RIB's as "Tugs"

[limeydal]

Have a little problem down here and wondered if anyones has experience or "opinion" on how best to do this
Have to get the "Surprise" safely away from the dock and into the Bay ready to set sail.
Immediately to the Stern we have a WWII sub and off the starboard bow,the "Star of India".
The museum has a PIlot boat that is going to attach a line and I wondered if I could get round and "Push the bow with my RIB.
Had seen this done to assist docking with another tall ship and wondered how much"Push "I can get with my mere 90HP and what effect we could expect
Any ideas of how best to get her out??
She does have an engine but limited manouvering capability
cheers Dal

[Limey Linda]

Hi There
Sounds like a fun project. Needless to say the better the tide/wind conditions the easier it will be; a mild offshore wind would be ideal. Suggest pulling the bow out while swinging on a still attached stern line. No power on vessel. Release the stern line when bow is clear and engage vessel power when bow is pointed to clear water. Make sure dockside aft quarter is well fendered. If you need to nudge with your Rib then your 90 HP will be ample, just take it slow and make sure you have good radio contact with all concerned.
Hope this helps.
PS. As per Cods advice below, don't get squished.

[codprawn]

A RIB would be fine as a bow thruster BUT there is no way you should be in a position where you could get squashed between the ship and the dock - you don't want to end up as a fender!!! It would be safer to tow the bow out I think.

So much depends on wind and current. Remember 1 horse can pull a 100 ton canal barge no problem once it starts moving. Stopping it is another matter.....

[limeydal]

My buddy onboard seems to think they can tow out the stern and try and use her engines to reverse her out. Would have to move pretty well paralel to the dock as the sub lies only a few feet behind
So tied off and well fender the dockside bow and "spring her out that way
Will have the camera ready either way
cheers Dal

[marknj]

Surely if the skipper is not sure how to go about this then he should not be in charge of such a vessel?
It is a simple manoveure, as long as the weather is ok. With the pilot boat and a 90hp rib should be easy!

[Pete7]

The Royal Navy (before we sold it to Canada) did an experiment with two inflatables and a submarine. It took 24 hours for the two inflatables powered by 40 hp outboards to turn the sub round.

I think you risk damaging the tubes if you try and push but towing out could work. What you really want though is a rib with a large diesel turning a big prop to generate lots of thrust

Pete

[Channelwatch]

Hey Dal,

Still waiting for that visit. How about putting a line from the stern to the pilot boat and a line from the bow to your RIB and slowly pull her sideways. That way you don't have to push against the dock and Surprise can use her engine to control fore and aft movement. As someone said earlier, it should be a simple move and we do it all the time with just one boat and no power on the vessel being moved. Have fun and come up for a visit.

[tim griffin]

Seen pictures of how in the old day's they would lay a kedge anchor and pull the boat out on this . Either fore or aft depending on which way they wanted to exit.Could lay a bow and stern kedge and pull her out sideways until enough sea room .Same as using the Pilot boat and pulling her out sideways

[BogMonster]

With no tugs in our part of the world the local launches are routinely used to assist docking etc of sometimes fair sized boats. Not sure what that thing you are looking at weighs, but probably a lot less than some of the fishing vessels etc. The bigger of the two launches run by our company has about 500hp on tap I think, so if 500 hp would push/tow 5000 tons I'd imagine 100 would push/tow 1000 tons with a similar degree of effectiveness. The big factor will be the wind, choose a calm day or one where the wind is blowing the way you want it to!

As it happens yesterday I watched somebody leaving the jetty here in a yacht (fairly confined space) and he appeared to be using only mooring lines and sail power. I didn't see it all but basically it looked like he let it drift out from the pontoon controlling the position on long lines till it was facing the right sort of direction, then raised a sail, released the lines and off he went. It was quite cool given that most of the wimps driving yachts these days need to use an engine when they are within five miles of land, he evidently knew what he was doing, always good to see things being done the way they used to be before people had engines and radars and stuff

[Matt]

Put a kedge anchor off the stern, also pulling slight forwards, to pull the stern away from the dock. Keep the bow line & a bow spring spring on to stop the kedge pulling the boat forward, and the kedge'll stop it moving back.
Nice and slow, and the ship is secured all the time.