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It was late in the sailing season, the 8th October
2009. Tuesday night racing had finished
and Dave and I were well pleased with our race results which showed a
steady progress from being last to becoming second occasionally. With just
over a week to go before lift out we were motoring down through the
narrows on a lovely late summer day with the sun shining, little wind but
with the feeling that it was great to be retired and out on the water on
such a lovely day, life was great.
As we passed Mount Edgecombe we heard something hard hit the bottom of the
hull, we both jumped up and looked over the stern to see what had hit us,
but could not see anything untoward so we carried on motoring. In the
sound we managed to hoist the sails and sail across to Penlee Point but
once around the wind was on our nose so on went the motor again. We
stopped just short of Rame Head and drifted for a while for Dave to fish.
We had taken to having a fry up on these days out so I went below to start
frying. I should have realised that things would not go right today when I
found that I had forgotten to bring the knives, forks and plates. But
sailors are resourceful types, so Dave’s lunch box lid and lunch box
became two plates, Dave’s fishing knife become one knife while I used the
tea spoon to scoop up the beans and slice up my bacon and egg.
After another hour or so of still not catching any fish we started back,
again sailing so far but once inside the breakwater the wind died
completely so on went the motor again. As we were passing Cremyll the
engine started making a funny noise and would not speed up. I looked into
the engine compartment and found that it was flooded. We always take the
tender outboard motor with us when ‘deep water’ sailing (anything outside
the breakwater is deep water sailing to us) so we started it and got back
on our mooring as fast as we can pumping frantically on the bilge pump all
the way. The tide had just turned when we arrived at the mooring and was
now on its way in.
Once on the mooring we tried to see where the water was coming from, the
most obvious place was the stern seal gland but we didn’t have a spanner
big enough on board to tighten it. Dave rang his son Matthew who was home
in Plymouth to bring over a large adjustable spanner. When Matthew was on
the Torpoint side I rowed across to the ferry slip (our mooring is just
South of the ferry) leaving Dave still frantically pumping the bilge pump.
I thanked Matthew and returned to the boat and tried to do up the stern
seal but it was already tight. We then noticed that the water was coming
from behind the stern seal, from a fine crack between the hull and the
stern tube. We had some mastic tape in our toolbox so we started stuffing
this into the crack but we didn’t quite have enough to stem the flow. Dave
said he had some more at home in his garage, so we called Matthew again
who had just returned home to go and find the mastic tape. I am not
suggesting that Dave’s garage is untidy, but Matthew couldn’t find the
mastic but being a very resourceful chap he switched his mobile phone into
video picture mode and Dave was watching on his phone saying left a bit,
up, up in front of you. So Matthew jumped into his car and came across the
ferry again, Dave rowed across to the ferry slip while it was my turn to
keep pumping. With now a complete roll of mastic tape in our hands we were
confident of stemming the flow, but it made no difference. As the tide was
on the way in we thought that if we were going to sink then it would be
better to sink nearer the shore!
We used the outboard to motor into the
club wall and then realised that the tide would take a long time to go out
from here, possibly near midnight, so we moved around to the beach and
pulled ourselves up as the tide came in, high tide was about 9pm. The tide seemed to take
forever to go out but by about 10.30 pm the tide had gone out enough to
see the problem, the bottom cutlass bearing housing bolt had come out
allowing water to travel up outside the stern tube and through the
hairline crack where it entered the engine compartment. It was the bolt
that had hit us on the way out so we had been taking in water since about
mid morning. A plan was quickly devised which involved another bolt and
plenty of silkaflex I arranged to pick up Dave about 06:15hrs the next morning
which would give us enough time to do the repair before the tide came back
in.
Any one who has had a near sinking will know that you don’t sleep much
knowing the tide is coming in and that you still have a hole in your boat.
So it was that I was up about 05:00hrs collecting things to take, I even
packed a pair of swimming shorts just in case I had to go in, thought
about taking a mask and snorkel but decided that was a bit over the top. I
arrived at Dave’s about 05:45hrs to find him in his garage finding things to
take with us. When we reached the boat at Torpoint the tide was about 30''
from the rudder, thankfully one of the bolts we had brought fitted the
bottom thread so I quickly undid the top bolt and pulled the cutlass
bearing housing away from the hull slightly, the water was by now lapping
the rudder. I squeezed some Silkaflex in behind the bearing housing, the
water now at my knees I started to think that perhaps I should have
brought the snorkel. The tide that we waited for so long to go out last
night was now coming in at an alarming rate, good job we were here earlier
than planned. The two bolts were very hastily inserted and done up tight
and we retreated to dry land. One option was to leave the boat on the
beach, as all the tides until the following Friday were lower so she would
have sat there quite safely and she would be coming out on the Sunday. As
it was the leak sealed as the boat lifted off and we put her back on the
moorings, panic over. We checked her throughout the week and our temporary
repair held fast, but we were both pleased when she was safely on dry
land. Over the winter we replaced the cutlass bearing and sealed the
hairline crack and bedded the bearing housing in properly with new bolts
that we ‘moused’ with stainless steel wire. We also did some other
improvements like a new engine panel and fitted a fuse panel. Dave made a
mast-bending device so we are looking to winning a few bottles of wine
this season; in fact he is clearing a space in his cellar to fit a wine
rack
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