Boating Confessions??

[mickey123]

ok, who's brave enough to confess?? What have you done whilst boating, whether holiday hire or owning a boat???

what did you bump into or 'bury your head' whilst something happened.

 

 

[BroadScot]

45 minutes ago, mickey123 said:

ok, who's brave enough to confess?? What have you done whilst boating, whether holiday hire or owning a boat???

what did you bump into or 'bury your head' whilst something happened.

 

 

Mickey,

I thought you would have realised that here on the NBN, are the finest helms since errr well since Gracie last avoided a saily !   Or young Alan on Orca kept a straight line on the Ant!

I am sure someone will appear above the windscreen soon enough! 

Iain

[Gracie]

Of course, I am far too good a helmswoman to get it wrong but if I did it would be something like these

1. Dropping the tv aerial overboard

2. Hitting a tree and knocking the fishing rods off the top of the boat

3. Not securing the dinghy properly only to see it floating all by itself way back down river

4. Nearly falling in head first trying to get a good look at Broad Ambition

Who in their right mind would have the nerve to confess to that little lot

Iain, as for Jaws not steering Orca in a straight line on the Ant, I think you'll find he can't steer in a straight line on all the rivers

Grace

[quo vadis]

That orange mooring line has caught me out more than once

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Rammed a Norman 23 whilst attempting to turn a Seamaster 25 round in a narrow mooring at Geldeston.

Having a dump over stern, the toilet was off the saloon, with my mate and his girlfriend asleep on the settee. Early in the morning.

July 89,  Waveney river centre, letting off some home made fireworks at 1 in the morning.

There, it`s out now, i said ages ago that when i was younger, i did things i would`nt dream of doing now. You live and learn, you grow up, and start taking responsibility for yourself. Then you can look people in the eye and say "i`ve learned from my mistakes", just like the time 3 years ago when i filled up Kingfishers deisel tank with water.

[JawsOrca]

My ears are feeling hot?! I have you know I'm a brilliant helmsman.. I have nothing whatsoever to confess too... 

Although you may want to look at my "Adventures" series for some details lol! 
 

 

[grendel]

swept the mop overboard with some low trees, then found a different colour mop while looking for it and fishing that one out to replace the lost one.

[riyadhcrew]

Took one of the roof hand rails off when going through Wroxham bridge.

[vanessan]

20 minutes ago, riyadhcrew said:

Took one of the roof hand rails off when going through Wroxham bridge.

That wouldn't be you on a youtube clip by any chance would it?

[riyadhcrew]

I don't think so, as that was about 25 years ago.

[vanessan]

The clip is Navigating Wroxham Bridge by Mark Stevens, sorry I'm not sure how to link it. I'm sure many boats have lost roof rails like this over the years!

[Bound2Please]

The wench sinking our honeymoon boat on 29th October 1974, then me getting it to the wavney/newcut junction jumping off into what the wench said was grass but was in fact grass growing in 6ft of water.... But we was saved by the guys of Beaver Fleet. That was aboard the Bourgh Queen, aint put us off at all lost count of times weve been back over the years, now owners of our 3rd boat.

Charlie

PS had a few other other misshaps over the years.....

[ZimbiIV]

Not enough server space!

paul

[Broadsword]

I have nothing to declare...  There are several here who know my biggest boating blunder - and Charlie knows another, on which occasion he was my Knight in Shining Cruiser...

[BroadScot]

7 hours ago, ZimbiIV said:

Not enough server space!

paul

I am sure we could find enough space for you, Paul. 

Iain

[charlesa]

A group of us ( all around 17/18 years old) on Fulmar from Richardson's in about 1977.

Now it must have been before one needed a Pilot to go through Potter Bridge.

We were feeling so pleased that we had taken the canopy and everything else down to go under the Bridge and driven it through successfully at pace just as the Pilots do.

One small issue: I had completely forgotten about the sailing dinghy with mast up that we were towing behind ( going towards Martham).

Almighty crack, snapped mast and no more deposit !!!!

 

Best wishes

Charles

[Hockham Admiral]

On 03/06/2016 at 5:35 PM, mickey123 said:

ok, who's brave enough to confess?? What have you done whilst boating, whether holiday hire or owning a boat???

what did you bump into or 'bury your head' whilst something happened.

Well I posted us hitting the bank on the Oulton Dyke last week.... how fortunate I was that it wasn't a mile further down the river or we would have been firmly ashore on a falling tide......

 

 

Hitting the bank.wlmp

[quo vadis]

Well I posted us hitting the bank

Us, John what part did Mary-Jane play in it?

[BroadScot]

1 hour ago, charlesa said:

Now it must have been before one needed a Pilot to go through Potter Bridge.

Errr in those days Richos were with Blakes, and you went into the HW Yard to get their Pilot I seem to remember. Or was that just for their boats? I do know you used the Pilot as we were on a Richos elysian called Streamway in 1977      

Oops Charles norty boys !

