You ever needed a tow?

Yup , twice in the past 30 years.

Purchased the old single engine woody Artemis a 32 Grenfell express, after the survey's, mechanical and hull. The power had been rebuilt , like new , the prior year before I purchased her. Invoices from a machine shop in Victoria along with receipts from the yard for the work on the Ford industrial 390 , interceptor .

So on my first big cruise heading north I felt comfortable with the information I had on hand. But through Welcome pass she started to push a lot of steam. Backed off the throttle she banged and popped , I managed to get into pirates cove and get the anchor down. Shut her down and checked the plugs, yup water in the cylinders. Pulled valve covers and had six bent push rods, that I had replacements for, along with enough goods to tear down the top and put back together.

Fired up and came home at 1100 rpm a days travel, after a couple of days working on the boat in a real nice spot. Instead of fishing. Then rebuilt the engine at the dock . being a newbee I had no idea insurance covered such < you have to laugh. The manifolds had been reconditioned not new GRRRRRR. Any ways about a year later I was anchored down river and when I went to fire up the timing chain jumped and wa la need a tow home. Yup I should have replaced the chain through the rebuild but it seemed with in tolerance when I rebuilt the engine, oh well. Towed by a buddy cause I did not have a puller with.

Once on Invader about 5 miles from the marina, I lost all the fluid from the steering. Seems when I built the aft cabin one of the fittings through the deck took a hit. The threads be done, but who knew. I had the fix but left the fluid on the dock in a dock box. $ 50.00 bucks for the tow home and two hours later I be up and running. I do apologize for the fluid spill into the river cause it went from the fitting directly to the scupper so I had no idea I had sprung a leak till the better half looked out the back of the boat. Easy to trace from there.

Having a few parts and some tools with good knowledge on systems has served me well. I can go on and on with at sea fixes, and not just on my vessels.

YMMV.

OFB said:

Having a few parts and some tools with good knowledge on systems has served me well. I can go on and on with at sea fixes, and not just on my vessels.

YMMV.

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As I look to moving to a trawler, that is one of my concerns. I definitely don't have the knowledge. In each of the cases you described, I would have been stuck.

A bad impeller? No problem and I always have a spare on hand. Anything beyond that and I am way over my head.

dhays said:

As I look to moving to a trawler, that is one of my concerns. I definitely don't have the knowledge. In each of the cases you described, I would have been stuck.

A bad impeller? No problem and I always have a spare on hand. Anything beyond that and I am way over my head.

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Dude I learned the hard way, by just getting out there , and find the problem solving fun to a point. $hite happens it just do. Enjoy the journey all of it, and always carry a few 5 gallon pails !

dhays said:

As I look to moving to a trawler, that is one of my concerns. I definitely don't have the knowledge. In each of the cases you described, I would have been stuck.

A bad impeller? No problem and I always have a spare on hand. Anything beyond that and I am way over my head.

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Next time I have to change my impeller, I will let you have a crack at it!!!... Not always easy on some installations!!! But I know where you are coming from. An impeller....or a thermostat....both probably the easiest things to change on past engines....not so on mine. Major PIA!!!

But like has been said, diesel engines are relatively simple. Most things that make them quite are within the realm of the average Joe's ability.

OFB said:

...Pulled valve covers and had six bent push rods, that I had replacements for, along with enough goods to tear down the top and put back together.

YMMV.

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Wait a minute, you carry a set of spare push rods on board? What, do you tow a parts barge behind you 24/7? What else do you have in there? You're making me feel woefully inadequate.

kthoennes said:

Wait a minute, you carry a set of spare push rods on board? What, do you tow a parts barge behind you 24/7? What else do you have in there? You're making me feel woefully inadequate.

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If I'm not mistaken, the boy's from New Foundland and smart enough to know he had all the parts he needed on the starboard engine to fix the port one.

I've been towed once, and have towed once. Those cancel each other out, right? I've lost one engine a few times now. Stripped coupler killed the port side, fuel pump died once, had a blocked raw water intake once, and then I had a few instances with a fouled shift cable.

All of those times I was able to chug on with one engine. The one time I was towed, It was when I ran out of gas about 1000 feet from the fuel dock. Luckily a good Samaritan was willing to tow me in with his jet ski.

I have since gotten myself a Towboat US membership, but haven't had to use it. Yet.

