Grounded Boat, advice ???

[WheresTheBrakes]

So I went to help refloat Distant Star today..
She's a 36 Pearson
having a hard time trying to figure out what to do..
So I made a picture to show you whats going on..
on the left is the pretty dry marsh, then mud then water, our tide comes up about 5 feet..

She is lying on her port side about 1/4 to 1/3 submerged.. listed over about 75 degrees

at her current location, her hatches/companionway is in deeper water than her keel, so any attempts at sucking the water out with a gas pump, results in fighting the water flooding in..

To complicate things, the starboard chainplate (the one out of the water) was undergoing a refit and can't be trusted with much more pressure than it's currently getting..

My gut feeling is to try to rotate the whole boat, so that the hatches/companion way would be more likely to be dry to help the pump get some of the water out..

today we went at low tide and attempted to dig a hole under the keel enough to try and winch her from the toerail over toward the marsh..
needless to say it didn't work..

we also tied the anchor line to the back of a small center console and attempted to "twist her" as the tide came in which didn't work..

The only joy we had today, which i still can't believe, was sinking a big anchor in the dryish marsh and then putting 4:1 tackle between the big anchor and the anchor line.. 4 guys were able to twist the bow about 3-4 feet closer to the shore..

so, my thoughts now are:

Will it float 1/3 full, assuming we can keep the mast out of the water. (what angle would it have to be at to right itself..) the theory her is if we could get her to sit up just a little bit, we might be able to clear the side of the cockpit from the water and pump her out.. that has to help make her lighter..

I thought that putting the anchor rode back to one of the giant winches and throwing out 3 anchors in a x if we could grind the winch and pull the bow into deeper water..

we could also put a bigger boat on the stern and try to drag that around..
deeper water doesnt solve the 1/3 full of water..


OF COURSE my preferred method would either be a chinook helicopter or the Budweiser clydesdales in the marsh, pulling like hell on the top of the mast, but both of those ideas were ruled out by the weak starboard chainplate..

Thanks for any advice, we'll try it out tomorrow...please don't suggest dynamite..

Joey

[scottyt]

i posted before the idea of sand bags to try to stop the water coming in, stack em up on the rail til above water level then pump.

another idea truck inner tubes lashed under the hull, pump em up for floataion to get the low side up, then pump

you could also try the inner tube thing in the boat, less water to pump out. tie to what ever you can low down in the boat, under seetes what ever.

you could also try thin ply wood screwed to the walls of the cockpit to stem the flow back in. only problem is lots of little hole to be filed with marine tex later, but least of problems.

how about a bunch of anchors out deep, and try to slide the boat out to deeper water so she can stand up.

when i had to beach my boat i did not go low rail out to sea, but i was able to rotate her like you are trying

you might want to put an anchor to shore one way put lots of tension, and one at the other end out to sea with lots of tension. let the tide coming in turn her, just keep the tension going, its how i turned my boat

[scottyt]

okay after looking at the pics again, i think i have an idea. go buy lots of plumbers putty or duckseal. open the roof hatch. use putty or duck seal to seal off the companion board and everything else ( sliding compainion cover hatch boards etc )that will let water in to the boat then pump out the roof hatch, dont worry about the cockpit right now

ps i am unemployed right now for a round trip bus ticket and food i will work my ass off for a week. or if anyone else wants to drive i will come down and help for food. a real good excuse to get away from the wife for a week

[seabreeze_97]

I think I'd grab her by the snout and pivot her out so that as she broke loose, she'd rotate about 90 degrees and be pointed to the deeper water. With a stout powerboat the rotation and pull could be adjusted as to minimize further negative roll until she were in a more stable upright situation (perhaps a stern line to an anchor onshore to hold the stern and help roll her upright), whence pumping could be done. The idea would be to get the nose towards the deeper water and let the ballast work to bring the boat upright as the ground falls away. Granted, she may just ride further down with the added weight, but the water will flood downward and act as even more ballast to (against the towing on the nose) induce an upright roll. Pump her out and pull further out. I'd try to do at high tide with minimal current. Well, that's what I'd do. Rip that bandaid, scream, and get it over with.

[scottyt]

okay i am brain storming here sorry multible posts

here is an idea that may dewater hull pretty easily but not too cheaply. two part foam poured in to trash bags shoved in to the boat. start in the front and work way back to companion way, and i mean fill it

just checked one 2 gallon kit will expand to about a 100 gallons of water worth of space. so a half kit in to a 50 gallon trash bag, tie it off real fast and pack it in while it expands, then do another. problem is its 100 bucks for a 2 gallon kit

[celenoglu]

First yu have to stop water ingress and then pump the water inside the boat. You might try using your old sails or plastic material to cover the holes that are below the water level. You should find a way to attach the cover to each hole indivudually or you can try to cover all the side with one big piece of cloth. I know it is not an easy job but this is the only way. This method is tried more than once and always succeeded.

[MMR]

Originally Posted by celenoglu

First yu have to stop water ingress and then pump the water inside the boat. You might try using your old sails or plastic material to cover the holes that are below the water level. You should find a way to attach the cover to each hole indivudually or you can try to cover all the side with one big piece of cloth. I know it is not an easy job but this is the only way. This method is tried more than once and always succeeded.

See photos in original thread....
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/genera...ly-sucked.html

[captainjay]

You need float bags, professional grade. I looked at the photos in the other thread. You need to attach the bags to the starboard side of the boat at the cleats or any other solid point. Try to get that side up a little, then you are going to need a power boat with good power to drag the bow out towards the deeper water. Once it pulls into the six foot or so water it will right its self and you can pump the remaining water out to stabilize it. Good luck
Jay

[sailingdog]

I'd try pivoting the boat clockwise and swinging her 180˚ or as close to that as possible to get the keel over the deeper water. That should also allow here to tip more upright and help prevent water from downflooding as the tide rises. Adding large flotation bags inside the boat isn't a bad idea either...just in case.

[ambianceack]

As captainjay stated you need air bag jacks. These are bags used in jacking houses and even boats on the ground. You need a generator to power an air compressor, hoses appropriate fittings and some cribbing, usually 6"x6"x3' blocks of wood, scrape wood is also helpful. In summary, insert flattened air bag under boat then inflate due to the mud use a sheet of plywood to displace the wieght on the mud then place cribbing next to air bag to support your lift. deflate air bag, place on cribbing and raise another six inches and so on. Essentially six inch lifts or more if you have more air bags. Once you create a pivot point spin the boat using a line and another boat. Then continue raising the boat as before, once up high enough you might be able to support using boat stands. The problem is you are on mud so plywood 5/8 to 3/4" might be necessary to displace the weight You then might need build a temporary cradle or something to drag/support the boat upright into deeper water.