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Well Peter,
that sounds awfully familiar so don't beat yourself up too much over it.
Many years ago (like 30) I had a 16 foot aluminum water-skiing boat which I
often used for ocean fishing as long as the weather was both calm and
predictable. At some point, I decided the boat needed new
paint. So I stripped everything off of it (windshield, tie-offs,
speed-ometer, etc) and brought it to a local auto painter who duly did the
job. The boat went in white, and came out a beautiful tone of blue.
I even named it and had my girlfriend letter-paint the name on both sides of the
boat.
Proud as a
peacock with my newly painted boat, I decided to head out on the Atlantic for a
day of fishing. Nobody was available to join me at the time, but both the
day and the ocean were flat-calm so I had no problem going out by myself.
So I headed out about two miles from shore, threw over the anchor, and
started fishing. I was engrossed in the perfect day, the perfect water
conditions, and just relaxing in my boat fishing. A short time later, I
noticed the carpet toward the back of the boat was damp. Odd...it hadn't
rained the night before and it was blistering hot this particular day.
Hmmm...well, maybe a neighbor sprayed water in it accidentally while watering
their lawn back at home, or maybe....yeah, must be that on my way out to the
fishing area some water sprayed in...damn outboards.
So I ignored
the damp carpet and I continued to fish. A short time later still, I
stepped back again and now noticed that there was about two inches of water on
the carpet at the back of the boat. What??? I pulled back the
partition at the stern where the gas tanks were located and it was flooded so
badly that the tanks were floating. It became obvious that water was
entering through the stern and my boat was slowly sinking. Here I
was, two miles off shore, nobody else anywhere in sight (it was a weekday),
no radio, no way to call for help, nobody knows exactly where I am, and my boat
that I just spent hundreds of dollars repainting was going
down.
Its amazing
the number of thoughts that go through your mind in such situation. I
figured if I was going to have to swim to shore, I was going to get as close as
I could. So I tried lifting the anchor, but couldn't. I never had
trouble raising the anchor before, but this time it was stuck. Screw it, I
cut the line and said goodbye to the anchor. I started the engine and
headed into shore. If I could just get halfway there before the engine
went under, I figured I could make it the rest of the way swimming. I was
able to plane the boat and it suddenly occurred to me that when it was planing,
the water drain in the back of the boat was above the water line. But I
was by myself...how can I keep the boat going full speed, leave the wheel, and
pull the plug?? Well, thank goodness there was nobody else near me because
desperate times call for desperate measures. I left the wheel with the
boat at full throttle, went to the stern, scooched down and pulled the
plug. About 10 minutes later the water inside the boat had all drained
out. Just before getting back to the dock, again with the boat at full
throttle, I left the wheel and returned to the stern to replace the water
plug.
I made it to
the dock, got my trailer back down the ramp and loaded the boat on it. All
the way home I wondered what could have possibly happened? I finally
concluded that the auto shop must have dropped the boat and damaged the bottom,
maybe popped some rivets that were now letting water in. However, as I
walked around the boat I noticed something. The holes for the screws that
held the transom based speed unit, were below the water line and in my haste to
get the boat back on the water I had decided I didn't need a speedometer and so
never reinstalled the unit. Well, that was the source of my leak, which I
confirmed after reinstalling the unit and putting the boat back in the
water. Talk about stupid!!!
So Peter, you
are not alone. As we say here in the US, welcome to the
club.
Jon
Dear Psubbers,
One of the things
that are quite seldom here is operational stories - what you experience when
going out with your subs. Half an hour ago Nautilus arrived at her base with
me a serious lesson richer - and here is the story...of the boyancy crisis and
how we almost lost control...
Todays voyage was to start at 1400 hours,
with the crew arriving at 1300. We intended to take a joy ride through the
Copenhagen Harbor, and into the sound - ending at our northern base. Its about
8 nautical miles and we expected to sail for about two hours.
We had a
very special crew, and a very special guest - Richard. R. is a "very high
ranking" retired US navy submariner - who at age 70 visited the Nautilus. He
has had the command of several US diesel and nuclear submarines. Also we had
Daniel, a former Danish navy submarine TKO - technical officer and one navy
surface ship navigator. Ad two navy seals - off duty - and you have a crew
with quite some experience.
