A good feed and............ a Tow Home :(

[Spaniard_King]

819108190981908Out olf Tweed today fished the 36s east of the bar stuck it out till 11 am in great conditions for 12 squire to 4kg. Pushed the throttle up to 25knots and was enjoying a nice ride home when we passed through 9 mile reef we hit something:o:o:o BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR... just like runing up a sand bar but in 30 meters of water.... DAM WHALE !! ddint even stop to see if we were OK.

Put the trusty Honda in gear and no thrust... bugga.. chuck out the anchor and called VMR... er I need a tow.

45 mins later we were under way... after signing the disclaimer:-[

Got to the Bar and its like the last 20 mins of run out.. breaking right across... then the skipper says... keep that knife handy::) down goes the throttles and all the waves died away.. got through with boat in tow without a scratch... Wasn't full of confidence but the VMR boys did a great job... finnaly got to use my membership;D

Got home and yep.. the prop bush (flow Torque) has been smashed

[rosco1974]

a good feed mate but soured with the breakdown..least you know a good bloke to fix the problem.lol.good to see ya home safe and sound
cheers rosco

[Timfishin4fun]

That membership is worth every single cent mate, I hope I never have to use mine for that though.

Nice work on the snaps.

Timbo

[outwide1]

Of all bars Gary,i would of been sh@tting myself.lol
Nice snaps though.
Be in contact soon for service mate.
Mick.

[Spaniard_King]

Yeh Mick... wasn't confident and the call to keep the safety knife handy wasnt a confidence builder. Tow rope was a long one as well... duno how the waves all b ut dissapeared... I can tell you the skipper did not look behind ... just nailed the throttle and we went through

Talk soon

[2IC]

Gary good to see it all worked out fine ,,nice snaps mate ,,those boys know how to tow through a bar '' FLAT OUT'''' now fix that HONDA as I need a serivce soon before 1770 bill

[bf90]

When I first read tow home by spaniard_king I thought what a load of horse exhaust!!!! It was not the mighty honda that let you down, it was the bloody prop bush!!! better that to give in than the box I suppose:) What a bloody totally ignorant whale hey, cheeky bugger! Bet he had a sore head after gettin belted in the melon by the 225 :)

[bigjimg]

Well Gary sounds like you had "Whale" of a time.Bad luck is all you can put it down to,just lucky that is the only damage.Jim

[Crunchy]

Saw on the tele that whales making the trip along the coast number between 14,000 - 18,000 and have been increasing at around 12% per year.....they're a bloody menace! Glad you made it back OK, reminds me, where's that VMR form got to.....

[carnster]

There sure was plenty of whales coming past yesterday of the tweed, Garry. Bad luck on hitting one, but at least the snaps were around. We stopped on a show on the way out and found a good feed of pearlies up to 53cm, snaps to 55cm and tuskies, plus lost a few unstoppables. There sure was some bombs every now and then on the bar. How about the water change at the nine mile, clean to dirty.

[WalrusLike]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune (and, of course, the poor whales....). Glad you got back ok.

Newbie question... Is the thrust bush the sacrificial part of the prop installation? Designed to break rather than shafts and gears?

If so is it something you can re-install at sea if its broken? What spares, if any, should I have for that type of event?

I hope not to hit anything.... But as we just saw, it can happen to even the most experienced of us.

[pipifin]

Jeez mate, sounds like you could have done with a sweet 20hp Auxiliary. No idea where you could get one from as mine aint going anywhere. Forgot to let you know, it's awesome. 42kph 1 up with gear. 37kph 3 up with pots, eskies etc.
Thanks again mate.

Tony

[Dan5]

Bad luck mate.........theres a bloke on Ausfish who fixes those hondas though....Spaniard something they call him...;D;D....a 6 pack of stubbies will have ya sorted they reckon.
Maybe the Edencraft should join the Japanese whaleing fleet !

Good to see you made it back safe and no real damage was done

Dan

[Crisp Bee]

Bad luck hitting the Whale.... I hope there was no other damage.
I was north of Moreton yesterday, and saw about a dozen bunches of whales go past. I thought one was gunna take me out, as it came up then it dived quickly when it was about 20m away. I was looking straight along its back as it came at me. I then started looking for my life jacket.... I was wearing it. We were in about 25m of water at the time, so it got under us. Three of it friends went lust behind us.

[thelump]

Scary stuff Gary. Good outcome though considering it could have gotten much worse on at least two occasions that day!

[cormorant]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune (and, of course, the poor whales....). Glad you got back ok.

Newbie question... Is the thrust bush the sacrificial part of the prop installation? Designed to break rather than shafts and gears?

If so is it something you can re-install at sea if its broken? What spares, if any, should I have for that type of event?

I hope not to hit anything.... But as we just saw, it can happen to even the most experienced of us.

Yes the prop bushes are designed to reduce damage to props, gearbox and motor just like a shear pin . Ally props used to be a lot kinder on strikes than the stiffer harder and heavier stainless but saying that some of the alloy now used is very hard.

Nothing is ever easy on the water but it is possible if conditions allow. We did it on a cat with a walkthru between motors after a log strike ( we think) and I have also seen a bloke smacked in the head doing it from the water. Unless you are a long way off and know exactly what you are doing and can do it safely a tow is the answer or even just making way at idle displacement speed as the bush may have enough grip to allow that to get closer to a tow. 5kg of sharp metal is not what you want to be playing with in a boat bucking around at rest.
Spare prop , block of wood and a prop spanner - some lanyards, spare nuts, pins, thrust washers gloves etc . Not easy to do on or in the water depending on boat and motor set up. You could get away with just a bush on the systems where the bush is not pressed in but you still may have a damaged prop.

Spares you really need is main and portable radios, gps , decent tow point and rope, , good anchor, parraanchor, all safety gear so you can get attention and if no auxillary a buddy boat to travel with along with logging on so if all else fails someone is looking for you. Last resort the epirb. If you have a sat phone it is a great back up out wide.



Glad to hear it was a safe tow in.

[Spaniard_King]

I had a prop with the removable bush (flo-torque) so easily fixed (on dry land)

I dont carry spares unless going wide, generally out of VHF range.

One point I would like to make is that if you ever need a tow the only way the tow vessel will attach their rope is to your D-bolt where you attach your trailer winch ... you may shrug this off but try reaching it from the boat at sea:o I am lucky mine is easy but some arn't:(

Worth thinking about now!

[ozscott]

Garry - good to see no damage save for the hub (from an area - Nine Mile - my Vag was named after). The tow/winch hook is an overlooked item. I just replaced mine with a 200mm variety - no damage to the original, but nice to stick in a new quality Ronstan one just to be safe. Its comforting to see how much glass is between the bolts and plate and the exterior ring. But yep attaching can be a reach.

Cheers

[honda900]

Garry,

thats a scary tow through that bar on the wrong end of the tide.. lucky you got a couple of fish..

Regards
HOnda.

[Sandman]

Gary
Must have been the day for towing!! I ended towing my 5th boat back up the Bris River yesterday . Glad to hear the damage wasnt worse than your prop ! So it was a confirmed whale ?

Mick