WHat a day - but I guess we've learnt something!!

[Channel Ribs]

Crikey KY!

What a day, I am only just catching up.

I think it has already been clarified, but Frank is on M1 aka 37. The safety boat was I guess from Hayling Island Sailing Club, we used to supply all their radios and they used to use Horizons where the channel is indeed shown as n1. They have since changed suppliers and I do not know what they are using, but I have put a call in to their marine dept to clarify.

As has already been suggested, do not be afraid to call the CG on 16 - they will decide what action if any to take.

Chichester entrance can be very scary, I know exactly what you mean about that and I think you did really well to cope with that.

Another lesson that might come out of this is - be familiar with your radio, use it at every opportunity and also get a list of all the useful channels in the whole area: sailing clubs, marina, port ops etc etc. Also listen in on routine radio traffic so that you get a feel for what is going on.

I should also say that when there is a RIB.net meet going on it might be an idea to agree a working channel, had KY been able to call the rest of the group up and describe there engine probs I suspect someone would have gone out to accompany them?

All that aside, a bad day on the water is better than a good day indoors. Live and learn, in that order.

Edit: Re radio chanels, it might be worth making up and laminating a local version of a table like this:
http://www.alderneymarine.com/info/frequencies.html

[Jizm]

Originally Posted by malthouse

I should also say that when there is a RIB.net meet going on it might be an idea to agree a working channel, had KY been able to call the rest of the group up and describe there engine probs I suspect someone would have gone out to accompany them?

Good Idea

[Jizm]

Jean, if ther is a proper fault with your engine a service is unlikely to sort it, if unsure then just ask and I'm sure some one on here will assist if required.

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Jizm

Jean, if ther is a proper fault with your engine a service is unlikely to sort it, if unsure then just ask and I'm sure some one on here will assist if required.

I think if it were me and my engine had just let me down like this I would want the reassurance of a "professional" looking at it. I know that is probably a little misplaced - but I wouldn't want to be crossing chichester bar crossing my fingers that my DIY efforts had sorted everything. I know professionals make mistakes, I know there are advantages to learning to fix things yourself etc... but what's needed here is confidence in the engine again. Your right, strictly speaking a service is not what is required - but a credible engineer will do whats necessary if the circumstances are explained.

Originally Posted by Willk

The thing that you worried about most over the last week or so was your own ability to cope with the trip, and oddly that was the thing that got you home safely. Aside from a final tow into the slip, you coped alone with a deterioriating situation and were calm enough to be too polite to squawk on 16 for help.

Thats one way of looking at it. I guess you could also argue - wasn't calm/experienced enough to see the potential problems unfolding and continued to press on without keeping the CG informed. That's not really a criticism of KY it was a day not entirely dissimilar to KY's (series of minor cock ups / failures culminating in a tow home) that justified my migration from cruising dinghies to "RIBs". KY can learn from her mistakes and so can everyone else. I think your right about mission focus though - and I think that becomes amplified when there are "group" as well as "personal" objectives. Which brings me to:

Originally Posted by malthouse

All that aside, a bad day on the water is better than a good day indoors.

- not always! What's the phrase "better to be ashore wishing you were out on the water than out there wishing you were ashore".

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by Polwart

"better to be ashore wishing you were out on the water than out there wishing you were ashore".

But no matter how much I am keen to get back to the harbour, I always end up yearning to be back out again as soon as I step ashore. Maybe I am wired wrong.

[willk]

Originally Posted by Polwart

I guess you could also argue - wasn't calm/experienced enough to see the potential problems unfolding

I could, but I was experimenting with being nice. I'm not sure that it's really me...

[Poly]

Originally Posted by willk

I could, but I was experimenting with being nice. I'm not sure that it's really me...

It threw me. I was starting to think someone had hacked your account!

[Knot Yet]

You lot are awful

Will that was a great attempt at being nice and much appreciated - it gave the confidence a quick boost which was sorely needed believe me!! But I promise not to let everyone know you have a warm cuddly streak

I don't think we panicked at any point - if we had we would have radioed the CG - however as Polwart has said our lack of experience prevented us from seeing the potential bigger issue until too late and we were committed to the decision we'd made.

Re the engine we will get it properly serviced - far point Jizm but I have a naive faith in paid experts, probably completely misguided - however Darren has found what we believe to be the issues:

Fuel tank number one was suffering from a corroded gromit so only a small amount of fuel was being sucked through to the filter and then the engine - hence why it slowly died and then picked up again once the hand primer was pumped.

Fuel tank number two - had the pick up pipe fall off (well it was a bit rough in places) so no amount of pumping, swearing or praying would get the fuel through to the engine.

Sods law that the should both develop a fault - one of the pitfalls of buying second hand with the boat - no knowledge of age or use and a good tip for anyone else investing in a second hand boat - check the internals of the fuel tanks

We shall be buying one larger fuel tank and getting the engine serviced - still not found the fault with the VHF - had the engine running and no charging issues.

Finally if there is any experienced RIBster that ever fancies showing me how one should enter a challenging harbour in interesting conditions would love to gain the experience - any ideas on how I could get more experience in bad weather would also be much appreciated

Thanks all

J

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by Knot Yet

...any ideas on how I could get more experience in bad weather would also be much appreciated.

