushions into the gaps as they stand around the sprung plank(s). You might need SCUBA equipment to get to the damaged area. Currently, from your description, any repairs to the planking can only be done from the inboard area. When and if the plank eases back, this 'caulking will tighten and be held in place by the returning plank.

Rip up sheets and ram these in as if caulking. Once done to limit ingress. shoring timbers can be used if necessary to 'push back' the sprung plank (as best as possible). I cannot stress enough how important it is to do this as quickly as you can as you have Spring Tides (even in the Mediterranean).

It is not worth trying to pump until all the sprung planking has been packed and 'caulked' as best as possible. If the weather is not bad, have a diver inside during the pump out stage once all the leaking area has been plugged.

You can afford cushions and cloth so do not scrimp on ripping up any fabric to effect a repair. Cushions and sheets are easily replaceable.

Good luck. :)
 
I wonder if you could use something as simple as a car jack and a prop to take the weight off the sprung plank. Then slide in a sail.
 
Particularly good advice from lenseman

get some partial inflated inflatables under her and pump more air into them use scuba tanks .if pos turn the inflatables over and pump the air out from underneath so they are full of water upside down when under then then use tanks to flood air back air under them .

But keep an eye on the weather . If it starts to worsen before you have got her off and swell looks possible pay a thought to flooding if she is light in the water and partially floating and a swell comes she will pound
 
liferaft!

got a life raft ? put it underneath and pull the cord!

edit prpare sail to get under plank first if poss but dont risk life under boat while doing it
 
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was thinking about that..but unable to control the rate of expansion when you want to do it nice and gently. Lenseman's advise is the best , was something I was aiming for but he has got the more technical answer!
 
You seem to have a good number of helpers around.
Can anyone get hold of old car/truck tyres to wedge between the hull and rocks as you ease it off ?

Edit:
If you can get inner tubes as well you could secure these inside the tyres and inflate to provide extra buoyancy as well as protection.
 
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can you not get a 'line' to the mastbase(seeward side) and pull her over just enough to slide a marineply sheet between the rocks and damaged hull area and fix in place, then gently let her sit back,this should put the rocks pushing against the ply helping to seal enough to pump out and do a temp fix inside,
I see you have cushions on the rocks in one pic perhaps put those next to the breach between the ply and hull giving a better seal
 
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