Andy135 Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 Thought I'd share a boating fail for you all to point and laugh at. @Tadpole and I were heading back from St Cats one afternoon when all of a sudden the engine revs drop and it splutters off. In the ensuing silence, Tadpole and I look at each other with a sense of impending alarm. Before breaking out our swimwear I check the basics, starting with the vent on the fuel tank. Nope, it's wide open, so clearly not the problem, but I happen to notice that the fuel line connector seems to look a bit different, and I find that it's not fully pushed home! What a donkey! I must have failed to click it into place properly when changing the tanks over and it's not actually been sucking any fuel - we must have used up the fuel in the filter bowl and lines before conking out. Upon connecting it properly the engine spins into life and we heave a huge sigh of relief. Call of shame to Sea Start avoided, we make our way home without further incident, other than a bruised ego and a lesson learned. I'm sure the Outlaws must have some good stories to share, so let's hear them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 I nearly forgot to take a spare woolly hat once, but I remembered it as I was leaving the house so emergency avoided that time. Scary moment though. Shows me just how close to the edge I live. JDP, Saintly Fish and Scotch_Egg2012 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted November 10, 2020 Author Share Posted November 10, 2020 1 hour ago, JonC said: I nearly forgot to take a spare woolly hat once, but I remembered it as I was leaving the house so emergency avoided that time. Scary moment though. Shows me just how close to the edge I live. Okaaaay, not really what I had in mind but thanks for sharing nonetheless... 🤣 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 I used to keep my first boat on a trailer on the drive. My drive is a 30deg slope. Back then before I converted the garage I used to have a 12v lorry winch bolted to the floor with a remote control so I could winch the boat up and down the drive to get it hitched up. Always did this with assistance. One day I fancied a trip out on my own, so lowered the boat down to the road (I live in a crescent so it’s quiet), I put a choc under only one wheel thinking I’d done both 🤷🏻♂️, anyway I released the winch cable and the jockey wheel moved and the whole boat span 180. It started to roll down the hill heading toward the lounge of the house opposite the end of my road. Luckily to make space I’d moved my car onto the pavement , I just managed to make it to the front of the trailer and divert it to the left where it promptly buried itself into the rear bumper of my Audi . Soon after I gave up trailering and got a pontoon berth! captin slows old outlaw, Andy135 and jonnyswamp 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzook12 Posted November 10, 2020 Share Posted November 10, 2020 Well, few years back now, went out with a work colleague and his Dad and a mate of mine and 2 others. The boat was a quite old looking wooden boat. Alarm bells should have rang when had to take the battery off my van to get the boat started.... Anyway, we headed out of Thornham into the wash after tope and general fishing. The day was fairly uneventful, apart from the hand pump failing after the electric bilge failed and we resorted to bailng the bilge with pots n pans to get the water below starter motor level....... Thornham is one of those places where yo have around a 2 hour tide window so you are effectively out for around 12 hours. We were on our way back in an the "skipper" asks us to keep an eye on the channel marker bouys, once they were floating we could go back in....... Needless to say, we ended up on top of the sand bar. Fortunately we had boat hooks on board so 3 of us were pushing the boat back every time a wave lifted us. Anyway, we got off and the rest as they say is history.... What neither me or my mate realised at the time, was exactly how much danger we were in...... Luckily the boat rolled away from the incoming tide and swell, so we were on the dry side so to speak otherwise we would have been breached and undoubtedly sunk. The day ended with the traditional 10-12 pints of Newcastles finest and oblivious to how close we had been to an RNLI call Andy135 and Scotch_Egg2012 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted November 10, 2020 Author Share Posted November 10, 2020 2 hours ago, Saintly Fish said: I used to keep my first boat on a trailer on the drive. My drive is a 30deg slope. Back then before I converted the garage I used to have a 12v lorry winch bolted to the floor with a remote control so I could winch the boat up and down the drive to get it hitched up. Always did this with assistance. One day I fancied a trip out on my own, so lowered the boat down to the road (I live in a crescent so it’s quiet), I put a choc under only one wheel thinking I’d done both 🤷🏻♂️, anyway I released the winch cable and the jockey wheel moved and the whole boat span 180. It started to roll down the hill heading toward the lounge of the house opposite the end of my road. Luckily to make space I’d moved my car onto the pavement , I just managed to make it to the front of the trailer and divert it to the left where it promptly buried itself into the rear bumper of my Audi . Soon after I gave up trailering and got a pontoon berth! Ouch!!!! 