Thursday 31 March 2016

"My my my Delilah"...

"My my my Delilah
Why why why Delilah
I could see, that girl was no good for me
But I was lost like a slave that no man could free"...
Lyrics by Tom Jones

...passed by the sailing club this morning on the way to work (just to make sure the mast was where David and I left it 😏) and as it was a low tide thought I'd check out "Delilah" the Langstone Harbour Board moorings service/maintenance vessel...


Sometime overnight on the 27th she broke her mooring and then made the following trip....


 Little over 5 nautical miles if I read the scale right...  even more amazing, just before she ended up where she did, she either went through, or across, this...


She ended up just about where that white yacht in the background is - in the first picture you can see the blocks in the background - I'm guessing she went over one of those concrete pilings (they're the old bridge supports for the Hayling Billy railway line) as the navigable route is through the middle of the larger metal towers, and it's narrow even if she were under control...

Not without damage though - starboard side superstructure damage (in top picture), but she's also been grievously bashed, and holed, underneath..


Bottom plates are well and truly buckled....


Going to need some welding before she moves...  the "good" news is that it doesn't appear to be a huge hole, I couldn't see any other damage, and she'll float in 10 feet (from the depth marks) and there's easily that where she is...

More here: http://www.ybw.com/news-from-yachting-boating-world/storm-katie-gales-barge-sailing-hits-bridge-18203

3 comments:

  1. Steve, like I said at the weekend that's some journey it took. Now I can see that it didn't do it entirely without incident. I'd bet money the ripples in the hull are from the pilings of the Billy Line Bridge. It certainly didn't drift through that tiny gap in the middle!

    It'll be stuck there for a while, certainly until the next Spring tide and I just wonder if the 5.1m next week is high enough to get it over. I really doubt it.

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    Replies
    1. Mark - they'll never get it over the pilings.. no more than 3 or 4 feet, maybe 6? is all I've ever seen... it's either she squeezes out through the gap (and I can't find any details of how wide it is, or how wide she is) or they crane her out...???

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    2. Mark - she's gone - went sometime this week so I'm guessing they managed to get her through the gap...!

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