diesel engine maintenance and powerboat seamanship 173
following preparations before you approach an inlet. Attach 10 feet of
chafing chain to the working anchor. Pull 75 feet of nylon rode out of
the locker. Check for chafe and remove the kinks and hockles (twists).
Coil it back down into the locker. Now you know it’s ready to run free
without jamming on the spill pipe.
Cockpit-rigged emergency anchor. Consider rigging the main, bow anchor
to deploy from the cockpit. Th is keeps your crew off the pitching, rolling
foredeck in an emergency. You don’t want to experience a man overboard
inside an inlet. To do this, set the chain stopper. Pull out 75 feet of anchor
rode and lead the bight (loop of line) aft. Keep the line outside all rails,
stanchions, shrouds, or other obstructions. Pull the line leading from the
anchor taut, and cleat it off to a stern cleat. Coil the rest of the line near the
stern cleat, ready to feed out. Go forward and release the chain stopper.TWENTY SECONDS TO AVOID DISASTER
Here’s the time factor: 10 seconds to get to the bow and pick up the anchor and
10 seconds for the anchor to set (if you’re lucky). Th at gives you a total of
20 seconds before disaster strikes. And that’s on a well-prepared vessel. Lose an
engine or both engines in an inlet without the hook ready for an emergency set,
and you’ll probably pile up on a jetty or shoal. Let’s look at an example and bring
some previously learned nav-math into the mix.
The current inside the inlet is running at 4 knots, with shoals located
just outside the 100-yard-wide channel. Our plan is to stay in the middle of
the channel as we make our way in from seaward. But if we were to lose our
engines, how far would we drift based on the tidal current speed?
In Chapter 3, you learned about the 3-minute rule. Use that method here.
Add two zeroes to the right of a speed (in knots) to find the corresponding
distance traveled (in yards) in 3 minutes. For instance, at 4 knots, distance
traveled = 400 yards in 3 minutes. Now go to the example:
At 4 knots, we would drift 400 yards in 3 minutes. In 1 minute, we would
drift 133 yards (400 ÷ 3).
In 20 seconds, we would drift 44 yards (133 ÷ 3). (See Drift Rate table,
Appendix I.)
If we are midchannel when the casualty happens, we’re 50 yards from disaster.
Excluding the effects of vessel momentum or wind drift, we might make it if
the anchor sets right away.PREPARATIONS TO ENTER OR EXIT AN INLET
Now that you’ve gone through the evaluation checklist, make an entry/exit
preparation checklist to get your crew and boat ready. Th is list has fi ve criti-
cal tasks.