How to stop this happening?

[Louise]

Bruce - doesn't look like a Scorpion to your left! (Not wanting Scorpion owners to get a bad name! )

Also, I think I would have tied up alongside the main pontoon rather than rafting as, whenever you raft, you are leaving yourself at the mercy of the boat you are rafted to if s/he leaves before you do! It probably would have been possible to motor in, put someone ashore and then use ropes to pull Farfetched round to lie alongside the main pontoon. At least then there is less likelihood of someone messing with your ropes!

Blue Ice has several thicknesses of hypalon around the area that the tube fixes to the nose so that would seem to be the way to go!

HTH!

[Louise]

If I were you I'd get it sorted sooner rather than later. I hope it doesn't happen to you again, but if it does, it could wear through the fabric completely next time!

[brucehawsker]

Louise, we moored where the marshall told us to on arrival.

It was a Scorpion I think - look at this picture. Am I wrong?

Also posted a couple of close ups of damage for expert advice.

Thanks

Bruce

[Louise]

Richard reckons it's a Cobra. Definitely not a Scorp!

We've made the mistake of doing what 'the official' told us to do before now and wouldn't have any qualms about challenging him/her if we thought they were not giving us the best advice!

[brucehawsker]

Any suggestions who he / she might be?

Seriously, we won't do what we are told EVER again!!!

Also, could there be more than one yellow henshaw hypalon colour?

[Louise]

Sorry - don't know who it could be.

One of the tube guys will know about the tube colour but this suggests Henshaws supply only one yellow hypalon.

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by paul tilley

we normally have a minimum of 2 thicknesses of fabric in the bows sometimes as many as 5 thicknesses and then overlay this with vertical strips of flat rubbing strake . we also wrap a layer of fabric around the edge of the flange before fitting the tubes the also helps to take some of the hardness out of the edge

I'd certainly go with that. I also have flat rubbing strake protecting the flange right back to about 1.5mtrs. The hull edge on your boat is very pronounced and, therefore, particularly vulnerable.

[brucehawsker]

Please can people post pictures of what they have done - if they have them - to protect this area of their rib. I find the word descriptions a bit hard to follow. Thanks

[jwalker]

Bruce, I apologise for being a bit heavy on you but you wind me up, so.

Anyway, night, night to you.

[brucehawsker]

Apology accepted but not really necessary! Thank you for your help.

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by brucehawsker

How do I avoid this in the future?

By not owning a boat!

Couple of layers of hypalon under the nose and should look good as new - I reckon it should be a quick and cheap repair.

Always expect the worse when leaving a boat on a mooring... at the seaside, kids or their parents often think it's a good idea to tighten mooring lines so they can conveniently get on and off boats to go "crabbing".... then not slacken them at departure. This can result in huge amounts of damage, even the sinking of some unfortunate craft.

The damage you've suffered isn't serious or expensive, but annoying, and avoidable all the same. It won't be the last piece of damage for as long as you continue to use your boat - sorry!

Will speak to you later.

[Scary Des]

Originally Posted by brucehawsker

.....In fact, he advised that it was in his expereince neither necessary or appropriate. Sadly I accepted his advice, as there were other more pressing issues .....

Bruce, Don’t you think that there might be a level of culpability on the part of the manufacture if he had listened to you maybe the damage would be less Des

[brucehawsker]

Don't really want to criticise Lee and Kevin at Solent.

Truth is that boat was in final stages of built when jwalker saw the pictures (in fact first time I had seen the boat). Communication between builder and me had not been perfect - build occurred late Jul to end Sep with my Dad dying mid August - and when I visited the hangar a number of major issues were wrong - including the location of the throttle which meant a new top of the console, and wrong back rests. There was thus a lot of discussion that afternoon involving specifying some major changes. These were, to be fair, specifications I had placed in writing in June, but some of them had not travelled safely from the Solent office to the hangar!

Lee and Kevin were totally helpful, and admitted the mistakes, and the changes were made promptly within the quote.

Moral - visit builder regularly during build - mis communications / lost communication DO occur.

Thus there were major changes being made to the boat, and when I called the following day to suggest further changes to the strake and fairlead assembly, it was probably human nature for Lee to groan, look at his build schedule, and seek the lowest time delay solution - "leave the assembly as it is and suggest that jwalker was being overly concerned". Like a twat, I agreed in the interest of getting the boat before the end of September.

Moral - have courage in your convictions and in the advice of experts, and do not let yourself be influenced by well meaning but commercially inevitably expedient boat builders.

Remember, I was a real beginner at the time (still am )

Both Farfetched and Tombuoy - both Soent Ribs - were damaged on Saturday at the same time and for the same reason. Other Solent owners please take note.

Dave / Harry - what are you going to do about repair - and about protection in the future?

[brucehawsker]

Originally Posted by Richard B

Always expect the worse when leaving a boat on a mooring... ...often think it's a good idea to tighten mooring lines so they can conveniently get on and off boats ....then not slacken them at departure. This can result in huge amounts of damage, even the sinking of some unfortunate craft.

Don't understand this. Are you saying that you should leave lines slack at all times? Clearly you must if you are mooring onto a wall and tide is going out

But if on a pontoon - surely tight lines REDUCE the risk of rubbing? Better I agree to use a third line to keep the nose (or engine depending upon wind / tide /wash) out of trouble.

[Louise]

You're right Bruce - Richard was just thinking of the 'wall scenario'. He says, as a general rule, use tight springs and slack warps.

BTW, if all this is wrong, it's Richard's fault - he's dictating this to me!

[Scary Des]

Bruce you are being too nice if they advised you, in their professional capacity, that such and such was unnecessary, it is right that you took their advice, but when it turns out that they were wrong they should be held responsible.
I’m not out to get Solent ribs but i do believe that ‘professionals’ in any line of work should be held accountable for their advice Des

[Charles]

That damage was probably caused by the bow section bumping on the pontoon and not another rib. Quite a few ribs suffered similar damage as they neglected to leave a decent gap between the bow and pontoon. I did warn a few people who took my advice. You would probably find that the area of damage most likely lines up perfectly with the height of the pontoon.
Sorry, skippers fault.

[brucehawsker]

Originally Posted by Louise

He says, as a general rule, use tight springs and slack warps.

OK - but what is a warp and what is a spring in this context?

[Scary Des]

Originally Posted by ct01

That damage was probably caused by the bow section bumping on the pontoon and not another rib. Quite a few ribs suffered similar damage as they neglected to leave a decent gap between the bow and pontoon. I did warn a few people who took my advice. You would probably find that the area of damage most likely lines up perfectly with the height of the pontoon.
Sorry, skippers fault.

No, you are missing the point JW advised Bruce that he needed more protection in this area and Solent Ribs said he didn’t therefore Solent have some responsibility Des

[Louise]

Originally Posted by brucehawsker

OK - but what is a warp and what is a spring in this context?

It's difficult to explain! Hope this helps: http://www.gallionspointmarina.co.uk/hintsandtips.html The warps are labelled 'bow line' and 'stern line' in the diagram.