What would YOU have done?

[Tally Ho]

I was taking my 1988 O’Day 322 out for a sail yesterday. Light winds, but I was hoping to make a go of it.

I got the boat ready, and even cast off the lines before I started the engine. Winds were so light, the boat barely moved in the slip…

I started the engine, and moved the shifter from Neutral to Reverse to back out of the slip...when BANG…something broke in the pedestal and the shift lever just dropped limp. All I can say is I’m glad the transmission didn’t engage in Reverse before the shifter broke. As it was, I could jump on the dock and tie the boat up so I could figure out what happened.

But I did think about it afterwards….what if the transmission would have engaged, and then the shifter broke? Would I have had the calm nerves to just back out to the fuel dock and tie up there? Or head for the open lake and cut the engine and drop the anchor? Or would I have panicked and hit the boat behind me? I will never know, I guess. But good food for thought.

After investigating and removing the compass from the pedestal, I found that the Edson “fork” linkage broke. The fork connects the transmission lever to the Morse cable. The Morse cable threads into the fork and in my case, the cable was only threaded in about 2-3 threads…and the tip of the fork linkage broke right off.

In this photo, you can see the fork, the broken tip and the lock nut that keeps the cable from backing out of the fork. I am assuming the cable was never threaded in correctly as the locknut was tight against the broken off threaded tip.



The good news is that:
1) I was able to thread the cable into the remaining threads on the fork linkage and it is was more engaged than it was…and I can use Tally Ho
2) I found a new fork on eBay for $15 and it is on its way…probably just become a spare for now, but it will be available if / when I need it.

Cheers,

Greg

 

[Stu Jackson]

Good report, glad you're OK and found the issue. I'm sure you always have a bailout backup plan, and your options seemed reasonable; I'm sure you would have chosen an appropriate one.

Install the new one, keep the old as the spare because NOW is the time to make sure the new one works properly.

 

[BigEasy]

I don’t know that I would have done anything differently than you did; however, many years ago when I took an ASA course, the instructor advised to always put gear in forward & reverse before casting off lines, just to make sure everything is working normally.

 

[jssailem]

I think your reactions were spot on. It appears you assess the situation. Identify a plan. And the executed. Pretty good seamanship.

I like Big Easy’s suggestion of testing the controls before you slip the lines.

My procedure has been to start the engine, check for water, rotate the helm, advance, and ease the throttle, then step off the boat and untie the lines. I’m going to add checking the transmission fore & aft before I cast off.

thank you, Greg and Big Easy for sharing the ideas.

 

[thinwater]

Obviously, the solution depends on the situation. Always have several plans to exit harmlessly.

Depending on the way on, the best solution might be to cut the engine. In your case, that would have worked (you weren't really moving).

Something to consider is not making it worse. YouTube is full of people trying to motor out of a bad situation and then making it much worse, where if they had just cut the power and fended, it would have been OK. Often simple is best. I watched a big sailboat make a mess of four boats in Annapolis when all he needed to do was cut the power and fend off. Instead, he tried to motor out of the situation and played slow-motion bumper cars. It was ugly, with people yelling at him to just cut the power. Bam, scrape, bam, scrape, bam ....

 

[dlochner]

These kinds of experiences do catch your attention. It is easy to armchair quarterback after the fact and that can help develop seamanship skills. Unfortunately, I've had several mechanical issues which placed me in a similar situation with limited or no control over the engine with the boat moving. A couple have been in open water while anchoring (in one, the transmission fell off the engine) and a couple have happened in marinas.

A couple of years ago I entered a marina in Portland ME with a large restaurant overlooking the marina. The fairways were really narrow and the slips were filled with Hinckley and Sabre powerboats. We over shot our slip because the numbers were not clearly visible. Fortunately there wasn't wind or current as I executed a back and fill to turn around. As I was completing the turn and put the transmission in reverse, there was no reverse. I shifted to forward to power out of the turn and tapped an anchor on another boat. Once back under control I headed towards our slip began turn into the slip and I couldn't get out forward. By this time a small crowd surrounded our slip as we came in at 1.5 kts and no way to slow down. They caught the boat before it hit the dock too hard and quickly tied us off.

The restaurant patrons dutifully reported our difficulties to the marina manager, who dutifully contacted the anchor's owner. He was a pleasant fellow and there was no damage to his boat or anchor.

