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Wild moorings - Boat problems, Breakdowns etc


Siddy

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Along side the wild mooring topic, What has happened to you whilst using a wild mooring were you can't get help.

 

 

Whilst under the "big tree" Horning with no mobile signal or tv signal it's now dusk and next thing Kaz says the toilet level to open the pot has broke inside, Oh cr&p can't get a eng till I get to pub in the morning.

 

Any others tales to tell?

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Good question, have never even given it a thought, although we have had no problems wild mooring that's not to say we might not in the future.

 

If wild mooring on a hire boat and you have a medical emergency during the night, with no mobile signal what would you do?

 

I suppose if it's not medical and fairly minor you would just sit and wait and hope someone cruises past and shout for help, be interesting to read others views on this.

 

Grace

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Not wild mooring, but being moored at Salhouse Broad many years ago, thankfully moored up and not mud weighted.  The batteries were very low and the bridging switch would not even start the engine.

 

Glenn who managed the syndicate in the early days pulled a battery on a sack barrow all the way from Salhouse down the narrow path down to the Broad. It turned out that in the service schedule that maintenance had not been done on the three batteries. I ended up putting over 3 litres of distilled water into the cells when we got back to the marina.

 

My boat kit for several years included a battery jumper.

 

Regards

Alan 

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I remember many years ago ... was going up the ant and the engine cut out, thankfully it was a hire boat and I managed to drift into one of the wild moorings up there, it was a nasty sunny day, perfect fishing, just been shopping so the fridge was full... Oh and then someone from alpha craft came out with a tug boat from ludham bridge and fixed it...But we could have stayed there for a few days easily! Thankfully we also had mobile phone signal (back in the day before 3g!)...

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Good question, have never even given it a thought, although we have had no problems wild mooring that's not to say we might not in the future.

 

If wild mooring on a hire boat and you have a medical emergency during the night, with no mobile signal what would you do?

 

I suppose if it's not medical and fairly minor you would just sit and wait and hope someone cruises past and shout for help, be interesting to read others views on this.

 

Grace

I have to say, Grace, in my past life, as an airline pilot, that in the event of a medical emergency the rule book was usually torn up.

 

So I personally, with great care and all the cabin lights on, would motor to somewhere where I could get a signal or help.

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Yes, in a genuine emergency, the rules do rather go out of the window. Navigation Bye Law 88 expressly allows for this:

 

Bye law 88 (1) Every person contravening any of these Byelaws without reasonable excuse shall on summary conviction for every such breach be liable to pay a penalty not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
(2) In any proceedings for an offence under these Byelaws it shall be a defence for a person charged to prove:
(a) that he/she took all reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence to avoid the commission of such an offence;
( b ) or that he/she had a reasonable excuse for the act or failure to act.

 

The only problem I have had (so far) has been flat batteries (faulty wire on alternator) while moored at Womack Island. Fortunately, the other occupant of the moorings was kind enough to tow me to the staithe. I got a bus home and popped to Lathams to get a jumpstart pack, which is now an essential part of my boating kit.

 

Incidentally, I just discovered a little glitch. If you try to write ( b ) with no spaces between the parentheses and the letter, you get this ( B)

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Although its fair to think you can motor out (even with a hireboat) you should be prepared for not being to motor out (i.e if the skipper is taken ill).

 

Therefore the best advice (as offered by the RYA) is to ensure that you have a mobile phone (fully charged) and a VHF (which these days are rather cheap on ebay etc). I understand that the broads patrols listen on channel 14 24/7 (Please correct me if I'm wrong)  (alternatively a call to yarmouth coastguard on 16 will put you in touch with a doctor).   You are mento have training and licence to use a vhf (so not perfect for hireboats) for this but safety comes first and coastguard will turn a blind eye for.   

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Although its fair to think you can motor out (even with a hireboat) you should be prepared for not being to motor out (i.e if the skipper is taken ill).

 

Therefore the best advice (as offered by the RYA) is to ensure that you have a mobile phone (fully charged) and a VHF (which these days are rather cheap on ebay etc). I understand that the broads patrols listen on channel 14 24/7 (Please correct me if I'm wrong)  (alternatively a call to yarmouth coastguard on 16 will put you in touch with a doctor).   You are mento have training and licence to use a vhf (so not perfect for hireboats) for this but safety comes first and coastguard will turn a blind eye for.   

Well that's all very well for the RYA to advise that and near the coast it's probably valid. We do have a handheld VHFand a ship's licence and an operator licence. However, it's range is pretty limited and I can sometimes get Oulton Broad Yacht Station from the mouth of Oulton Broad; but no further. (About a mile, Grace). Yes sometimes, over flat countryside it will work a lot further, but VHF is  line-of-sight. That, together with the very limited coverage of a mobile, rather negates the advice.

 

I very much doubt that the Broads Patrols are manned other than in their working hours and I have tried several times to call them without success when a speeding boat rocks my sedate passage.

 

I can envisage the utter chaos that a group of happy chappies could cause on Ch16 if everyone followed the advice to carry an unlicensed VHF....

 

These are only my personal thoughts and I'm sorry to sound so negative but, really, nearly everyone can drive a boat if they have to.

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Yes the leaves from the tree, I'm the one the following morning pointing into the wind to dry them to get them to blow off, Oh don't forget the sap after rain.

 

Medical with no signal, I always tie back to the boat so you don't have to get off in the dark. Night crusing I've done years of it but Kaz never but she always ask which way to go if anything goes wrong but that Kaz always planning . She also knows on the Free Mooring signs there also a location ref on them beside the name.

 

 

Note to self - show her how to free mud weight and leave it behind, get her to start the engine more instead of me,

Anymore tips

 

 

Anymore hiccups.

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