The Bad and the Good - just need the ugly!

[Baitrunner]

First the bad - after a disastrous start to the long weekend we had to abandon our trip Friday and limp home with an engine that had over-heated and a mega hydraulic fluid leak in the engine bay - and after it had just been cleaned to perfection!!

Then it good good as the problem as the engine was fine at low revs so useable (to be looked at another day) and the leak eased so we could at least use the boat if we were careful.

Got out with some friends and had a champion weekend (they were Geordies so I am still in character).

Then more bad news, moored on Rockland dyke just by the river end and a boat decided to try and reverse out past me. After a few goes with the young lad driving and almost wedging it across the dyke (this was over 50yds away this started so plenty of room), Dad takes over!!! Tide is running out of the broad at probably 3mph and the boat is now coming at us, the bow on the quay heading and boat at 45 degs to it. i'm thinking no problem we will give it a blip and go forward. No chance, he whacks the only part of the boat I dont have a fender on. After getting a fender in place as quick as I could I managed to stop him then scraping down the side while he decided maybe he should go forward and take the long route back to the river as he drove off!!!!

Fair play we all make mistakes - just so I don't get labelled as Mr perfect - but he just drove off without even checking the damage. Anyway we had the boat details so would follow up.

The good news. About 45 mins later the guy turns up puffing and panting having moored up at the Beauchamp and walked back to us. Apologised for hitting the boat, exchanged details, took some pictures and when we called the boat yard on Monday he had already reported it in and they said just get it fixed. So there are some people who have a conscience and are decent out there after all. Mind you he did think we were a hire boat as well when he said we could just let the boatyards deal with it!! Maybe he meant us with his boatyard

We are hoping it is very superficial, but until I can have a good look without it peeing with rain cant be certain. One saving grace I think was being on a ground anchor which the stern one was ripped out of the earth. If we had been on a post might have had different consequences. And that's why I always have 3 ground anchors out, as well as the anchor or mud weight.

Still no one was hurt and we still had a champion pet weekend despite the Bank Holiday weather doing it's worst..

Must get more fenders

[Hockham Admiral]

Well, Mark, not a lot more could go wrong over a weekend, could it?

How refreshing to hear such a story about the other guy. It makes you have faith in the honesty of other peeps!         

[Baitrunner]

Absolutely and why I wanted to post it. Just because you make a mistake doesn't mean you have to be a numpty. 

And the boat yard have so far been good as well, but they may be used to this stuff. 

 

[keifsmate]

The bad and the good - just need the ugly! Some might say that would be me! I would have to disagree!

[JawsOrca]

Sorry to hear Mark.. Good news he came back though.. Fingers crossed it's all an easy fix.

[dnks34]

The thing that worsens many of these collisions is inapropriate use of the throttle.

If people just stopped trying to get themselves out of the sh1te with overuse of horse power then life would be much less stressful.  

Unless you know what your doing it seldom works and even for those who do know it still fails a lot of the time. 

Unless its obvious the throttle will help the situation, please leave it alone and just let nature take its course.  PLEASE!

 

[Baitrunner]

That's what he did dnks34. Apparently no throttle so the tide did the rest for him. I think in this situation trying A bit of forward throttle with the wheel hard round would have helped!

i would suggest gentle blips of the throttle rather than none might be better. As long as it's in the right direction of course!!!

of course each situation is different. 

[dnks34]

Its when the forward throttle and full rudder swings the stern round so fast the only outcome is the cracking and crunching sounds that I start to cringe!  

You are right, each situation is different and it was good of him to walk back to you. 

 

 

[Baitrunner]

Ah yes the infamous sideswipe. Seen a few of those and yes they are not nice. 

 

[oceandawn]

How true about the overuse of the throttle. We were moored at Stokesby, no one else there when a Richardsons boat attempts to moor next to us. Why he didn't use the the rest of the moorings is difficult to fathom. However, he was coming in so fast that we got on deck expecting the worse. For some reason somebody shouted to the helmsman to reverse  which he did at alarming speed. Crunch! Thankfully we managed to fend him off but did some damage to his rubber fender strips. If only he had slowed down he would have got in fine , Some people think that they drive like cars and that the only way to get out of a spot is to give it some welly! May be the yards should tell them Slowly does it.

[HemsbyPie]

When training one of the hardest things is to get people used to is the fact that they don't need to whack the power on for close manoeuvres... I always start by explaining that it's quicker to carry out a manoeuvre slowly once than at full speed 5 times (because you've overshot the mooring the previous 4)