145. Boat repairs and a Solution

Only a few weeks ago, the vessel Lorna II had been into the boat yard for repairs including the replacement of an alternator and a new starter motor to the tune of six hundred pounds. So when the starter motor fried again, the Captain was least pleased.

Now when you really do need help and very quick help can you get it?-no, you stand more chance having it off with the Man in the Moon.

Three days later the boat was repaired thus prolonging our trip by a further three days. The engineer replaced the ignition switch, the relay and the starter motor thus eliminating any fault that could have caused two previous starter motors to burn out. For the engineers amongst readers of this book, the fault was caused by the ignition key failing to spring back into position when released , meaning that the starter motor was continually under the full power of the battery.

Now in the medical field it is well known the order for the treatment of illnesses is first diagnosis and then prognosis. Well in the case of boating, the reverse applies. You treat the symptom and then think about what caused it in the first place and of course, the boater has to foot the bill during the random guesswork stage. However, when you are stranded in the middle of nowhere and miles away from home, they have you by the short and curlies.

When back home the Captain was telling his wife about the breakdown, she remembered about the time that they had been boating up to Oxford and they had broken down.”Don’t you remember  Jimmy when we had just bought the boat and we broke down near Sandford and had to put the boat on a sand bar to stop us sinking , and that guy with the funny haircut  from that breakdown service came out and helped us  , now what was it called---something like Boat Rescue,no RCR, River and Canal Rescue ,yes that’s it, you should look into that again” Yes my baby” came the Captain’s reply, I’ll do it straight away”.A few minutes later the Captain came back and said “Yep, it’s called River and Canal  Rescue and it costs a couple of hundred quid for up to seven rescues a year including a range of repairs, I’ll subscribe to it today.”And before you say it ,it is   always easy to be wise after the event isn’t “

After a delay of several days, the crew returned to their beloved Lorna II and continued their boating excursion eastwards .Their destination for the night being Windsor or there abouts.