Hamble fun

[NickT]

I went out Tuesday morning with my business partner for some essential CPD on the Isle of Wight. Lovely trip across from the Hamble and the breakfast was filling.

Back to work for the afternoon then home.

It was such a nice evening that I decided to take the family out for cruise up the Hamble for drinks and nibbles. It was lovely weather with no wind so had a nice time attempting to catch fish with son No. 2 to no avail. Lots of friendly people out enjoying the summer sun.

As dusk approached we set off back to the mooring which is only half a mile from where we were.

On the way down saw a chap on a boat waving with both arms (recognized distress sign I recalled after prompting from son No. 1).

Went alongside and the chap said he had run out of fuel having been skipping around the Solent earlier in the day. I think his fuel gauge was faulty as it was showing half full.

He requested a tow to the Premier fuel pontoon which is just down from where we moor so I agreed to tow him down there...

As the river gets rather narrow and the light was fading I decided to lash the boats together so that I could control the direction of travel and wouldn't therefore have a boat flopping around behind me as I went past all the moored boats.

All connected up then started off but went round in circles despite full lock on the engine!

So I ended up towing the boat on a short rope anyway.

We had various hazards (Eastlands marina, M27 bridge, right turn to Foulkes, left turn through railway bridge, narrow through the cabin marina etc).

I slowed as I went through the narrow Cabin boatyard moorings as I reckoned that damage at 2.5 kts was probably much less than if you hit at 5 kts!!

Only problem was that the boat being towed started to swing at the slower speed. Once I could see that the A27 bridge was clear I increased speed which brought it back under control.

No pressure with £500K boats either side x many!

As we approached the Premier fuel barge the tide runs sideways across the river so it was an interesting moment as we swung hard left into the relative calm of the marina.

We eventually got the boat alongside and the chaps thanked us and fuelled up.

Some lessons learnt:-

Have some spare fuel on board as a "get you home"
Don't try to move a 26ft boat with a 19 ft boat strapped to it
Be nice to people and they may help you out when you need it! (they were very nice people by the way!)

[mlines]

You can tow a large Boat with a small one. James did it on the Thames including taking both boats through a lock together. We had to do this to stop the large Boat running into the back of us or hitting other boats

I don't know how you tied them together but for a side to side tow then the towing boat has to be "behind" the boat being towed. Ie your engine and stern gear have to stick out behind so you retain directional control. The only issue then is lack of forward vision so position someone on the front of the larger boat. You get precision control doing this.

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[ChrisH]

Great story. Thanks for sharing cos I've learned plenty from it. I would have just thrown the kids overboard with a set of flippers each and told them to start kicking

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[betty boop]

Towing can be great fun and its always worth a practice if you can get 2 boats willing to play. going back to my last post 2 mins ago I think its is in the syllabus for the PB2, if not then it is definitely in Peter White's boat handling book to accompany the PB2 & being a new boat owner (highly recommended).

As Martin said its about positioning the rule is something like 1/4 of the vessel towing is to be off the stern of the towed vessel. shouldn't matter much on the size but there are practicalities to consider i.e you couldn't tow a cruise ship

most important rope is the stern of towed boat to bow of towing boat spring . this take the load of the tow and needs to be the strongest /most secure and allows for controlled movement on a single rope if theres a imminent danger of beaching etc then the other 3, bow spring stern & bow lines, plenty of fenders etc.

Steering would be funnest in a tidal flow and you'd have to compensate & steer heavily into the flow to stop the boat being pulled apart

If your really clever (not me) you could try stern tow to alongside tow in the Hamble on an outgoing tide whilst maintaining control . not as hard as it sounds but not something Id do with someone else boat behind me.