😱😭 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted November 10, 2020 Author Share Posted November 10, 2020 9 minutes ago, suzook12 said: Well, few years back now, went out with a work colleague and his Dad and a mate of mine and 2 others. The boat was a quite old looking wooden boat. Alarm bells should have rang when had to take the battery off my van to get the boat started.... Anyway, we headed out of Thornham into the wash after tope and general fishing. The day was fairly uneventful, apart from the hand pump failing after the electric bilge failed and we resorted to bailng the bilge with pots n pans to get the water below starter motor level....... Thornham is one of those places where yo have around a 2 hour tide window so you are effectively out for around 12 hours. We were on our way back in an the "skipper" asks us to keep an eye on the channel marker bouys, once they were floating we could go back in....... Needless to say, we ended up on top of the sand bar. Fortunately we had boat hooks on board so 3 of us were pushing the boat back every time a wave lifted us. Anyway, we got off and the rest as they say is history.... What neither me or my mate realised at the time, was exactly how much danger we were in...... Luckily the boat rolled away from the incoming tide and swell, so we were on the dry side so to speak otherwise we would have been breached and undoubtedly sunk. The day ended with the traditional 10-12 pints of Newcastles finest and oblivious to how close we had been to an RNLI call Wow! A few close calls there 😬 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotch_Egg2012 Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 (edited) Nothing too serious for me but a freak one none the less. Travelling back from Medmerry with my old 100hp and as we passed the entrance to Chichester Harbour it was quite lumpy due to a strong ebbing tide. Right in the middle of the chop without warning the engine revs shot up and we lost speed. We hadn't struck anything so was at a complete loss as it felt like the prop was slipping. The wash from the engine also didn't look right, crept out of the chop and cut the engine. Tilted the engine up to find a cuttlefish bone wedged into the cavitation plate. Knocked it off with the boat hook dropped engine back down and got back on our way with the engine behaving normally again. What are the chances of striking an object like that as just the right angle for it to wedge. Also shows how crucial the cavitation plate is. Edited November 11, 2020 by Scotch_Egg2012 JonC, Saintly Fish and Andy135 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 I was out in the river in some fairly rough water, I was in a 16’ open cathedral hull dory. We were jumping out the water each wave with water coming over the top. The boat had two parallel jockey seats, each with a small screen mounted on a console. For some unknown reason my mate Ross stood up at the top of a wave and then did a back flip out of the back of the boat. I didn’t notice immediately, a few seconds later though when I realised I span around and picked him up. Fortunately he was totally unharmed, the water was relatively warm and it was no big drama. He was wearing a bump jacket, but had one of those dopey yellow hivis site coats that weighed a hell of a lot wet. Had he been injured executing his backflip it would have been a different story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 1 minute ago, JonC said: I was out in the river in some fairly rough water, I was in a 16’ open cathedral hull dory. We were jumping out the water each wave with water coming over the top. The boat had two parallel jockey seats, each with a small screen mounted on a console. For some unknown reason my mate Ross stood up at the top of a wave and then did a back flip out of the back of the boat. I didn’t notice immediately, a few seconds later though when I realised I span around and picked him up. Fortunately he was totally unharmed, the water was relatively warm and it was no big drama. He was wearing a bump jacket, but had one of those dopey yellow hivis site coats that weighed a hell of a lot wet. Had he been injured executing his backflip it would have been a different story. And if it had been you back flipping out the boat he’d never get you back in! Andy135 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted November 11, 2020 Author Share Posted November 11, 2020 1 minute ago, Saintly Fish said: And if it had been you back flipping out the boat he’d never get you back in! If it had been Jon, he'd never have pulled off the back flip... Saintly Fish 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 I’m glad you pair of benders found this amusing, but safety at sea is no joke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted November 11, 2020 Author Share Posted November 11, 2020 2 minutes ago, JonC said: I’m glad you pair of benders found this amusing, but safety at sea is no joke. We're not saying it is. We're simply amusing ourselves with an alternative "what if" scenario 🤣 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 (edited) Once I headed into the locks at Cardiff on one of the first trips on Odyssey. It was a windy day abs she catches the wind a lot.... so I thought I’d use my bow thruster to make it easy and glide up to the pontoon to push the boat against the wind (I was about 5ft from the pontoon). Only issue was some numpty who had been rewiring the boat had put the bow thruster switch in upside down so whereas I wanted to go towards starboard. I was now heading to port..... it was very graceful glide across the entire side of the lock.... All worked out ok and I mmmm sure it looked like it was intended 🤣🤣🤣 Edited November 12, 2020 by Odyssey suzook12, Saintly Fish and Andy135 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 Another one was taking a crew mate out.... “Tie this rope around the cleat to hold us fast in the lock” I was on other side of boat sorting out lines as another boat was going to raft up. I was told all was done.... but we were still moving.... Deckhand didn’t realise you had to put the rope on the cleat of the pontoon in the lock, not just on the boat..... 