"Joe" wrote in message
...

Cecil,greg,wilbur, neal, ect..ect..

I've had a dozen or so failures I can recall.

First in diego garcia on this boat before it was converted:
http://www.ship564.org/boats.html


Hey, it's the "Skipper's" boat from Gilligan's island!


They ID the boat due to a repair made after loosing steering and
hitting a cement anchor bouy. No one was hurt. Cable broke


Duh! How come you so-called professionals don't do a visual inspection of
systems from time to time. Sounds like you just accept the fact that things
will fail from time to time and never even bother looking for wear and tear.
Cables just don't break all of a sudden. They usually show signs of wear
like fraying, splitting, etc.


One on a tug pushing 250 thousand gallons of diesel in a fuel flat.
Was in a meeting situation in the ICW. Luckly it was caused by blowing
a stb hydro hose, and the barge rammed the mud bank, had it been the
port side it would have put the barge if front of a loaded gravel
barge. We were in a 1 whistle agreement passing when it blew. Fixed
that by replacing the hose.


An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Where's the visual
inspection and/or timely replacement schedule? Ignored because of ignorance
and stupidity? Thought so.


Crew & Supply boats....a dozen times, Pumps mostly, clogged
filters..nothing serious, most boats had redundant units.

Duh! And again, Duh! Filters are supposed to be changed out on a schedule
prior to them clogging.


And RedCloud. It had a worm gear unit like this :
http://www.2carpros.com/how_does_it_...g_gear_box.jpg
Just much more beefy. On the output shaft was a fulcrum to a fulcrum
on the rudder shaft top. The tie rod between them was 1" steel rod and
failed were the fulcrum attached to the rod on the output shaft of the
worm gear. Without stops the rod after sheering went through the
hull.


Duh! Again a visual inspection probably would have revealed a cracked weld
prior to catastrophic failure. Where were your eyes? Tie rods have tie rod
ends, right? These should be inspected regularly for wear and tear and
lubrication, right? A one-inch diameter hole or even several one inch
diameter holes certainly could have had rags stuffed into them to stem the
ingress of water to such an extent that bilge pumps should have been able to
handle the chore.
That steel rod could have been removed at the tie rod ends, welded and
re-fitted had the boat a welder which it should have had. It's just dumb to
sail a large steel boat without some sort of welder. Duh.

Joe, I still think you need an attitude adjustment. You seem clueless when
it comes to preventative maintenance and system inspection and repair. Is
this the way so-called professionals operate? A feeling that "**** happens"
with no methods in place to keep **** from happening or at least slowing it
down?


I guess I could be called an expert now, I paid the tuition cost.


If I were your professor I would make you take the classes again. It's
obvious you haven't learned preventive maintenance and having a plan if and
when a failure of some sort occurs in spite of preventive maintenance.

How about you? Have many times have you lost steering, bent props, had
fires, had injured crew, rescued anyone, been in a wreck, made a penny
as a Captain? (imaginary times and fairy tales not included)


I've sailed thousands of miles offshore, nearshore, and inland. The worst
failure I've ever had was a broken-in-two boom. Other than magnafluxing the
boom from time to time I don't see any preventative maintenance that would
have eliminated that breakage. Repaired the boom myself and it remains
stronger than new to this very day.

Never had an injured crew. (I don't ship weakling, inexperienced amateurs or
females!)

Never bent a prop. Real sailboats have little need of props anyway.

Never lost steering. Have reliable, balanced spade rudder that will turn 360
degrees with reliable cast aluminum tiller.

Had a couple of little galley fires easily extinguished, and one brandy fire
in the bilge after a bottle burst when the boat was struck by lightning.

Never needed rescue. Never shall because I'll drown like a man before
suffering such an indignity. This attitude will go a long ways towards
keeping me from ever needing rescue.

Never had a wreck. I know and follow the rules of the road.

Made money as a captain but as a side-job and part time and on my terms.
So-called professional captains around here who work the headboats, dive
boats etc. make 100 dollars a day with NO benefits. Only an idiot works for
peanuts like that.



Wilbur Hubbard