Tom Bettle has a breakdown

[britboard]

No, not nervous or mental, but engine.

 

Received a coastguard Pan-Pan today at about midday stating that Quest 2 was drifting with a dead engine 29miles of portland, Weymouth lifeboat was on its way out to tow them in. I have spoken to Tom and it appears that the engine may have thrown its crank and that everyone got into Weymouth safely.

 

Toms an OK bloke by my reckoning and i hope he gets everything sorted out promptly, and i will offer any assistance i can, as i know Tom would be one of the first to help me if i needed it.

 

Tom, Shout if you need anything.

 

Simon L

[Newboy]

can't imagine that'd be fun so far out.... luckily it's quite a calm day.

 

Just hope he has everything sorted out quickly.

[Adam F]

He makes a habit of getting lifts back in by the big orange boat!

 

Sorry mate only messin - hope it aint serious and all ended well?

[Maverick Martin]

NNnnooo not another club boat engine going tits up

 

I know exactly how you will be feeling Tom, hope yours isn't as expensive as mine

 

Martin

[gaffa]

Sympathies Tom

 

A Thrown Crank sounds expensive to me

 

There seem to have been a lot of inboard engine problems reported in the club recently.

 

Generally I would have thought inboard diesels would be more reliable than outboards but maybe I was thinking of the basic old style non turbocharged non electronic processor controlled lower power units .

 

Are the modern diesels less reliable than these?

 

Modern diesels develop much more power than the old style weight for weight but I suppose like most things today they have been designed for a limited lifespan.......just past the warranty period

 

Or is it just me being cynical as usual

 

Peteg

[tom]

well i supose the lifeboats got his secret numbers now then

[Sole Man]

Well at least everyone is safe.

All the best

 

John

[mw]

Unlucky Tom

 

Hope its not to expensive to fix and sorted quickly

 

mark w

 

 

[great white]

Hi Tom

 

Very sorry to hear the news

 

I feel bad as we were afloat but could not help. we failed in all efforts to communicate but as we only had very broken comms it was about impossible to know if we could assist.

 

We heard that you were on Channel 6 from Alun and Simon, but heard nothing ourselves, we also heard part of your transmission saying you were under tow to weymouth 13 miles out.

 

If there is anything we can help with please ask

Charlie

 

[Jim]

Sorry to hear about that Tom.

 

Does sound expensive though !

 

 

Jim

[TomBettle]

Hi Guys

 

Back safe and well and thanks to all for the sentiments, phone calls and texts.

 

We left Poole very early (04:00) yesterday morning for what was planned to be a really leisurly long distance cruise using the big tides to nudge us around the channel.

Steered well wide of Old Harry to avoid lobster pots in the dark and tootled along at 11 knots for just 2600rpm. Headed south west and stopped at a wreck on the 6 mile limit for a couple of 7lb Pollock before heading to one on the 12 mile limit where we had a brief flurry of half a dozen upper singles and then the tide died away.

We used the slack to head the long haul out to where the bigger fish were supposed to be. Still trundling along at 2600 rpm, hell it was supposed to be a fun cruise, not a race.

 

As we approached the first of two wrecks we planned to fish well offshore we heard a firm clunk followed by that gut wrenching feeling when you know something has hit or wrapped the prop along with the slipping clutch sound as the engine strains against a jammed prop. Instantly the engine was kicked to neutral and with a series of shunts forwards and backwards we seemed to be free and with no apparent ill effects (I don't know if this could have anything to do with what happened an hour or so later) we began the first drift over the wreck. The tide was belting through at just short of four knots! This meant that what normally appears as a massive lump was on the sounder and gone in seconds and with just one similar upper single Pollack caught, we continued our mid channel cruise to another lump a mile or so from the previous and in the general direction of home, erring on the side of caution after the earlier prop incident. This one appeared much larger on the sounder, presumably lieing end to end in the tide. This is one that I had never previously fished, but it was enroute to our final planned mark closer to home and so we gave it a shot.

In the 3.7 knots of tide is was pretty snaggy if you dwelled more than a fraction of a second on the bottom, but we had a couple of good fish to low mid doubles before slowly cruising on to have a brief look for a cargo ship that sank nearby the year before. It was a very brief look and save for a few bait fish shoals on the sounder there was no obvious sign of wreckage and so we headed for what was to be our "banker" for the day. A set of banks and reefs well offshore, but much closer to home that typically hold some clonking Pollock.

 

Within moments of pointing ourselves north by north north east and still at the days chosen 2600rpm there was a horrible bang from the engine room followed by very nasty change in tone from the engine. The sound went from the normal rattly sound you get from a diesel to the sounder of a pneumatic drill. Inspection of the engine saw a growing puddle of oil in the bilge.

We were some three miles north of the westbound ships and adrift rather close to them so in just under 200 feet of water the anchor went down and at more or less the same time we called up Portland Coastguard to let them know our dilema.

At this point we didn't call a Pan Pan as whilst we were completely stuck we were stationary, safe, had food and water and were wearing our lifejackets.

