10 am this morning we were on the boat as asked so they could move us to allow the open 50 'Wolfies Toy' moored inside us to get to the start. Seemed simple enough?
The wind was about 25 kts & pushing us on to Wofies Toy so a good brief was required to make sure the crew assisting us (ie towing us off in a rib) knew what to do. It went very well indeed. Thanks to the help of some guys ashore we got the boat into the middle of the marina without incident. That was until the rib decided to let go of the one that they were towing us with without asking first! We had lines in the water so weren't ready. As they let us go 25 kts of wind from behind drove us at 4 kts towards the jetty. Dad did the only thing he could in an effort to stop us hitting the jetty and put the engine in reverse as we were going to hit the jetty and only 'may' end up with a line around the prop. As he added power to stop us hitting the jetty we heard a bang and the engine stopped. We hit the jetty head on at 4 kts and have broken the bowsprit and thought we had wrecked the engine. I dived on the boat and unwrapped the prop. To our relief no real damage.
Next job get the bowsprit back together, get the mainsail back on and try and to get some rest before the start. What a pain in the arse! On a plus side, all of the thousands of jelly fish in the marina managed to miss me (no stings) and they are also very pretty! There are a hell a lot of jellyfish......
bloody hell!...this is more tense than following the football!
ReplyDeleteYour latest incident vividly desrcibed Sam; I imagine you two could see what was about to happen (unlike the "helpful" Rib crew) but not far enough ahead to avoid it. Good recovery though; probably had yer hearts beating faster for a while. At least the jellies didn't fancy a closer look or embrace; can be very painful.
ReplyDeleteKeep the blog going, thinks severl ppl are reading it daily. Good speed on the next bit.
Nick M
I read with dismay the above account of an incident in Lerwick harbour while the yacht was being moved. As the crew of the RIB involved, we refute the allegation that the cause of incident was the RIB crew letting go of the tow rope.
ReplyDeleteThe yacht was in reverse gear all along with many helpers holding bow and stern lines, and the rib pulling the yacht off into the open basin. All was going well until suddenly the yacht engine stopped pulling astern and the RIB had no option but to release as we could no longer hold the yacht against the windage at the time.
After the prop was cleared, the father stated that it was a loose spinnaker sheet which had gone over the side into the prop. This happened before the RIB crew released the tow line, a fact acknowledged by the father at the time in his apology for falsely thinking we were the cause.
I also that that no mention is made of the RIB crew then assisting the father in arranging repairs to the bow sprit in very quick time to allow a full repair to be carried out in under two hours from the incident.
After spending a very cold and wet 5 hours on Saturday morning / afternoon, we are extremely disapointed that we being blamed for an incident which was not caused by us, and after which we offered assistance.
On the assumption that this blog is being written by the son, can i ask that he speaks to his father, and either withdraws the above blog or issue an apology to the volunteer RIB crew.