Iain

[charlesa]

Ahhh, maybe it was a bit earlier than 1977 then Iain as there definitely was no pilot, or not on the boat anyway !!

Anyway I deny everything !!

 

Best wishes Charles

[BryanW]

Hi Charles

I remember about 1960 when I was with my parents we had to go into Herbert Woods for a pilot for Potter bridge, this was with Dawncraft of Wroxham (Blakes).  I am actually about to put a few old photographs up taken around 1960.

[charlesa]

Another incident that springs to mind was on one of the Japonica class from Martham.

So, v v windy day. I said in the pub afterwards that it was easily a Force 7 so probably a 4 or 5 !

Sailing past Thurne mouth and up towards Womack at pace ! To such a degree that the wash was going over the banks. The wind was directly behind us and I was terrified of doing an enormous gybe.

Now I am not a good sailor but we had a fairly experienced captain but he hadn't been on the Broads before. I was also terrified of turning towards Potter at speed with little room to manoeuvre once getting into the chalets. So, in cowardly manner, I told the others that we needed to drop the main sail whilst on the main river just before the large barns on the left.

So we put the engine on and attempted to do a 180 degree turn to port to point into the wind.

Mistake.

The engine was having none of it. Neither were the sails or rudder. All that happened was we were taken sideways by the Force 8 (4 !) heading up river and towards the sheds.

Now this would have been fine except for the location of 4 fisherman on the bank next to the barns minding their own business.

Anyway, a look of horror appeared on their faces as they imagined £1,000 of equipment coming to a premature end. Luckily I foresaw this and yelled at them to get everything out of the river.

We entered the reeds at precisely that spot and luckily came to a halt offering profuse apologies !

At that point we managed to get the mainsail down and limped sheepishly into Potter to fight another day.........

 

Best wishes

Charles

 

[Wildfuzz]

Whilst mooring the SWMBO did the classic one leg on boat one on the quay heading, boat drifted wider than her ballet splits and she tumbled in...... I had the presence of mind to save the boat, tie up, check the fenders recheck the ropes before helping her out, around November time if memory serves correctly, very cold, very grumpy, and very funny......

[LondonRascal]

I have not personally done too much to make a confession of – ok sure, the first time I was ‘solo boating’ having gotten off the boat at the wild mooring (no longer there) on the dyke that leads to Womack Water and being taken for a walk by the boat because I left the damn thing in gear and thankfully the speed limit sign acted as an impromptu post to stop the boat getting to the main river.

Oh actually there have been some – talking to the camera on a recent Captain’s Blog (not yet published) about how to secure the boat and leave a mooring single handed when the wind was pushing the boat away from the bank, and as I talked to the camera the rope slipping off the post and me having to act quickly to stop the boat swinging out into the river.

When Ludham Bridge Boatyard was run by Jason Hatch, having Blue Diamond – cruising up to Barton Turf and looking for the water fill point on the boat, seeing the letters ‘WA’ and reading no further, Shiela also seeing ‘WA’ and not bothering to read more until the boat began to list to starboard and then realising we had just filled up the waste tank! Looking very calm and collected, departing the mooring as if nothing was wrong and me calling Jason with a very red face to admit my mistake and call in for a pump out. 

My first visit to the Broads in more than a decade, 2011 and on Star Gem – arriving at Wroxham and reading the sign a pilot was needed for the bridge – a Pilot? Ha! I did not need a Pilot in years gone, we always did it ourselves, so departing the pilots pick up mooring without a pilot onboard and going through the bridge without incident.  Mooring up the other side having lunch and then freaking out that I had broken all the rules and now had to get the boat back – what if I hit the bridge and getting in a right panic. Going back through the bridge without incident and feeling so elated at the same time as guilty for not following instructions. 

But it is not always the negative with me, there are some other confessions and I won’t say what boats this may have happened on but - ordering and taking away with me some polish and associated applicators and spending an afternoon moored up polishing the entire superstructure of the boat to a perfect shine.  Buying replacement ‘warm white’ fluorescent tubes because I disliked the cold white ones that were fitted and replacing every tube on the boat together with clearing all the fittings of years of dust. Finding a boats heater matrix’s were clogged with dust and dog hair – removing each heater matrix’s and fan, cleaning out all the dust and hair and reassembling resulting in half as much more air flow and heat along with the more ‘usual things’ like fitting new wipers to boats (cos most are shot and do little in rain) to leaving non-stick fry pans behind for the next hirers to enjoy.

 

[JennyMorgan]

21 minutes ago, LondonRascal said:

I have not personally done too much to make a confession of – ok sure, the boat-shed fender left dangling over the bow of BA was a minor infringement of standing orders. Griff has since threatened me with an intimate body waxing, provided that I have a shower first!