We attempted to call a few friends up that we knew were afloat, but people were long distances away and so the coastguard decided to launch the lifeboat.

Ironically, whilst we were exactly the same distance from Weymouth and Poole and Poole being our home port, it was the Weymouth lifeboat that came out. It made sense really, they had the last of a huge tide to come the 30+ miles to us and then the start of the return tide to tow us in.

At the same time as the lifeboat launch our situation was raised to a Pan Pan. It wasn't life threatening, but our position 3 or 4 miles from the main shipping lane meant that we were potentially in a lot of danger.

Interestingly, the first people to answer the Pan Pan and offer assistance were infact those very ships with the closest two offering to standby! This included a giant RoRo that was passing. As it wasn't an emergency, the coastguard thanked them and they proceeded on their course to whatever sunny place they were heading to.

A sailing boat called Sunbird also answered. They were only five miles away. We could actually see them just beyond the shipping, but it would have taken them as long to reach us as the lifeboat and so they too were thanked and they continued on to Alderney. Thanks from us too Sunbird.

 

Yep an expensive weekend and lessons learned and lots to think about.

Maybe it's time to invest in an epirb?

Maybe we should also now invest in a suitable auxilary? (About time!)

Our flares are out of date! (We didn't need them, but it made us check!)

Maybe we should try and work with a buddy boat when possible? (safety in numbers?)

And I am sure much more to think about over coming weeks.

Time to pull my finger out and input our MMSI number to the VHF!!! (Idiot)

Remember to put the new Ofcom radio license onboard... it's got our call sign which I could have done with and it should be on the boat all the time! (Idiot)

Pull my finger out and fill in the CG66! (Idiot, now done)

 

Not a whole lot that we could have done about the incident yesterday.

The boat was serviced and up to date (service soon due, but not quite), but lots that perhaps could have been done to improve the situation.

 

A huge thanks to all the amazing people who helped and offered help and those who have checked to see we were OK.

Not limited to:

The coastguard and crew of the RNLI Ernest & Mable

The passing ships who amazingly offered assistance

The sailing boat Sunbird who were happy to ruin their crossing to Alderney

My marina who found out about the situation and we could hear checking we were OK with the Coastguard over the VHF

Great friends like the team on Alfresco who tried to make contact, but we were out of range

Our charter skipper friends who have offered their boats as tows back to Weymouth if we need them

Our old Weymouth service engineer who cam straight to the boat on arrival in the port to see if he could help

My old colleagues at Prime Motoryachts for the offer of a loan trailer to get Quest II back to Poole

A number of private boat owner friends who have already offered their own boats as tow vessels if we need them.

Friends who have called, text, emailed offering help.

 

What's the point of this whole post?

We clearly had a rather cr@p day yesterday.

We could have done things better and avoided some of the situation so lots to learn and if anyone else can learn from our situation then that is great too.

But, what an amazing bunch of people all users of the water are. Within minutes of our situation, people were offering help and assistance. Old friends through to foreign deck officers who will gain nothing through to the great guys at the RNLI.

 

I would like to think that if I was ever in the position to offer help back then whoever you are, whatever our backgrounds and history then I would always do anything I could to help too.

 

I hope we can get Quest II out again ASAP, maybe as a safer boat too.

 

Tom

Edited April 14, 2009 by TomBettle

[codpiece]

 

 

 

 

What a bummer Tom!! so glad all is well but sorry about the coming expense. Derek.

[Rob]

 

 

Good to hear you caught a few fish and got back safely.

 

Will restrain from the ribbing untill you can look back and laugh!!!

 

Rob

[shytalk]

pushing a rope ia a sneaky way of saving fuel me thinks!!!!!!

[TomBettle]

pushing a rope ia a sneaky way of saving fuel me thinks!!!!!!

Gave the boat a damn good wash down too Pete.

[Bob F]

Nice write up, Tom. I would've been too pi$$ed off to post anything, but when you've had that kind of support from everyone, I guess it goes some way to paying them back.

 

I hope all goes well with getting the engine fixed.

 

BF

 

[Wedger]

Good to hear all are safe!

 

Concentrates ones mind a bit.

 

I'll be checking all is in place on Otter before she goes back in.

 

Good luck with the repair.

[Ferret]

hi tom,

sorry to hear of your problems with the boat,

nice to know there are people willing to help when in trouble,

glad you all got back safe,

if i can be of any help please

post

bill

[charlieannear]

Good write-up Tom.

Glad you all got back in one piece.

 

C.

[Coddy]

Hi Tom

 

Sorry to learn of your problems but good to hear all back safe and sound.

 

If you need help for anythng do give a shout.

 

Dave

[Osprey]

I missed this post somehow.

 

Bad luck Tom. That was a tricky situation. Hope it all gets fixed soon.

 

As you say, some good lessons there, and I have got my list of actions drawn up as a result!

 

With smaller boats, I always had an auxilary and with the bigger boat I have always been slightly uneasy about not having one. But is an outboard a realistic option? I suppose a twin screw set-up is the optimum.

 

As someone else said, there does seem to be a bit of an epidemic with engine problems right now.

 

Martyn