A guy waved me down in Ossabaw sound Georgia a few years ago. Center console with wife and 2 kids aboard. I took him under tow with my 19 foot boat but soon realized I didn't have the fuel to pull him to port against the tide. I came aboard his boat to see if I could help troubleshoot why his engine wouldn't start. When I jiggled his shift lever the engine fired right up. Wife eyes shot daggers to her husband. I never even got a thank you as we parted ways.

Hawgwash said:

If I'm not mistaken, the boy's from New Foundland and smart enough to know he had all the parts he needed on the starboard engine to fix the port one.

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Well I am an old ford guy. Grew up with the 352., 360., 390, 428, ford's. Ended up with a couple of rubber mades, parts. One of the reasons I purchased the boat. Knew that power.

Different world today.

Been towed twice. First time the power pack on my outboard went up. Added a 6HP outboard as a get home motor. Second time one of the two bearings in my raw water pump went to pieces bending the pump shaft. Now carry a complete spare raw water pump. I try to learn from my experiences.

Ted

Never been towed with my single, or twin, power boats.
Have towed with my sailboat, years ago, another sailboat in our just completed race, with no wind/defective engine. Unknown to me skippered by a committee member of Royal Sydney Yacht (sailboat)Club, a smart Sydney Club. At that time I was not an RSYS member, but soon was. Towing has its own reward.

In the nineteen sixties, my Dad (and me, as first mate) in his 28-foot auxiliary sloop, towed a five-meter (motorless) racing sloop back to Alameda at the end of a winter-series SF Bay race (which we also participated) when winds became non-existent.

My current boat, however, isn't equipped to tow from astern (no stern cleats; all cleats are abeam).

Been dreaming of my boat for a long time and didn't consider single. I think it depends your cruising grounds and cruising habits. Coastal I may consider one, but it's that one time you are crossing the gulf stream when one quits that you'll be so thankful you maintained two. Crossing the tongue of the ocean between Bimini and Andros on a rough day, I didn't sweat much because I had two. Twice as expensive but three times the piece of mind.

Tow or Salvage

How many are concerned about their insurance and if for some reason it becomes a legal battle regarding tow or salvage?

I've never been towed (knock on wood) but have towed several others. I once towed a V-8 powered jet boat about 1/4 mile with my Sunfish sailboat. They had run out of gas and boy was it fun to help them to the gas dock with my little sail boat. Another time my 1964 27' ChrisCraft Constellation died on me while I was in Cedar Bayou. I had been working on it and foolishly decided to take it for a test spin with only one battery installed. The engine stalled and wouldn't restart. The battery was dead and so I drifted over to the bank and tied to a tree. This happened to be in Baytown and I knew there was a autoparts store nearby. Unfortunately it was on the other side of the bayou. Well, I did what any young foolish person would do and stripped off and swam to the other side, got dressed, and walked to the store and bought a battery. I did have the presence of mind to bring a couple of life jackets with me, stashed them on the bank so that I could use them to float the battery back to the boat. Made it back to the marina and took the old battery in for core charge. LOL.

Kevin

thekuz said:

How many are concerned about their insurance and if for some reason it becomes a legal battle regarding tow or salvage?

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It shouldn't really be much of a legal battle. The tow memberships are pretty clear. From Boat US:

restricted to Paid Services which can be provided with equipment immediately
available to the towing company

soft ungrounding assistance

does not apply to: salvage, including but not restricted to hard groundings, or assistance requiring more than one vessel, pumps, divers, airbags or
other special equipment;​

Now, it's very important for one to be sure their marine insurance policy provides adequate coverage for accidents, hard groundings, salvage, and it should provide even for soft groundings as they are accidents as well. The difference in having to use that policy is that you're now subject to your deductible.

A reminder that a tow policy is not insurance. It is a service agreement. It will cover tows of boats in various situations defined in the membership agreement. That includes the simple removal of a boat from a soft grounding, a situation in which they can assist the boat back to water without the use of any additional equipment and without damage to the grounded boat.

Tow service agreements are for services as described in the agreement and nothing more. The Boat US agreement is one page long. Quite simple.

