Self-Rescue Strategies for Running Aground?

[ryon]

Swing crew out on the main boom. It should lift the keel up enough to float you off. Watch that your cooling water intake is still submerged, if you try to motor off.

[tbodine88]

I ran aground In San Diego Bay, sailing from Chula Vista to Coronado yacht club. Hit the Berm that lies east of the channel, 2 foot of water at the time. I just cranked up the center board and sailed off, my potter. I would have been screwed in my Ericson

[Lubber4now]

I've drawingboarded (a form of torture) a few ideas for inflatable lift bags.

The idea was to fill the cabin with them to prevent sinking - but they could be bow slung to lift and break suction too.

Make them out of the super strong tarps from the DIY store.

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Lubber4now

I've drawingboarded (a form of torture) a few ideas for inflatable lift bags.

The idea was to fill the cabin with them to prevent sinking - but they could be bow slung to lift and break suction too.

Make them out of the super strong tarps from the DIY store.

A company used to sell a system for boats. I looked into it way back about 1988 and it took up so much room it wasn't any good for a sailboat. Very little storage left.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by ontherocks83

This sounds along the lines of what some people are suggesting

Bad time for the halyard to break!

[maxingout]

I ran aground in Suva Harbor in Fiji, and the engines were not adequate to get us off. So I had my two teenage kids get in the water and rock the bows and push us off the shelf. It worked great. Now my kids are grown up, so I guess my wife will have to jump in the water to do the pushing.

[crazyoldboatguy]

I was in a channel in the Keys and got stuck. No one around. Took the main halyard and tied my anchor line to it. Took it out as far as it would go, got the anchor set, hauled in the halyard till I was heeled over, put the boat in reverse and pushed like hell (my son and I were in the water. Gunned the motor in reverse and she floated off.

[SimonV]

If it was dead low tide you should not need 6 hours to get of. Even 15 minutes of a rising tide will start to lift you. Just remember the rule of Twelve in the first hour you will rise 1/12 the predicted tide, in the second hour 2/12. So in two hours you have 3/12 or 1/4 the predicted tide under you. The next 2 hours give you 3/12 each.

[Lubber4now]

Originally Posted by Vasco

A company used to sell a system for boats. I looked into it way back about 1988 and it took up so much room it wasn't any good for a sailboat. Very little storage left.

Can you recall if it was an antisink system?

I only toyed with the idea. My real interest was in collapsible dinghies which is where I'd stow the bags. Like the famed Goatleys that could carry 10 troops and their gear.

Ever seen a float bag lift a bronze cannon?

[Lubber4now]

Some old swamp lore.

A way to free a person stuck in quicksand is to ram a pole down by their feet. As the body sinks it displaces mud and creates suction, which is broken by the pole. Much the same happens when you ground, so ramming a pole down by the bow may achieve the same result.

Lubber will shut up now.

[sv-highhopes]

I've always used the dingy to tow it right off the way it came on...

[JPA Cate]

Maxingout's story reminded me of one time when we went aground on a coral head in Kaneohe Bay at the top of a king tide. The first thing Jim did was to swim out our anchor, but he saw a giant moray eel, and gave him the anchor. The eel was not interested in the anchor. And it set, but our primaries were not enough to pull it off.

By then the tide had dropped 4 inches. Then we radioed for assistance, and a motor boat came out, with two people. When they threw the line to us, it fell short and got sucked into their prop, so it started to drift down on us, and I fendered us. The driver refused to kill the engines while Jim tried to unfoul the lines. The barnacles on the bottom of his hull cut Jim.

What finally worked was assistance from 4 Hawaiian guys (runabout), the motor yacht, and one Morgan OI 41. The Morgan and the motor yacht pulled us in the reciprocal course of how we went on, while the 4 big men kept pushing up on the bow and releasing, and with the motor in reverse, she sort of bounced and then slid off. The Yankee 30 had external lead ballast, and it did collect some coral, but they all helped us, and no one would accept a reward. This was in 1983, and everybody always helped out everybody else. It is the only time we have ever radioed for assistance...and I hope we never have to.

Ann

[Jim Cate]

In self defense, I gotta say that it was not just a king tide, it was the highest tide of the year! What a time to run aground. The tide was so high that the marker on the coral head (a bit of PVC pipe sticking up) was under water! After we had been there a short while, and the tide began to drop, out it came, not far from us. Sheesh!

But it was a sobering experience for me. It was our first time in coral waters, and we had read all about never moving about with low sun angles. We'd meant to leave several hours earlier than we finally did, and that started the train of events: low sun, water no longer rising, huge tide (I wasn't aware of the king tide status, just that it was high water), and there we were stranded. Yep, sobering!

Cheers,

Jim

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Lubber4now

Can you recall if it was an antisink system?

?

Yes it was designed to make your sailboat "unsinkable". I corresponded with them re a 36 ft sailboat and the system would have been around the size of two hockey bags! I would have had to remove my two water tanks to accommodate them. It came with air to fill the bags. Akin to two liferafts stowed down below. Just pull the lanyards and your boat will never sink.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

One of the things we've used our dinghy for was to push Wild Oats X's bow over so they could motor off a shoal in Pittwater.
Ann

WOWSA!!!

You guys got to push an Oatley boat>!>!??? HOW COOL !!!

I would have drawn up a quick contract that henceforth allowed me to crew at my whim...

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Maxingout's story reminded me of one time when we went aground on a coral head in Kaneohe Bay at the top of a king tide. The first thing Jim did was to swim out our anchor, but he saw a giant moray eel, and gave him the anchor. The eel was not interested in the anchor. And it set, but our primaries were not enough to pull it off.
Ann

Can't think that I would have done anything different... except maybe offered fido if the anchor didn't satisfy his curiosity enough for me to exit!

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

In self defense, I gotta say that it was not just a king tide, it was the highest tide of the year! What a time to run aground. The tide was so high that the marker on the coral head (a bit of PVC pipe sticking up) was under water! After we had been there a short while, and the tide began to drop, out it came, not far from us. Sheesh!

But it was a sobering experience for me. It was our first time in coral waters, and we had read all about never moving about with low sun angles. We'd meant to leave several hours earlier than we finally did, and that started the train of events: low sun, water no longer rising, huge tide (I wasn't aware of the king tide status, just that it was high water), and there we were stranded. Yep, sobering!

Cheers,

Jim

That one Jim... Simply sounds like just a few tiny things that when stacked... reached high enough to grab bad luck and pull her in...