What if We Hit One of These

[John A]

At the entrance to the SF channel approach about 8 miles from the Golden Gate there is a 40' high bouy nicknamed the "lightbucket". It replaced a Coast Guard boat that was on station 24/7.

Several years ago, during a large storm, it did a walkabout and was found on a beach 20 miles away.

[zeehag]

dont want to hgit something--keep your EYES open, use radar to confirm, and sail on.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Back in the pre GPS days used to see similar now and again........coming out of the fog!........claims of DR being spot on taken with a pinch of salt!

[barnakiel]

Ours got adrift in moderate conditions which were reported to the press (or perhaps by the press) as a 'spell of rough seas'. Bummer and shame on local authorities that do too little maintenance of these expensive pieces of equipment. These buoys were brand new awhile ago and reported local conditions via the web. Once they break down, we never ever see them coming alive again. Waste of public money and a danger to navigation.


b.

[jackdale]

Most ODAS buoys in deep water are marked PA (position approximate). They have a watch circle radius as well.

Station 46089 (LLNR 689) - Tillamook, OR - 85 NM WNW of Tillamook, OR

Owned and maintained by National Data Buoy Center
3-meter discus buoy
AMPS payload
45.889 N 125.830 W (45°53'21" N 125°49'49" W)

Site elevation: sea level
Air temp height: 4 m above site elevation
Anemometer height: 5 m above site elevation
Barometer elevation: sea level
Sea temp depth: 0.6 m below site elevation
Water depth: 2289 m
Watch circle radius: 2355 yards

You have to be pretty close, 5 miles or so, to see one in daylight. At night they are easier to pick out.

I usually go out around the South Brooks weather buoy off the Brooks Peninsula of Vancouver Island. I seldom actually see it.

[jackdale]

Some ODAS buoys drift

The Environment Canada Station 46562 - Drifting Buoy is an example. It is at 36 N 133 W

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by mrohr

Beg to differ regarding the odds of hitting one;just check out the dents on most bouys from numerous collisions in busy harbors, and these are on station and well charted.

But the buoy shown is not a small floater in a busy harbour with plenty of boats passing close by daily.

It is a massive chunk of metal floating on a huge ocean, most people have probably never even seen one.

[River Cruiser]

Last spring a guy a few slips down hit a red channel marker, bent a shaft & ruined a prop. The Mississippi was in flood stage and the marker was under water. I've seen several that have been hit by tows, one was tore in half. Having never seen a weather buoy I don't know their size compared to a can or nun but I imagine the damage one could do to a boat. My friends boat has a aluminum hull & it had ding marks & dents , a fiberglass hull could of been punctured.

[cal40john]

A long time ago a friend was sailing his boat. Didn't account for the current, 150% decksweeper jib, and a new girlfriend onboard. Leeward bow about 6 feet back was the impact point. The hull oil canned in, exploding the 6" wide shelf glasssed to the hull as a stringer off the hull. It didn't actually tear the hull, we just had to scarf in and glass a new shelf back onto the hull. And that was just a glancing blow.

John

[LeaseOnLife]

Around the Philippines we saw, at daylight, a few of these FADs, made from steel, anchored in mile-deep water. A couple of times we sailed closer and tried hard, to make it show up on radar, without much success. No light was ever mounted on any of them.

[perchance]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

must have been to small of concrete blocks ?? LOL BnC

Chinese Rocna?

[capngeo]

We have these in the Gulf Of Mexico

Very handy in the days before GPS to confirm your DR

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

ODAS and the likes.

What odds of hitting one? What potential damage?

I think, to our boat, that would be it.

This one apparently not too well maintained by local authorities:


b.
picture attribution: Una boya de gran tamaño encalla en la playa de La Laja - La Provincia - Diario de Las Palmas

I checked my chartplotter and that ODAS is right where it is suppose to be! So I'm good

And to the question of what are the chances of one being on the course I'm on; seems for the one out in the Boston Bay that the answer is 90+% from my experience!