Come to Alderney, there are two notorious stretches of water that can always be relied upon to present a few breaking waves and physics-defying eddies.

I am impressed that you want to know more about rough weather boating, instead of retreating to the fair weather.

Having spoken to the marine dept at HISC they are going to see if someone is using a rogue VHF set which is programmed with M1 showing as 32, I know they used to have some Icoms that were set up "a bit special".

[chewy]

Originally Posted by Knot Yet

But I promise not to let everyone know you have a warm brown streak

We shall be buying one larger fuel tank and getting the engine serviced - still not found the fault with the VHF - had the engine running and no charging issues.

I do a nice line in ex-mod Barrus tanks if you need a couple.....

[chris123]

Originally Posted by Knot Yet

still not found the fault with the VHF - had the engine running and no charging issues.

What model of VHF is it? The owners manual should detail what causes the error message you got. If as it implies it is indicating a high power supply voltage, there is not much it can be other than the regulator . I assume the error message is constantly displayed, not just when you are trying to transmit?

Were you running the engine on muffs at idle today, or were you able to rev the engine? Do you know what voltage you were getting when the engine was running? Did the VHF exhibit the fault again today?

The alternator voltage from the outboard will increase as the outboard revs increase, making the regulator work harder and get hotter. It could be that the regulator only starts to fail when it is working harder.

Cheers

Chris

[Hightower]

Originally Posted by Knot Yet

Finally if there is any experienced RIBster that ever fancies showing me how one should enter a challenging harbour in interesting conditions would love to gain the experience - any ideas on how I could get more experience in bad weather would also be much appreciated

Thanks all

J

I'm not sure that you would learn the nessesary skills in a Course as such, as it's sods law it'll be dead calm when you went out with an instructor. But I understand your thinking.

Building up slowly is the best experience you can get IMHO. Each boat differs in characteristic slightly and you either need a greater or lesser amount of skill to teach youself what you need to know to handle the equipement ie. learning what the trim does in a head sea or following sea. But in a safe environment ie. good weather and company.

The first thing I would be concentrating on right now would be reliability and safety drills like MOB, radio skills, what one would do in an emergancy etc.

Set yourself some little cruises, like a launch at Itchen Bridge or Hythe a cruise down the river/Southampton water and a stop at a pub like the Rising Sun at Warsash. Keep the distances traveled short at the begining and in the safety of confined waters and work yourself up to some larger cruises.

This way you'll get satisfaction of planning a cruise, doing safety exercises and having a succesful day out minimising the risk of having a bad day out.

Another little tip that I would suggest is to program as many useful telephone numbers into your phone. Solent coastgaurd, police non emergancy numbers, local sailing clubs, Sea Start etc etc etc , not forgetting all al important pub telephone numbers

[LURCHER]

Sounds like a day to remember , re Hayling Rescue/Frank Dunster he runs a private rescue /salvage sevice from Chi Harbour and can usually be found on or close to Hayling Island Sailing Club pontoon where he provides extra safety cover for our racing . You were probably helped by one of our club rescue boats initially . Frank is a bit of a legend in Chi harbour try Google there are a few references to him . Some say he has salt water instead of blood and GPS module inside his head , all we know is we call him The Sea Stig !
PM Sent

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by chris123

If as it implies it is indicating a high power supply voltage, there is not much it can be other than the regulator

Unless the battery became disconnected and the VHF was receiving all the juice from the engine.

[Knot Yet]

Originally Posted by chris123

What model of VHF is it? The owners manual should detail what causes the error message you got. If as it implies it is indicating a high power supply voltage, there is not much it can be other than the regulator . I assume the error message is constantly displayed, not just when you are trying to transmit?

Were you running the engine on muffs at idle today, or were you able to rev the engine? Do you know what voltage you were getting when the engine was running? Did the VHF exhibit the fault again today?

The alternator voltage from the outboard will increase as the outboard revs increase, making the regulator work harder and get hotter. It could be that the regulator only starts to fail when it is working harder.

Cheers

Chris

Thanks for the info Chris - we ran the engine with muffs on and only revved up a couple of times when testing the fuel issue/solution.

No idea on the voltage - I guess that's the next thing to look at - re it getting hot - that would make sense except it started playing up before we left Chichester Harbour - so had been pottering along at about 6knts no more - very strange - everything else seemed fine and behaved as expected

[chris123]

Originally Posted by malthouse

Unless the battery became disconnected and the VHF was receiving all the juice from the engine.

I assumed that as KY said the VHF was operational when the engine wasn't running the battery was still in circuit - though you are right, I assumed that was still the case after the trip and not just before the trip.

Cheers

Chris

[Knot Yet]

No everything else worked so the VHF was sharing the power supply at all times - and the rest of the gadgets and gizmo's all worked flawlessly

[chewy]

Originally Posted by Knot Yet

No everything else worked so the VHF was sharing the power supply at all times - and the rest of the gadgets and gizmo's all worked flawlessly

Do any of your instruments indicate voltage or have you checked the voltage?

[Knot Yet]

Chewy - don't know in answer to the first question and no to the second - I think that's the next step in trying to find the solution

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by Knot Yet

Chewy - don't know in answer to the first question and no to the second - I think that's the next step in trying to find the solution

If you have a Garmin most of them have the option of displaying voltage...