Someone's Tophat nearly sank

[Troppo]

Having an extremely rare weather event in Central Qld, several days of heavy rain and gale force winds. If it was summer it would not be rare but this is our dry season.

The Fitzroy River has flooded overnight. Again, that is rare as it requires heaps of local rain. A summer flood is not rare but usually the rain has fallen up in the catchment somewhere else and can take several weeks to come down.

This morning I went down to the river. A super massive amount of weed was coming down. And logs.

Saw someone's Tophat almost going under.

boat sink 01.jpg (443.5 KiB) Viewed 3328 times

Gosh, that's my boat, that's Windchaser.

What is not obvious in the photo are the waves and water speed. Wind-against-current were making waves, some up to a metre high. The current is scary fast. In the dinghy I had to watch I was not hit by logs and islands of weed.

Just pause at this point, what would you do if you came across your boat in this situation? You are in an 11 foot aluminium dinghy with 9.8 hp motor, you have a lifejacket on and in the dinghy you are carrying the big boat's tiller as you had been working on it . . . .

[Troppo]

Okay, have you had a think what you would do if it was you in the dinghy looking at your boat in distress. Decided what you would do?

What I did was take some photos and head back to the shore. The conditions were too wild for me to get on board. She could have gone under if any of the thousand logs and weed-islands hit her. I needed to put the tiller on, lower the outboard, get the fuel tank from the cockpit locker, get the fuel hose from the cabin, get the anchor out from the cabin and attach to the anchor chain. I had to dump the mooring rope. At that point, I believed the mooring rope was under weed but now at home viewing the pictures, I can see the rope was not under the weed. For one guy in a small dinghy, too dangerous.

As I headed back, two guys I know in a half-cabin runabout came past and offered me some help. At that point, I did not want to attempt it, didn't know exactly what could be done, so I said "No."

I had my dinghy out of the water at the club and unsure what to do when I got a txt from another bloke I know who had moved his boat to the side of the river out of the weed and worst of the flow. He said Windchaser was now free.

Two guys in a big sharkcat had positioned themselves in front of Windchaser, thrown an anchor over the weed and logs and pulled them off. Windchaser popped up and seemed ok.

So, I put the dinghy in, went down, needed about half throttle just to stay still beside her, grabbed the side, tied up, climbed on board, put on the tiller, put the motor down, got the anchor and so on.

Windchaser is now sitting anchored in 4 metres of water at the side of the river which is free of floating weed. She has taken some damage but only appears superficial. It seems someone else tried to remove the weed and log and bent the pulpit.

Inside, the bilge pump was running but was keeping the bilge empty. The sink had waterweed in it. The sink valve was open at the time the boat was in distress and obviously she was pulled down far enough for water to come UP the sink hose into the sink.

So, all in all, a very exciting morning. I went down to move my boat, thought she was truly lost, got her back, moved her. Who said boating was dull!

Louis

[Shaun]

Wow, that's full on Louis, glad to hear only superficial damage & not a complete loss.
You did the right thing I reckon, I wouldn't have risked it.
cheers

[Miker]

Good decision to wait it out Louis, unless you had a lot of help on had at the time.

Boats, no matter how much you love them, can be replaced, or repaired. Not so for the human body...

[Phillip]

When I saw that you had posted the subject Troppo, I though hang on, that's got to be your Top Hat and sure enough it is.

I know the feelings you were going through when your pride and joy is threatened.

But as you and others have said, you made the right decisions.
Your real luck was those blokes in the sharkcat when they did their good deed for the day [hope you have brought them some rum ].
Don't forget to pass that good deed onto someone else in the future.

One thing is sure, I am really really glad I did not go north to the Whitsundays this year!!!!!

[Troppo]

Yes Phillip, those guys in the sharkcat deserve a reward. I have been chasing them up but not caught them yet.

And yes, it has not been kind sailing weather.

A couple I know with a 25 footer, much more modern than a Tophat and a great internal layout (but he is the first to admit it is woeful to sail) had come up the coast from Brisbane, were staying at Keppel Island and decided to go to the marina at Rosslyn Bay rather than come up the river to Rockhampton to hide from the coming bad weather. I bet they are now glad they did not come up the river!

Louis