In retrospect I could have motored out of the marina into open water to assess the problem and had I known before it was too late that I was unable to take it out of forward, I probably would have done just that. At the time, I knew the best place to be was tied up the dock, so I made the decision to try and dock. It wasn't until I began the turn that I learned the boat was stuck in forward. Trying to kill the engine really wasn't an option, as there were just seconds between learning of the failure and being in the dock. With more time and distance from the slip, killing the engine might have been possible.

All this drama because 2 nuts had backed off the bolts securing the cable bracket. At a $1.42 for 2 nyloc nuts it was the cheapest boat repair job I've ever done.

 

[JRacer]

Flying analogy, never press a bad approach. Execute the missed approach, Apply full power and go around!

 

[rgranger]

That fact that you are thinking through “what ifs” means you are ahead of 90%

 

[Richard19068]

I have considered this in the past. No really telling what I might have done in the circumstances but i have thought that if I had some time I would go below and manually move the transmission shift lever to neutral or where ever it should be. Of course this might require a competent crew member to either steer or shift from below as required.

 

[Tally Ho]

All good thoughts and comments.

In this case, I was in no danger of hitting another boat or a dock since the cable broke BEFORE the transmission engaged. That would have been a whole different story.

And yes Stu, I will install the new one when it comes (and I will check the thread engagement if the throttle cable too).

Cheers,

Greg

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

A couple have been in open water while anchoring (in one, the transmission fell off the engine) and a couple have happened in marinas.

Happens to us all the time .

Just one or two screws a bit shop-worn around the ends. A touch of butyl tape and a little baling wire and you're off again .

 

[garymalmgren]

The question was, what if the transmission would have engaged, and then the shifter broke?

I would drop the revs down and cut the engine.
Get my boat hook and look where I was headed and think how I could fend off or what I could grab.

But, of course I have the luxury of making those claims from in front of a computer.
Glad all worked out well in the end.

gary

 

[Stu Jackson]

In 1987 we purchased a very nice 1981 Catalina 25 and berthed her in Alameda Marina in Northern California on SF Bay. The rigging was still in good shape, but had those bottle closed turnbuckles. One day I returned to my slip and chatted with a dockmate who owned a pristine Islander Bahama 24 that he'd spent a few years resurrecting and improving. Over a couple of cans, he told me his story of his sail the weekend before: When crossing The Slot, the central, windiest portion of The Bay between the City and Angel island with Alcatraz in the middle, his forestay just let go! Twang! "What did you do?," I gasped. "I've always got a backup plan," he said, "so I immediately turned downwind and headed for Berkeley while I held the jib on the boat with both of the sheets. Once I got docked I contacted a rigger and we set things to right." He added, "Oh, by the way, the actual point of failure was the closed body turnbuckle at the base of the forestay."

Message received. The next week I had a rigger come down to my boat to inspect the standing rigging. The C25 had a single slightly offset backstay. As he was loosening the backstay turnbuckle, it simply sheered in half and the backstay swooped into the cockpit! New standing rigging with open body turnbuckles appeared immediately. Ever since I have been cautioning skippers to immediately rid themselves of these abominations, and thankfully haven't heard too many other horror stories.

The other Lesson Learned: wherever you are, have a backup plan. Plan Ahead. What'll you do if... I'd been sailing for years, bought our first boat in 1983, a Catalina 22. But always learning. When we bought our C34 in 1998, we moved to Grand Marina just up the Estuary. As part of my Practice, Practice, Practice mantra and teaching myself to dock, I spent an entire day doing just that. The next week I spent a weekday sailing into my slip (with the engine turning over in neutral). We had a great slip to be able to do this, not everybody does, I understand that. A couple of years later the engine actually did die and I was able to sail in. If conditions hadn't allowed it, I would have berthed temporarily elsewhere and i knew where my bailout spots would be.

It takes time to learn all these Tips & Tricks. Pre-internet days, without forums like this, it just took us longer with individual personal contacts which were fun and rewarding.

 

[jssailem]

It takes time to learn all these Tips & Tricks. Pre-internet days, without forums like this, it just took us longer with individual personal contacts which were fun and rewarding.

So true Stu. Time and the willingness to visit with others. Not just friends behind a screen. Why just the other day, while drinking a on the dock and talking about knots with a Hunter 36 owner, one of our dock mates, a rather salty old fisherman, stops and asked if either of us sailing whenies knew how to tie a Dragon Bowline.

