What To Do If You - - - - - - - - - -

[JennyMorgan]

In this case run aground as this boat has:

Was searching for something else & found this one. Running onto the bank like this is easily done, especially at high water. These folk are doing right by rocking the boat but if the tide is going out then they probably need another boat to give them a pull whilst they continue to rock and they need to get a move on! If the tide is still coming in, which I doubt, then no need to panic. However everything about this picture suggest its top of the tide so for those of you who don't know what to do then the engine needs to be in reverse and, apart from the 'driver', everyone as near to the stern/back as possible and keep rocking. If there is no tow forthcoming and the engine won't budge it then there is one last but drastic solution, the strongest crew member to jump over the front/bow, their shoulder as low as possible against the sharp end and push. It can be really surprising how easily a boat can slide off the bank with a well applied shoulder. The reed growth suggests that the water will be cold though. Is the tide going down? It is if it's flowing TOWARDS Gt Yarmouth!

[quo vadis]

Does it matter

[JennyMorgan]

Judging by the pictures that we see most summers of stranded boats then yes, it does matter. Personally I have done just as I have suggested with a boat that ran aground near Oulton Broad, we got her off, if we hadn't, it was a spring tide, then she would probably have been there a long time. Very often we can help ourselves, if we know what to do. Perhaps others have useful hints or suggestions for this or other mishaps.

[SwanR]

I think there are a lot of things about boating that you only learn through experience ... or by reading a forum like this and learning through other people's experience ... or by watching Robin's very informative videos. All hints and tips gratefully received. 

[MauriceMynah]

I watched Robin's "What to do if you can't find a tin opener" ... Not for those of a nervous disposition.

[Timbo]

1 minute ago, MauriceMynah said:

I watched Robin's "What to do if you can't find a tin opener" ... Not for those of a nervous disposition.

I'd forgotten that one MM...which also reminds me...Robin...my Dad saw that and actually went out and bought you an emergency can opener from the camping shop. I will have to see which box its stashed in and pass it across!

[stumpy]

I've opened a bottle many times with a rhond hook before I discovered Swiss Army knives. One in pocket,spare in ditty box!

[Polly]

Quant poles, such useful things!

[Poppy]

9 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

In this case run aground as this boat has:

Was searching for something else & found this one. Running onto the bank like this is easily done, especially at high water. These folk are doing right by rocking the boat but if the tide is going out then they probably need another boat to give them a pull whilst they continue to rock and they need to get a move on! If the tide is still coming in, which I doubt, then no need to panic. However everything about this picture suggest its top of the tide so for those of you who don't know what to do then the engine needs to be in reverse and, apart from the 'driver', everyone as near to the stern/back as possible and keep rocking. If there is no tow forthcoming and the engine won't budge it then there is one last but drastic solution, the strongest crew member to jump over the front/bow, their shoulder as low as possible against the sharp end and push. It can be really surprising how easily a boat can slide off the bank with a well applied shoulder. The reed growth suggests that the water will be cold though. Is the tide going down? It is if it's flowing TOWARDS Gt Yarmouth!

 

Which way is Yarmouth mate ?

[MauriceMynah]

6 minutes ago, Poppy said:

Which way is Yarmouth mate ?

Go from Portsmouth to Cowes and turn right... Why? 

PS, I'm trying to remember who taught me how to open a beer bottle with a disposable lighter. an invaluable lesson.

[Poppy]

7 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

Go from Portsmouth to Cowes and turn right... Why? 

PS, I'm trying to remember who taught me how to open a beer bottle with a disposable lighter. an invaluable lesson.

I can't even remember being asked the way to GREAT Yarmouth whilst on the Broads ..... on the other hand ..

[Timbo]

On a dig in the near east one of the local members of the the 'gang', the guys that do the hard labouring, was in the habit of lopping off the neck of his beer bottle with a vicious looking bill hook he kept on his belt. I had recently returned from a trip home and had smuggled in a few bottles of decent English beer...I forget which. Of course the English bottles were much thicker than the local glassware. Our friend gratefully accepted his beer at the end of the day, laid the bottle on it's side and went to lop the neck off the bottle as usual. The thicker glass meant the bottle shot off the ground, narrowly missing one of the geophys team before stunning a passing goat, which fell onto it's back with all four hooves sticking up in the air. I have fond memories of sipping cold beer watching the sun set behind behind the waggling feet of a semiconscious goat. And they wonder why I visit Norfolk!

