FlyingFortress

In Chronological order. Ex Surveyor Noted Vaughan I could answer a lot of your questions but in the spirit of your post I will refrain except that there are facts in Q6 that indicate otherwise. I do however agree in the main with your post. Hylander See reply above. Griff As usual nail, head, hammer. Well said I will refrain from commenting furthur unless there are glaring inaccuracies that need correcting. Any further communications on this will be made by phone.

So the warning is to stay away from Neatishead mmmmmm

Yes Broads01 that is exactly what I am saying. When a vessel has sternway the pivot point moves right aft and creates a large lever for the BT to work with making it more effective. This is a common technique used by us Pilots for example to depart a berth in an onshore wind. An astern movement of the engine will considerably increase the effectiveness of the BT and/or The forward tug. While large ships do have big Bow Thrusters (in the region of 6000 Kw + in some cases) the power to weight (300000t + and no that is not a typo) ratio is much lower than a leisure craft which is why tugs are still used particularly in strong currents. Headway on the other hand can totally destroy a BTs effectiveness with speeds as low as 5 kts which again explains why tugs are still used. Its easy maths. BT useless at 5kts, current 4kts, aproach speed 2kts equals forward tug required. Try explaining that to a Captain who has no experience in tidal rivers and has a ship with several thousand Kw of BT.

A paint ball gun would not have made that sort of mess

Yes unfortunately you did recognise the boat.

M+P My advise to you is get one fitted if the budget allows. Before I continue I will state that I am a professional Ship Handler and I have been a boat owner for around 30 years. I never felt the need for a BT in any of my previous boats due to the directional instability inherent in the individual boat. Without getting too technical if you need lot of steering input to maintain a steady course then she will be easy to turn and hence easy to manoeuvre. Just like a large Tanker. Current boat needs little steering input to maintain steady course but is harder to turn. Directionally stable like a large Container Ship. Within 5 minutes of undertaking the test run before purchase I told Mrs FF that we needed a BT on this one and it was fitted the following year, now 17 years ago. None of us are getting any younger and Mrs FF is now totally used to stepping off the boat as we always arrive at our mooring parallel to the quay under full control almost regardless of wind or tide. I say almost as I am not immune to a mistake or 3. It takes a little practice but is easily achievable to slide sideways into a mooring tide or no tide. BT is sometimes used and sometimes not but is always switched on ready. As far as mechanical issues. The only issue I have had was when I got weed in it (my own stupid fault) and damaged the motor. My unit is a fairly bog standard Side Power electric one that rather controversially runs off my engine start battery. My logic is that The BT will only be used when the engine is running. It switches itself off after a certain time if I forget to stop it after a mooring. It improves safety for us and makes stern mooring a piece of cake as BTs work best with sternway despite what has previously been said on here. Anyone doubting me needs to learn about the Pivot point of a vessel and how it changes due to which way the vessel is going with regard to the water.

I have not neglected an alternative route though and will persue it in addition to yours.

Thanks Griff Today I was far too involved in the cleanup and fallout to get too angry Now i am angry. Full suport to whatever you need me to do.