 

[BAD ORCA]

Yeah owning an older boat where anything can break at any moment, I have a checklist of things that get done first before casting off the lines. First is that anchor is ready to be deployed instantly. Second lots of big fenders are put out in case the engine goes at any moment (has already happened). Always have a boat hook ready and reachable at a moments notice. VHF is turned on and at helm (handheld). Phone is turned on, charged an at helm. My tow service plastic member card is at helm with all my personal info, including tow service contact number and the VHF channel i can hail them on. Autopilot is turned on and ready too be engaged. Coming back in from a days sail, all of the above plus jib and main sheets are left in place so that either sail is ready to deploy in an instant.

Luckily no issues recently, but just knowing there is a backup plan really relaxes me.

 

[capta]

Sometime in the early '70s I found myself powerless in a confined area. Back then Avon inflatables were just tubes with hypalon cloth floors and a metal bracket mounted in rubber receptacles for an outboard. Seagull outboards were all the rage back then, topping out at around 5.5 HP and a gazillion dBs.
One calm day, when I lost my engine in a marina, I hauled up the Avon and, just by chance, secured it correctly in the "hipped-up" position. I had little hope that the little Seagull would do the job of moving the wood 49' Phill Rhodes ocean racer about the marina, but it worked magnificently. I wasn't alone, and as I mentioned I placed the Avon in the correct place quite by accident (intuition?) but as my boating skills improved over the years, that was always my fall back motive power, even in the Doldrums.
In that case, we moved a 26 ton heavy displacement boat, in complete control, with an Avon that, driver included, could not have weighed more than 275# with a 5 hp motor.
*The secret is to make sure the auxiliary boat's prop and/or rudder (if equipped) is behind the farthest place aft of the incapacitated boat's stern. It helps a lot if one has both fore and aft spring lines, plus a bowline attached forward of the dinghy's bow, and a stern line is attached to both boats' outboard aft quarter, however, with one spring and a stern line one can begin operations and add more lines later, as needed.
So, my fallback was always to put the dinghy to work as quickly as possible, keeping in mind that an inflatable boat makes a great fender, should the need arise.

 

[Tally Ho]

I just shudder when I think that I could have been coming into the slip under power, and at the point I usually slow the boat down, boom…the cable breaks. Yes drop the throttle, but I am still going to hit the dock!

New part is in the mail

Greg

 

[Allan12210]

It all comes back to me now. July 4, 2012 we were just leaving the slip in Alameda to participate in the 60th annual Boreas Race from San Francisco to Moss Landing. I shifted into forward and crunch, the entire Merriman plastic control head under the compass fell apart. No more shifting, but at least the throttle side still worked. My wife took over the controls and I could reach over the running engine carefully (long arms) and shift the lever right at the transmission based on her directions. We made it to the start line in time. Also, concurrently we were the cruise leaders for our annual Oakland Yacht Club Bluewater Cruise to Monterey for a week with a fleet of 4. We weren't going to let that stop us. That year for the first time the race was split into two days to avoid people sitting out in the ocean with no wind all night long. Our first stop was at the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club. We crossed the finish line in Half Moon Bay in second place at 8:30pm and took a slip for the night in the harbor. The race did not resume until 10:00am the next morning so I had time to rummage around the boat and find a large batten that I must have been saving just for this purpose. A new shifter extension was made and it worked perfectly for the rest of the week. And by the way, after the next day's results were tallied, we won the entire race. With all the extra rules in place for offshore racing that race has never been run again. So after 14 years we are still the reigning champions of the 60th annual Boreas Race. Boreas is the Greek God of the North Westerly wind. All downwind, which was ideal for our Hunter 34. We surfed at 11.3 knots and had to dodge whales. Luckily our Dutchman Boom Brake prevented any disasters with a few accidental jibes. Our friends on a Hunter 466 weren't so lucky and snapped their boom in half on the way down. They were just on the cruise portion, not the race.

Here is the link to my Merriman Control Head repair. This was before Phil was able to source them again for the store. After what I went through to fabricate a new one, it's worth every penny for what they sell for.

The shifter mount on my Merriman Pedestal

The shifter mount on my Merriman Pedestal broke on my Hunter 285. I think the ice from the winter on Kentucky Lake did it. Called Robert at Joes Racing. He said they are going to start (once again) producing a high quality machined aluminum part to fit the Merriman Pedestal. The "slice" that...

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