The first incident took place a few days ago in Croatia, near Split in the port of Giričić. There, a CCTV camera captured a scene that would take any skipper’s breath away. According to various Croatian media reports, a charter crew apparently intended to head for the marina’s refuelling jetty.
The Czech skipper, Vladimír Lambl, described the sequence of events to Morski.hr: as he approached the petrol station, he first put the engine into neutral and then into reverse. However, instead of slowing the vessel down in this way, the gearbox apparently got stuck in forward gear and the engine went full throttle forwards. Neither the gear lever nor the throttle would respond.
Suddenly, the gearbox and accelerator fail
The Salona 46 is said to have spun out of control within seconds. In the narrow harbour channel, Lambl had to react in a flash. The video shows him steering the yacht – which was hurtling towards a fully occupied jetty – sharply to port at the last moment. In doing so, he managed to thread the rudder blade into the mooring line of a boat moored at the jetty.
Thanks to this daring manoeuvre, the Salona came to an abrupt halt. The crew escaped with a fright, and the damage to the yacht also appears to be limited. According to reports, only the Salona’s rudder blade was damaged and the keel sustained a few scratches. As for the boat moored at the jetty, only its mooring lines were torn. Had the manoeuvre not been successful and had the Salona crashed into the other yachts at full speed, the damage would probably have been considerable.
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A courageous operation by the US Coast Guard
Similarly, the wild ride of a motorboat that had suddenly lost its driver ended without serious incident. In Maryland, the crew of a US Coast Guard vessel chased the boat for several minutes; its driver had apparently fallen overboard earlier. There was apparently no automatic safety shut-off mechanism for the engines designed for such an eventuality. The boat circled near the shore at considerable speed.
With a fair bit of patience and great skill, the helmsman of the coastguard boat finally managed to manoeuvre alongside the unmanned boat. Another crew member bravely climbed over and then brought the boat to a halt. It is nothing short of a miracle that nobody was injured in the incident. The entire dramatic situation can be seen in a YouTube video.
Pascal Schürmann
Editor YACHT
