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General Sailing Forum

Boat trip hits rock bottom

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jm
Captain

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Canada
290 Posts

Initially Posted - 05/05/2004 : 17:09:22

This is just a clip from our local newspaper. Small Ontario town located on east shore of Lake Huron. It's not a rip on powerboaters, just a window on the normality of new boat ownership. Probably happens all the time, all over the world. This one just happened to be in my backyard, so its seems interesting. The kicker is the second last paragraph from the bottom (no pun intended) Mandatory boat operator licensing can't happen soon enough. And they were lucky - water temps of Lake Huron in April aren't conducive to waiting for help in the water.

<snip>

Boat trip hits rock bottom

A boat trip from Grand Bend to Meaford was cut short a week ago Saturday, April 24, after the cabin cruiser hit a rock off the Pine River and was driven ashore by four-foot waves.

<jm note - for those not familiar with Lake Huron, motoring from Grand Bend to Meaford implies rounding the Bruce Pennisula, which has probably produced the most number of shipwrecks between Huron and Georgian Bay over the last 100 years. It's probably best their journey ended as quickly as it did - the waters they were attempting to navigate may not have provided such a "soft landing".> Yep, the glass is always half full for me.. note end>

Herb Paetzold, a captain with the Blue Water Rescue Unit, out of Kincardine, says the Mysis rescue boat had only been in the water an hour or so on April 24, when it received its first call of the season.

He says a man and his wife had bought the 25-foot cabin cruiser the previous day in Grand Bend.

After the boat washed ashore on Lurgan Beach at about 11 a.m., just north of the Pine River, the couple walked to a nearby cottage. The resident phoned the OPP which took the sailors to the Kincardine harbour and the rescue unit.

Paetzold says the Mysis left the harbour at 1:15 p.m. to see if it could pull the boat off shore but the water was too shallow and too rough.

He says the cabin cruiser had no charts and the owner had no idea how to operate the boat's radio or GPS system.

The boat was removed Thursday.

Edited by - jm on 05/06/2004 09:07:08

Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 05/05/2004 : 17:21:36

Edited by - on

OJ
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4382 Posts

Response Posted - 05/05/2004 : 17:57:30

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by jm
 . . . It's not a rip on powerboaters . . . <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Darn! We haven't roasted a powerboater here in a while

Edited by - on

Raskal
Navigator

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USA
162 Posts

Response Posted - 05/05/2004 : 18:28:58

I don't know how it works in Canada, but on this side our powerboating couple could have been handed a hefty fine for not reporting the oil/gas spillage immediately, which they undoubtedly would have known nothing about. It's kind of a surcharge on the already stupid...

Rich K.

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Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 05/05/2004 : 23:12:41

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Darn! We haven't roasted a powerboater here in a while !<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Yummeeeeeee

Oscar, in the studio playing Buffet tunes.....

Edited by - on

oldsalt
Admiral

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USA
578 Posts

Response Posted - 05/06/2004 : 16:59:14

Stick a fork in it, it's done.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 05/06/2004 : 21:56:15

Then there was the 60+ foot stinkpot that spent several days high on a rocky reef just off the shore of our town after a "professional captain" tried to take it from Norwalk, CT to New York City one evening... Somehow, he missed the flashing red on the big nun just off the reef... or something. Quite a sight.

Edited by - on

thacket3
Navigator

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USA
101 Posts

Response Posted - 05/07/2004 : 10:06:58

About a year ago, a Professional Captain was relocating is employers 60 ft yacht from Freeport Bahamas back to Ft. Lauderdale on a quick nighttime passage. Apparently he had the auto pilot on and was so trusting, he took a nap. His "nap" turned into a full blown sleep. He awoke to the sounds of breaking waves as his employers yacht was neslted comfortably in the sand of the Las Olas beach (the main Ft. Lauderdale beach) Overall costs were around 50 grand in towing and fines for destroying the reef.

Never heard if he kept his job or not.

Edited by - on

OJ
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4382 Posts

Response Posted - 05/07/2004 : 12:07:34

Those who have read Stephen Covey may recall this story about two battleships on a training assignment - as told by a third party.

