Had to go to the rescue of an Emerald Star cruiser at Drumsna on Wednesday which had been drifting without the ability to engage gear. The crew had eventually dropped anchor, after a call to ES. Once I got things sorted with the controls, I went to raise the anchor only to find that there was no winch fitted and, as a result, it had to be lifted by hand - a tricky enough procedure with the wind that was blowing and the lack of experience of those on board. Does anybody else find this a little strange!?

I was also awoken at 12:30 am on Friday morning by another Emerald Star cruiser which came careering into the quay wall behind me at Cootehall. Apparently they had grounded sometime on Thursday and had only managed to get afloat again. Nobody on board was even wearing a lifejacket.

An eventful couple of days!

Rich
COOL BLUE

Rich,was it a dual control ,inside and outside steering? I have met many people who've had trouble with the same.In fact two ES boats have crashed in me and both had the same problem,couldn't engage reverse.
I believe these controls are some sort of mechanical linkage.However it's possible to engage both at the same time. Why these are allowed to be used ,esp.in hire boats,is criminal.
In fact in both incidents,lives could have been lost or serious injuries cause,only for some quick thinking people.

SP De N

Hi Rich. Well hire customers are generally advised by most firms not to use their anchors, which relegates the installed anchors to mere safety devices, as proved to be the case in your example. Hence simple installation without winches. Yes it is back breaking to pull 30m of chan and anchor by hand. One of the first things we installed on our previous boat was an electric winch. We use it a lot so it was worth the cost. Hire boats that go "bump in the night" without PFDs heralds the start of the new season.

OceanFroggie

PJ that might be a classic case of the well known T switch syndrome. You may recall the ESL at Terryglass many years ago ramming the rafted Lough Derg rally fleet. Luckily he hit a raft of vessels which absorbed the declaration forces rather than a single vessel hard against the pier (ie T-bone). T switches are common with morse controls on private and hire vessels with twin helms, but I agree there are better systems for allowing throttle use from either helm without the need for a hard switch over.

OceanFroggie

Hi PJ,

Yes, the boat had dual controls with a manual switchover. The problem seemed to be that control had been switched to the outside helm without neutral having been properly engaged on the inside. In fact, we later passed the same boat run aground just south of Carrick while attempting to go the wrong side of a marker. Since the said marker was practically on the river bank, this manoeuvre would have challenged anyone's boat handling skills!

Rich
COOL BLUE

It matters not which control system is employed on a dual station craft, if and when it is not properly understood and operated by the user, problems do arise. Neither the "morse T" or the various lost motion/counterbalanced systems or indeed the fancy "ECS" are completely foolproof. Given a choice I would argue that the Morse T is as safe as any other and I would have grave reservation regarding the ECS type. Also I witness almost daily, skippers including those who own and operate their own vessels, who almost invariably approach their jetty/mooring at such a speed that only with the application of full reverse thrust at the latest possible second, is it possible to stop with one inch to spare. Such skippers I feel, seem to think that in doing this type of manouvre they display a great deal of skill as a skipper. I would view this type of skippering as amateurish at best, and utterly reckless is probably nearer the truth. Whether it is a dual or single station vessel, in the above scenario, it only needs a small fault (say a broken gear cable) to occur and when the skipper puts the controls to "hard astern", the vessel actually accelerates forward. The natural reaction by the skipper is to really pull the controls in to reverse thrust position, making the situation worse. Anyone in the vicinity of Carrybridge hotel jetty presently can see for themselves the results of this type of skippering and it is a "single station" seamaster 30 on which the gear cable snapped on the attempt to select reverse. (bow and foredeck stoved in). This boat was in the hands of a mega experienced skipper when it got wrecked fortunately without injury. The implication from this post may be that these incidents are the preserve of hire cruiser types and ESL in particular and I would venture to comment that it is not hire cruisers exclusively who have a monoply on these type of occurences.

Hi Robbie, Just to clarify;



> if and when it is not properly understood and operated by the user, problems do arise.<


This was the point I was making, in addition to the apparent anomaly of equipping a boat with an anchor but no winch.



>The implication from this post may be that these incidents are the preserve of hire cruiser types and ESL in particular<


By no means, although I would suggest that private owners are, in general, probably somewhat more familiar with their vessels' control systems than the majority of those in hired vessels (and also rather more conscious about avoiding damage to their boats!!). I have also witnessed boats, both private and hired, approaching moorings at excessive speeds with a last minute application of maximum reverse thrust. I'm not sure why they feel the need to behave in such a reckless fashion and was almost tipped into the water a couple of years ago when a vessel misjudged this manoeuvre and managed to propel itself ONTO the floating moorings at Ballyconnell. It took a bit of pushing to get it back into the water (and a couple of stiff ones to calm my nerves afterwards!!)

Rich
COOL BLUE

Noel,The ESL which in T.glass you refer to,was stopped when he got caught in my bow. I had no damage but the ESL lost the widscreen pillar when it got caught in my bow. As I said it's lucky nobody on the hire boat was killed. The people on the boat were very experiened boaters and indeed invited me to visit them in SA and to use their fifty footer.
It could not be beyond ingenuity to devise a system that is foolproof.I suspect hire companies wouldn't want to spend money retofitting such a system and who'd blame them for that.
I guess the safest answer is to have only one set of controls which the newer Brooms seem to have.

SP De N

Hello Gentlemen

i have read all of the above notes with interest and i am glad to see common sense does still prevail.

None of the boat rental companies on the Erne or Shannon Waterways condone reckless or indeed discorteous behaviour. We try our best during the time of instruction, to outline the rules of safe and proper navigation, including the use of throttle changeovers and also the speed at which to approach harbours etc.

The reality is that once a client leaves our base, we have little or no control over them. We at Emerald Star would welcome immediate feed back because then we can take action. Negative comments weeks or months after the event are of no use. Last year we had some calls from private boaters about clients behaviour at the time and we immediately removed the clients and brought the boat back to base.

We all know hirers tend to be less experiencned but i think some private boaters should reflect on the fact that they most probably started off hiring and they too had little experiecne.

Regarding throttle changeovers we are constantly reviweing this, as although incidents are rare, it is still an issue. The probelm is it is hard to find a system that is hirer proof as "Tonka" don't make boats. Our latest boat in Europe is all electronic and that too brought its intial teething problems.

The electric anchor winch we still avoid for safety reasons, as the thoughts of hands and fingers in the wrong place would be a concern. As one member correctly said they are a safety feature and the effort involved in lauching and recovering puts most people off.

In summary if any memebers see behavuoiur which is dangerous or discourteous, please let us know immediately. We do not want the pleasure of our other customers, other hire boat customers or private boat owners destroyed by what is a minority.

best Regards Mark Roding

Thanks Mark. Yes that's how we got started inland many moons ago, hiring with ESL and had such a good experience we made the then scary decision a few hires later, to buy our own boat. No regrets since and always cognisant of what it felt like back then as inland novices, whenever now we meet families enjoying their hols on charter craft. I remember well our first night on a Shannon Star gingerly entering a crowded Castle harbour and the fear on the faces of private skippers as we rafted off their sterns. Passing Chang Sha moored in the channel. We had a great night and introduction to Lough Derg.

OceanFroggie