What to do when stuffed

Ezgoing · 20 March 2006, 19:55

Saturday seen myself and Tim take Katandra out in an Easterly gale,

Conditions were very tough and we had a real ball of a time until...as we aproached Dun Laoghaire Harbour mouth we were running down wind and sea , the waves got very steep close to the shallower water and we stuffed the boat very badly....probaly had something to do with excessive speed and the fall from the top of a very high wave. We completely stuffed the boat and having so much power on we drove the boat completely under smashing our windscreen in the process , water over our heads and tim floating up in his seat. we recovered , in my opinion very well, kept the power on , turned the boat into the sea and with both trunks open the boat drained very quickly.

Which brings me to my question(door,horse, bolted and after does come to mind) what is the correct thing to do when you have been stuffed and completely swamped?

Advice welcome.

John Kennett · 20 March 2006, 19:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ezgoing

Which brings me to my question(door,horse, bolted and after does come to mond) what is the correct thing to do when you have been stuffed and completely swamped?

Seems to me like you got it right:

Quote:

kept the power on , turned the boat into the sea and with both trunks open the bat drained very quickly.

Not much to add to that really.

John

roycruse · 20 March 2006, 20:04

Only thing you forgot was to sigh in relief that you were in a RIB

Hightower · 20 March 2006, 20:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ezgoing

Which brings me to my question(door,horse, bolted and after does come to mond) what is the correct thing to do when you have been stuffed and completely swamped?

Advice welcome.

Dry your socks and look for your sunglasses, hey Olly

.

On a more serious note though...Just get rid of the deck water ASAP and check your bilge just in case some's gone down there.

ADS · 20 March 2006, 20:10

Sounds scary, at least you got the water out ASAP.
Theres some excellent powerboat footage including some spectacular stuffs on the Boatmad media site, I spent all day on there once!

http://media.boatmad.com/gallery/v/m...deos/accidents

Alex

codprawn · 20 March 2006, 21:18

Bet you enjoyed it really - AFTERWARDS!!!

What sort of trim were you running at the time? Trimmed out all the way?

How did the engine cope? Seems to me outboards will take incredible abuse and keep running - like the stuff on the Boatmad site.

gaelforce · 20 March 2006, 22:47

oh stuffs.........done a few of them. Cold. Wet. Gasp. Shit! Embarassment. Cold. Women not smiling. "Ha ha. Don't panic. Balls"......yep, keep going into the sea, diagonal if needs be, get someone bailing, don't panic. Resolve to work throttle better and remember if you're wet and cold your concentration will soon go down so don't act the tough guy and head for port.

Richard B · 20 March 2006, 22:57

EZgoing... as already said, sounds like you are now the expert

Handy having Tim on board I suppose - a sort of human periscope!

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

How did the engine cope? Seems to me outboards will take incredible abuse and keep running - like the stuff on the Boatmad site.

Outboards cope incredibly well with immersion. There's an article somewhere on t'internet (I think it used to be on the old RIB International site when they had a section called "the reading room") in which there's a description of a really serious stuff in the Channel Islands region. RIB stays under for a considerable time, and the helm is amazed that the engines (Hondas if I remember correctly) are still running when the RIB does an impersonation of a U-boat surfacing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ADS

Theres some excellent powerboat footage... on the Boatmad media site, I spent all day on there once!

http://media.boatmad.com/gallery/v/m...deos/accidents

Very forward-looking guys over there on Boatmad. They even host a RIB video now!