Shortly after dark the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported "light bearing on the starboard bow." "Is it steady or moving astern?" the captain called out. Lookout replied, "Steady, captain," which meant we were on a dangerous collison course. The captain called to the signalman, "Signal that ship: We are on a collision course, advise you change course 20 degrees." Back came a signal, "Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees." The captain said, "Send, I'm a captain, change course 20 degrees." "I'm a seaman second class" came the reply. "You had better change course 20 degrees." By that time the capatin was furious. He spat out, "send, I'm a battleship - change course 20 degrees." Back came the flashing light, "I'm a lighthouse."

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 05/07/2004 : 23:20:42

OK, here's a slight variation... A business friend was on a Delta flight probably 15 or so years ago from Atlanta to LA. It passsed LA and went some hundred miles or more out over the Pacific, and then turned around and returned to LAX. My friend learned a little later that the cockpit crew had fallen asleep, creating a little public relations problem for Delta.

(Ever done that, Oscar?)

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 05/07/2004 23:22:04

Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 05/07/2004 : 23:28:23

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ClamBeach
Master Marine Consultant

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3072 Posts

Response Posted - 05/08/2004 : 12:03:01

Or how about the poor blokes who punched in a great-circle GPS course to the autopilot to cross the entire South Pacific. They ran into Minerva Reef 2000 miles out. A tiny dot in the middle of the Pacific just happened to be on the rhumbline.

Edited by - on

Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 05/08/2004 : 16:49:25

That's when you say to yourself...."self, I don't think this is meant to be.....maybe we should try go-cart racing."

Oscar, on the road in Austin TX....

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ssteakley
Captain

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USA
467 Posts

Response Posted - 05/08/2004 : 22:24:49

Hey Oscar, how long will you be in Austin?
Steve

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oldsalt
Admiral

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USA
578 Posts

Response Posted - 05/09/2004 : 11:30:49

Perhaps the oddest thing I've ever seen in my years on the water was an "accident" that befell the "new" purchaser of a Renkin runabout. The guy had just taken delivery of his boat from an outfit, no longer in business, on Emmons Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, which was about 500 feet from the Emmons Avenue Bridge. The new skipper came tearing out from under the bridge at what must have been top speed for his vessel and came to a rather inglorious end, totaling the boat, about 600 feet after passing under the bridge. When the coasties arrived, it turned out that the dealer sent the guy away without fenders, horn, PFDs, or even dock lines. The dealer apparantly never gave the buyer any instruction on how to operate a boat either, all of which seemed irresponsible at the least. I guess the skipper intended to pull up to his slip and put her in park. Its a wonder that he wasn't killed since the boat was demolished after a high speed maiden voyage of barely more than 1000 feet.

Edited by - on

Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 05/09/2004 : 13:58:53

OK, with all these stories I have to chime in....I first learnt to sail on a lake in Holland. Just a few doors down from our "yacht-club" was a sailboat rental. They had a 100 plus fleet of 16 square meter sailboats. About 18 feet, lead keel, wood, jib, gaff main. You could recognize them a mile away what with their batten less dirty cotton sails and their beat up hulls patched with sheet metal....You also stayed well clear because they were always non-sailers and dangerous at any speed. The rental company made most of their money if there was an afternoon thunder storm. Then they'd have to go out with the tug boat and pick them off the leeward shore......after which the renters would forfeit the sizeable deposit.

The vast majority of the renters were German tourists. (Holland is literally overrun every year by them) They could easily be recognized by their rotund appearances and Greek Fisherman's caps. One day I was standing on the dock at the rental company. The wind had picked up to about 15 knots. A rental boat was returning, running dead down wind. How they did it I don't know but they actually had the boom all the way out, and the jib had found its way to the other side, wing on wing, smoking along with a big bone in it's teeth, aiming straight for the dock. The last thing we heard before impact was:

WO SIND DIE BREMSEN......

(where are the brakes......)

Oscar, just leaving Texas.

Edited by - Oscar on 05/09/2004 14:11:53

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