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Enter a key word to search for posts:A boat in distress
Posted on: Monday October 21, 2019 at: 2:43 pm
We are currently moored at the lovely location of Tixall Wide. So called, I guess, because it is near a place called Tixall, and it is, well, wide!
Tixall Wide
However, this post is about an incident that happened yesterday. We moored up, over the weekend, at Weston. I chose the spot because we could get a good satellite signal to watch the Rugby World Cup quarter finals – although in some respects, I wish I hadn’t after the Ireland match on Saturday (huh!)
We were about 3/4 of the way through the Japan – South Africa match, and the result was becoming a foregone conclusion, when I heard a very loud and hard revving from a small hire boat that had just passed us. Looking out the window I saw this boat coming backwards towards us and the lady at the helm was shouting “help, I can’t stop”.
Fortunately it was a light boat and although it hit us full on, it wasn’t hard enough to do any damage. We quickly went to the bow of Brandy Pad, which was where the boat was now heading, and Helen grabbed their stern line, which we tied to our cleat and then I grabbed their bow line to tie to our hand rail. Then I asked them to switch off their engine, as it was still powering in reverse.
Needless to say the couple onboard were rather flustered and shaken by what had happened, but we calmed them down, before investigating the problem.
Lifting the floor boards to look into the engine compartment, it quickly became apparent what had happened. The Morse control, which is the lever that controls the gearbox and the engine, is a very simple device. You push it forwards, to go forwards, and pull it backwards to go in reverse. It has two cables that come from it – one to control the engine speed, and one that puts the gearbox in forwards, reverse or neutral. Their problem was one that happens to boats from time to time. The cable that controlled the gearbox had come partly adrift (they sometimes snap), and having put the boat in reverse immediately before this happened, it was no longer capable of controlling the gearbox. Hence whatever she did with the control lever, the boat was going to continue going backwards, only potentially faster.
This is why we carry a spare control cable, along with alternator drive belts and other spares. Once it happens to you, all you can do is stop the engine and hope you are not in a dangerous position at the time. Then you pole the boat to the bank.
In this case, the passengers called the emergency number the hire company had given them and someone soon turned up to repair the cable. We went for a Geocaching walk, and they had gone when we returned a couple of hours later.
Never a dull moment!
Happened to one of our co-owners on Copperkins a few years ago going into a lock. Cable snapped as they moved the lever to reverse to stop in the lock, leaving the engine in forward gear and meaning that moving the lever back just accelerated them forward into the bottom gates. Fortunately no serious damage as they weren’t going too fast to start with.
Any coots on the wide?
Haven’t seen any yet – just a few fish jumping!