Sea Tow's agreement is a bit longer. Here is their definition of covered ungroundings:

The member will receive, per incident, free ungrounding assistance to covered vessel(s) when all five of the following conditions apply; the vessel, is in a stable, safe condition, not in dangerous surf or inside a dangerous surf line, surrounded by water on all sides, has some movement (i.e., rocking, or ability to rock), and can be refloated upon initial arrival or at the next high tide in 15 minutes or less by one Sea Tow boat. Ungroundings that do not meet the foregoing criteria are considered salvage services and are invoiced to the member as such.​

Anything beyond is considered salvage and here is the exclusion:

Salvage operations, including, but not limited to, vessels abandoned, wrecked, beached, on fire, damaged by fire, taking on water, sinking, sunk, previously sunk, in the surf or surf line, or in any other state of peril, are not privileges of membership.​

If it's going to require you to call your marine insurance company for damages then most of the time it's going to require them covering it as salvage.

Tow services are just that. "Tow" services. If the service agreement doesn't specifically say the service is covered then in most cases it is not.

Never needed one, but have provided several. Our secret is the 9.9hp kicker.

When it comes to towing, some days end better than others

psneeld said:

Does anyone here feel that admitting to going aground once or more suggests being a lesser skipper?

Seem like even those that are fessing up to going aground once or twice are doing so apologetically.

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I do see that the two times I have gone aground have been because of my own failings. The one time in the Yacht basin, I knew that the water was skinny but I knew the bottom was soft and the tide was rising. I figured it was a risk I was willing to take and that the consequences would be minimal. Even so, it would have been better to not have attempted it than to run any kind of risk, minimal or not.

The second time was due to a misplace channel marker. At least that is what I like to tell myself. In reality, it was the skipper (me) not being careful enough through a channel that I know to be very narrow. I was relying on the aid to navigation. The channel marker is an "aid" to navigation. Ultimate responsibility relies on me as the skipper.

So yeah, in my case I think the groundings, minor as they were, are suggestive of me being less of a skipper than I should be.


Edit: Not sure how this reply jumped to a different thread. I must have done something weird.

Well then...I guess admission all depends.

From my perspective.... many skippers back East here, venture into narrow unmarked and shoal channels to get to marinas, etc and touch bottom countless times and occasionally come to a halt.

They may go aground 5 times just trying to get to a marina they want to visit.

As long as they have the boat for it...no big deal....

Lesser skipper? not in my mind...they are much better than the guy who never has because that guy may have never tried...out of lack of experience, confidence or more reasonably...the wrong kind of boats or just no desire for that kind of boating.

No big deal either way...but for a skipper to admit going aground...without all the circumstances covered...it suggests nothing about their abilities.

Now the guy that does it more than several times a year and requires assistance most of the time...then yes....a little something is in order.

That is maybe a difference being here on in the PNW. We have deep water. Normally, you have to really work at it to go aground. I get nervous with anything less than 20ft under my keel. Folks out East seem to take that in stride.

psneeld said:

Lesser skipper? not in my mind...they are much better than the guy who never has because that guy may have never tried...out of lack of experience, confidence or more reasonably...the wrong kind of boats or just no desire for that kind of boating.

No big deal either way...but for a skipper to admit going aground...without all the circumstances covered...it suggests nothing about their abilities.

Now the guy that does it more than several times a year and requires assistance most of the time...then yes....a little something is in order.

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I think you are getting into semantics. I think "admitting" it is the first step to preventing it in the future. If all you do is blame everyone/everything but yourself, THEN I think you are a lesser skipper.

I think dhays's self reflection is very healthy and a great way to become a better skipper.

I've been towed once, due to running aground coming into a shallow bay. I was relying on the charts rather than my eyes. It was a rising tide, but another boat offered a tow so I accepted it.

I've been broken down many times due to mechanical issues, but have always managed to fix the problem one way or another.

Having no tow service available and very little boat traffic in the area is a good incentive to carry a variety tools/spare parts and to know your boat systems.

One tow was on a sailboat, rudder broke off a few miles offshore on a race from San Francisco to Monterey. We had propulsion but no steerage. The tow in was fun, slinging back and forth at the end of the tow line for a couple of hours in the dark. We sold that boat pretty promptly after it was repaired.
The other time was in the ski boat, when we found out the fuel gauge was broken. both tows courtesy of boat US tow insurance.
We had a friend lose steerage on his twin engine and he would probably have needed a tow but he was so close to the dock he was able to get it tied back up.