No goats were harmed in the making of this post. They have hard heads and Billy got up and walked away...

[JennyMorgan]

I well remember a school-boy joke. what's brown and comes steaming out of Cowes?

 

 

The Isle of Wight Ferry!

 

Only that are no longer brown.

By the way, Yarmouth IOW has a double tide. just to confuse holiday makers.

[JennyMorgan]

18 minutes ago, Poppy said:

I can't even remember being asked the way to GREAT Yarmouth whilst on the Broads ..... on the other hand ..

Perhaps most folk have realised that the Great has gone out of Yarmouth.

[Vaughan]

It is an amazing effect when you drive a boat at speed into a reed bank. The wet reeds bend before you and it is like going up a greased slipway. I have never done it myself (luckily) but I have seen them actually mount the earth bank, completely clear of the water.

There was one occasion with a big boat when we had to build a slip way in the reeds out of railway sleepers, and pull it off from the other bank, using Tirfor jacks.

The "Tirfor" jack, by the way, is French. "Tire fort", to pull hard.

[JennyMorgan]

Modern bath tubs, with their flat bottoms, tend to slide off quite easily, thankfully. A couple of years ago a boat slid across the marshes at Oulton Broad and great preparations were made for her recovery. Watching the tide carefully so I had it spot on at the top I used the shoulder technique, shades of being a scrum prop, and eased her off. Mind you, it was mischief as well as my innate kindness as she belonged to the girlfriend of a friend, they had a tiff but that's another story, but I pushed her off and towed her back to her moorings. The recovery crew turned up later with all the gear, where the erhem is the boat? I was well satisfied! 

[LondonRascal]

Ahh, the tin opening - like the blue fender incident never to be forgotten.  Since this time I have learnt new ways to open a can when you have not got a proper tin opener at hand, but I am still prefer the screwdriver attack method.

 

[Timbo]

2 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

but I pushed her off and towed her back to her moorings

The boat or the mate's girlfriend? 

[kfurbank]

I've posted this here somewhere before, but worth repeating again.

Helping someone out of the water. Take your longest mooring rope, join two if needed, and with one end attached to a cleat, take the other end along the side of the boat and tie it off so that it forms a curve dipping down into the water. Then get the person in the water to the middle of the curve and get them to stand on the rope. Get them to support as much off their weight as they can whilst you tighten the rope under their feet. Then get them to walk sideways up the rope until they are able with help, get onto the deck.

Have needed to use this once and it worked a treat. The person in the water probably weighed as much as me and the other person helping with the recovery. We stood no chance of pulling the person out, but that method worked a treat. With an outside temp of 4 degrees time was of the essence. A dip in January is not to be recommended. Especially days after visiting the London Boat Show and buying a new life jacket, which was still sitting in it's bag on the boat.

[JennyMorgan]

The boat, the lady had gone off in a huff! I felt quite sorry for the mate.

[JennyMorgan]

Thanks for that one, Keith, so obvious so why didn't I think of it before. Good advice.

[Broads01]

A few years back I saw a boat in a similar situation to the one in the photo.  It was just downstream of Stracey Arms Mill and had clearly mounted the 'greased slipway'  as Vaughan calls it.  We were moored near the mill at the time and I walked up to the stricken vessel and asked if all was OK.  When I asked how it had happened the guy said "I just wasn't looking where I was going". 

[BroadAmbition]

3 hours ago, LondonRascal said:

Ahh, the tin opening - like the blue fender incident never to be forgotten.  Since this time I have learnt new ways to open a can when you have not got a proper tin opener at hand

 

Ah, but have you learned new ways  of deploying blue fenders?

Griff

[Polly]

I remember that story well JM and seem to recall you were as concerned for the welfare of the lady's dogs aboard as for the lady herself. Lol