Skiing On The Bure!

[BoF]

I have read several ‘Holiday Tales’ and have laughed, winced and been envious of the adventures people have had on the Broads, so I thought I would expand on the tale that I mentioned in my first forum post.

 

It was back in the early 1990’s and my children and I hired a 30ft sedan cruiser from the yard next to the New Inn at Horning. I can’t remember the name of the yard; I think it was part of the Herbert Woods group at the time. I hadn’t been on the Broads for years and it was the first time up there for my two young children and Charlie, our Labrador. We were all excited to be going on an ‘adventure’.  Months of pouring over maps and planning our routes kept us all amused, even Charlie got into the spirit of it all by eating one of the maps whilst we were not looking.

The handover went smoothly and we were soon off to explore, deciding to go upstream to Salhouse Broad and possibly as far as Wroxham. It was a beautiful summer's day as I recall. All was going well on that first day until we reached the entrance to Salhouse Broad, travelling at a sedate 4 mph, when all of a sudden, and without touching the throttle, the engine revs went to the top of the gauge and we took off! Putting the throttle into neutral then astern did absolutely nothing, and we continued to hurtle at an increasing speed into a rather crowded anchorage. I cut the engine and we started to slow down, but I still had to do a few nifty twists and ‘handbrake turns’ to avoid the moored craft. The kids thought this was great fun with a lot of the other boaters ‘waving’ at us and they waving back. I was trying to hide behind the wheel! We eventual stopped, then drifted to a place where we could drop the mudweight and take a breath. There were no mobile phones in those days, so we rowed ashore and walked into Salhouse to phone the boat yard.

An engineer turned up the following morning in ‘The Big Tow’ out of Ludham Bridge, but couldn’t find any reason why our cruiser had decided to turn into a ski boat. He stayed with us a while as we went a short distance up and down the river with no repeat of the previous day, so he left and we set off down river behind him, just in case. Of course the engine behaved perfectly, until after the ‘Big Tow’ turned up the River Ant and we carried on down the Bure. My son was on the wheel as I was down below sorting out some lunch. We had just turned into Fleet Dyke, when without any warning, we took off again! My son screamed that he hadn’t done anything, honest dad! We hurtled down the dyke and as before, the only way to slow down was to cut the engine. The moorings on the Dyke were all full, so what the other boaters thought was anyone’s guess, but the sight of a wooden, sedan cruiser charging past them ‘up on the plain’ with a black Labrador dog on the bow loving every minute of it, must have been a bit concerning. No doubt questions were asked as to my legitimacy and mental state, but I was more concerned about how to stop the bloody thing than worry about what others may be thinking of me. By switching the engine on and off again a number of times we managed to enter South Walsham Broad and drop the mudweight.

It was a Sunday and I wasn’t sure if the yard would be manned, so we decided to stay put, mess around in the dinghy and make our way back to the boatyard first thing the following day and get this sorted, one way or another.

On the Monday morning, with quite a bit of trepidation, I fired up the engine and waited to switch it off immediately if we shot off again. Fortunately, we didn’t and we left the Broad at a sedate speed. All went well as we exited Fleet Dyke and turned left for Horning. We continued up the Bure, slowly relaxing. Just past the Dyke down to Ranworth I needed the loo, so my son took over the helm. I had just ‘settled’ when the engine revs started to rise and I could feel the boat pick up speed. I wouldn’t normally recommend this as a laxative, but it certainly worked for me. Fortunately my son knew what to do and he had cut the engine by the time I had emerged from the ‘heads’. We lost way quite quickly with the tide against us, but when we tried to start the engine again, unlike previously, it just would not fire up. We started to drift down river, occasionally sideways! We continued to drift down and across the river until we crashed into the bank near St Benedict. We jumped off and secured the boat with the rond anchors and took a breath, again!

It was then that a boat came alongside and offered me a lift, which I greatly appreciated. As I said previously, it was the first of many examples where people look out for each other.

The boatyard were very apologetic and helpful, arranging for us to have use of another boat, The Monarch out of Herbert Woods. What a difference! If my memory serves we well, it was the same size and of a similar layout to Broad Ambition, probably the same type. The rest of the holiday was just great, and we tried to hire the Monarch every time from then on. We had lots of ‘adventures’ but none so stressful as this.

 

[Broads01]

Great tale, thanks for writing. I've never heard of an issue like that with a boat throttle before, I'd be interested to know what might have caused it.

The yard next to the New Inn was Southgates and was in the same group as Herbert Woods in the 80s and early 90s under the Pennant Holidays banner. Southgates finished in 1992 I think when Pennants finished. 

[Wyndham]

Great tale Bof.

Early in our hiring time we had something similar, ( nowhere near as bad though)

But you (we) still keep coming back.

Those dam hire yards can try to put us off but they won't win!!

[grendel]

sounds a bit like diesel runaway, where the oil leaks into the engine and the engine runs on the lubricating oil, you can be lucky to manage to stop the engine when this happens.

[tjg1677]

If it was a Perkins with the radial fuel pump, it was not uncommon for Them to run off and or so strange things.. Don't know the exact reason but it was something to do with a hydraulic governor built into the fuel injection pump. Apparently when they went wrong the most inexplicable things could happen and always ending in the engine refusing to start.

[NeilB]

Probably not a "runaway" diesel, as Grendel said this is caused by oil leaking past the rings and pulling the lever will not stop it.  This only stops the diesel but as the engine is now running on oil if makes no difference.  You'd need something quite strong to block the air intake, my colleague used the sole of his shoe when it happened to him.  It's actually quite dangerous as the engine could quite literally go bang!!

[Vaughan]

Trev is quite right about the Perkins, they do have a hydraulic governor and they can do some strange things. They will usually stop when you pull the handle. I also, have had to put my foot on the air intake a couple of times.

The worst thing I ever saw of this nature was when a boat got hung up in a lock and the cooker fell over, as it was not fixed down. It pulled the gas pipe off the bulkhead and when the hirer moored up outside the lock he couldn't stop the engine. This was because it was still running on the mixture of gas and air that was pouring into the bilges.

Luckily the lock-keeper was also a mechanic, so he got the people off right quick and turned off the gas bottles. The engine was then allowed to run until it literally ran out of gas. A 2 litre diesel is, after all, the best fume extractor in the boat.

 

[BoF]

9 hours ago, NeilB said:

Probably not a "runaway" diesel, as Grendel said this is caused by oil leaking past the rings and pulling the lever will not stop it.  This only stops the diesel but as the engine is now running on oil if makes no difference.  You'd need something quite strong to block the air intake, my colleague used the sole of his shoe when it happened to him.  It's actually quite dangerous as the engine could quite literally go bang!!

I'm glad I didn't know that at the time, that would have been another laxative!