🤔🤔🤔🤔 Quick sprint accross the deck to tie the dockline to the cleat on pontoon and disaster averted..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 1 minute ago, Odyssey said: Another one was taking a crew mate out.... “Tie this rope around the cleat to hold us fast in the lock” I was on other side of boat sorting out lines as another boat was going to raft up. I was told all was done.... but we were still moving.... Deckhand didn’t realise you had to put the rope on the cleat of the pontoon in the lock, not just on the boat..... 🤔🤔🤔🤔 Quick sprint accross the deck to tie the dockline to the cleat on pontoon and disaster averted..... Doh! Speaking of locks, I wonder if @headlight would care to share the story of the stuck lock pontoon 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headlight Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 I took Andy out of Cardiff on my boat to get him a Cod, as apparently there are none in England. I tied up in the lock and waited while the water was dropped. I then hear some worrying creaking sounds and the boat starts to list alarmingly to port. Next thing I know my boat is dangling in mid air. The water had dropped but the pontoon had jammed and hadn"t gone down with the water. Luckily after a few seconds of dangling the pontoon did drop. Andy135 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 1 minute ago, headlight said: I took Andy out of Cardiff on my boat to get him a Cod, as apparently there are none in England. It's true, there are no cod in England. @Josh caught the last one... 🤣 Josh 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headlight Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 Didn"t you (we) catch the Cod on the English side of the Bristol Channel iirc ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 5 minutes ago, headlight said: Didn"t you (we) catch the Cod on the English side of the Bristol Channel iirc ? I didn't like to mention that. Cue gags about the Welsh nicking "our" cod... 🤣 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headlight Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 As soon as we get some settled weather I will be targeting "mud pigs" now that I am allowed to access my boat for the first time in 5 weeks. First trip will be targeting "mud pigs", Bass and possibly Spurs. What have our seasons come to 😂 Andy135 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 I may chase some mackerel in the haven. Cod are so last decade 🤣 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 Best fail I saw was again in Cardiff.... It was a busy lock and large cruiser was trying to lock in. The crew were a larger, older couple.... all going well but coming in way too fast. So he slams boat into reverse, whist standing in the door to the cabin so he now starts going backwards. Somehow, he managed to inflate his life jacket, which then wedged him in the door unable to move.... he’s now barking instructions to his wife who was trying to push him through the door. So he is now going backwards slowly towards lock gates that are starting to close..... he moves through the gap out into the outer harbour. Most of the boats are weak with laugher at this. He is then on radio to lock control asking to come back in, they are very definite saying no and advising him not to reverse out of a lock he wanted to be in. He then wanted someone to help deflate his life jacket so that he can move about his boat again.... Moral of the story.... be careful using your life jacket.... and learn how to control the speed of your boat 😉 Andy135 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 14 minutes ago, Odyssey said: Best fail I saw was again in Cardiff.... It was a busy lock and large cruiser was trying to lock in. The crew were a larger, older couple.... all going well but coming in way too fast. So he slams boat into reverse, whist standing in the door to the cabin so he now starts going backwards. Somehow, he managed to inflate his life jacket, which then wedged him in the door unable to move.... he’s now barking instructions to his wife who was trying to push him through the door. So he is now going backwards slowly towards lock gates that are starting to close..... he moves through the gap out into the outer harbour. Most of the boats are weak with laugher at this. He is then on radio to lock control asking to come back in, they are very definite saying no and advising him not to reverse out of a lock he wanted to be in. He then wanted someone to help deflate his life jacket so that he can move about his boat again.... Moral of the story.... be careful using your life jacket.... and learn how to control the speed of your boat 😉 Ferry captains eh? Who'd have 'em!?!? 🤣 Saintly Fish 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 I did have to park a sail boat in Milford locks this summer.... They were taking so long to get alongside the lockmasfer asked me to raft up and move them in.... My mate Rob on his cat did another one at same time. Was quite entertaining to see these 2 posh types having a side along tow next to a shark boat🤣🤣🤣 Geoff 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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