Nautilus performed very well, and as we
passed the shipyard area where she was build, we came ashore and visited the
drydock where Kraka lies. She is operational, but disused and awaits going to
the Danish Technical Museum. All the crew were most happy, in no small part
Richard. The new coffee machine in the gally was tested and worked well.
Into the sound we increased speed to flank. We had three person in the
sail, no fuel in the tanks ( we run her from a jerrycan ) and all tanks blown.
As a result the stability margin is marginal - al as expected. We had som
osciliations giving some 30 deg. swings as we whent flank speed, som we
discussed ways to increase stabilty. One of the questions to be asked is if
the free uncontroled water surface in the main tanks will make the boat more
unstable than the potential stabilicing effect of the boat deaper in the
water. To test this we came to stop, and manually wented air from the fwd and
rear main ballast tanks.
The boat is not finished. There are no
blowing tubes or valves inside, but form outside - via a hose you can blow the
tanks. Also the diving valves at this stage can only be operated from outside.
The fwd. valve was opened, and this tank floded about 50 %. The rear
tank was opened, and it floded about 50 %. Nautilus was lying at a deep trim -
her fwd hatch closed, and with a free board of about 2 meters to the sail
hatch. Aparently stable...
Then one of the deck crew reports - "Sir, -
we are still sinking in the stern" And yes - the rear diveplane was now slowly
submerging...ok - I go check the valve, its closed and tight...but we are
still sinking slowly...water begins covering the rear deck...
I gues I
build submarines in part to feal that thrill...Ups...did we mis a step here
?...like mission control in Houston you start to figure out - what in the hell
is going on - while staying calm. You try to be in advance of the situation -
How deep will we except this to go - what actions need to be taken - how much
boyancy do we have in the sail - what is the mechanisem behind
this...
Then mr. Madsen, Master and Comander of his home made submarine
flotilla - realises that the rear trim tank - enourmours at some 1.5 m3, is
floding uncontroled due to a flange remowed ( to mount the new tube. )
Frankly - at this point I did not know when this was going to be
stable. We could have ended up much like the U-505 ( se pic from her US navy
capture ) with only the top of the sail and the bow above water. If so, I
would have ordered the sail hatch closed - engine shut down and the crew out
of the engineroom and on deck. Likely our fwd hatch would never have gone
under since most of the bouyancy in the bow was still there. At the end - with
both hatches closed the boat would stay surfaced a some angle, but holy shit,
how stupid can a man be ?
As it was Nautilus stabiliced with the water
just below the deck level, and with the bow at about normal trim. No problem
at all, Kraka has lived her life like that - but this was not because of my
talent or smartness, no - just simple luck.
Carsten and his Germans
will now tell me how stupid I am - and I agree. I for my part told Richard the
story of the Seydlitz, a German WWI battlecruiser returning to port after the
Battle of Jutland with all of the fore deck under water...only to be repaired
and returned to service...and scuttled at Scarpa.
The good thing about
it was that everybody was calm and working together to finde the cause - and
we quickly did - and then we continued at slow first. Indeed with her tanks
part floded Nautilus was far more stable, and we increased to flank speed
while seeing the bow raising under the hydrodynamic force of the rear planes.
( so are we going to sink when we slow down ?! )
We did not - we got
fine to port, blew the tanks, and there she is safe and sound.
Richard, our navy comander - gave me a US Navy officers badge, and
said a lot of nice things - that I really fell I don´t deserve after this
ordeal that was all my fault - but I have decided to learn from it. Not so
much in the detail - since its a specialty - that we will never see again, but
as a lesson in the safe operation of big dangerous machines. I may sound
stupid, but whenever you get to the edge of what you have done before, slow
down, analyse carefully before taking the next sted. I failed to do so -
because of the exelent way the boat and crew was performing in other
irralevant ways.
The missing part for that flange cost about 2 US
doller.
Have a nice day - and don´t play with water with out adult
attention...
Best regards,
Peter
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