7 "Rescued" from Sportfisher off Mid-Atlantic Coast

[Tom_F]

The local paper has an additional paragraph which states "The crew of the boat activated their Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, known as EPIRB, just after 1 p.m. as heavy rain, wind and waves of nearly 10 feet began flooding the vessel about 60 miles southeast of Cape May, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement Monday." https://www.nj.com/news/2021/07/7-re...sey-shore.html Maybe they had some flooding issues, although it's certainly not obvious from the video.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of nice sport fishing boats owned by weekend warriors in NJ (most other places, too, I suppose) who do not understand and appreciate what rough seas can do and who panic as soon as the weather stops being calm and sunny. I'm not saying that's what happened here, but it would not surprise me, either.

[waterman46]

From the Chesapeake Bay Magazine article, "In the aircraft video below, you can see the extreme wind and waves that made for frightening conditions on the boat . . ."


Wow. Conditions so bad that they took a tiny bit of spray over the bow. So bad that they were motoring along at what looks like at least 10 knots.


But I was interested in if they used VHF or EPIRB to contact USCG. I suppose the CG has their antennas on some high towers, but that's still a long distance for VHF.

[wathey]

So rather than pile on the obvious, and who knows, they may have left out a medical emergency, but here is a positive note... I stopped this morning and gave my wife a kiss for being awesome after I read this. A month ago she felt bad she had to wake me up at 3am to help her set the third reef when the windspeed stayed constant at 26 kts and gusted to 31 just south of this incident 45nm off shore of the Cape Charles entrance. After helping to hustle the sail down on our Leopard 48 I went back to bed with our 4 boys and lab below and she finished her watch in 5-7'. She's a sailor.

[Hoodsail]

Wathey, does your wife have a sister??!!!

[bjp447]

Like to hear the rest of it. From the video
it seemed like the vessel was handling it well.
Fuel running low, someone with more money than brains,
40 footers are not cheap. 40 footer becomes a big
hazard to just leave there. What's the reason?

[jfischgrund]

I'm sure that the posters who are excoriating these boaters have never made a bad decision in their lives. Geez! The poor folks had the s scared out of them and lost their boat. This forum has a great many wonderful characteristics but compassion and empathy don't appear to be among them.

[ABJ87]

From my interactions with some sportfish captains, many seem to be short on seamanship and big on egos. A dangerous combination if you ask me.

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by tweitz

It amazes me that people can be 69 miles out at sea without an appreciation for the fact that weather can come. I have seen a lot of people who don't differentiate motoring a boat from driving a car.

Sadly, you are correct! I too have seen this. There was even an article, years ago, from a Coast Guardsman who told of the time they found a couple trying to get to some islands which I think were the Bahamas and they were using a place mat from a diner to get there!

[Ben245]

This incident occurred during the white marlin open, a large fishing tournament out of Ocean City, MD. The boat was a Pursuit 34, a high quality express style sport fishing boat (I’ve owned several). They suffered an exhaust system failure while fighting a fish. Likely a hose clamp on the exhaust broke thus water ingress from the transom exhaust as well as the engine pumping exhaust water into the engine room. Not entirely uncommon especiAlly If there was deferred maintenance which we all know is all too common. The other likely scenario is a shaft seal failure of a dripless shaft seal. However the speed of the sinking suggests exhAust system. There were almost 500 boats fishing this tournament and the fishing grounds are like parking lots- dozens to hundreds of boats in same hot areas. Liken it to a sailboat going down during an around the bouys race.

[captainmarknc]

Originally Posted by Ben245

This incident occurred during the white marlin open, a large fishing tournament out of Ocean City, MD. The boat was a Pursuit 34, a high quality express style sport fishing boat (I’ve owned several). They suffered an exhaust system failure while fighting a fish. Likely a hose clamp on the exhaust broke thus water ingress from the transom exhaust as well as the engine pumping exhaust water into the engine room. Not entirely uncommon especiAlly If there was deferred maintenance which we all know is all too common. The other likely scenario is a shaft seal failure of a dripless shaft seal. However the speed of the sinking suggests exhAust system. There were almost 500 boats fishing this tournament and the fishing grounds are like parking lots- dozens to hundreds of boats in same hot areas. Liken it to a sailboat going down during an around the bouys race.

Yes, I saw a video of the rescue on FB. The boat went down quickly while hooked up to a blue marlin. Everyone was rescued by a very large sport fish who used every bit of his 3100 HP to get on station quickly. They were helped on board from their inflated life raft. The 34' Pursuit is a well made and much sought after Sportfish.

Very popular fishing tournament.

[TooCoys]

Originally Posted by toddster8

I could only hear one side of the conversation, and not the whole thing, but I swear, this morning I heard someone calling the CG because they were hungry. (And maybe out of gas. On a sailboat.) And not out at sea, either. Somewhere on the Columbia River.

As I 911 dispatcher, I believe this.

I've received calls:
- to find out what the superbowl score was, the caller was stuck in traffic on a frozen over interstate and couldn't find a station with the score and he had a bet riding.
- to find out what time WalMart closed, it was Christmas eve, and the kicker is that we didn't even have a WalMart in our city.
- to report that his neighbor was throwing grass clippings on his yard


To make this boat related, I work in a city on the coast. I recently got a 911 call from a boater on a Hobie cat. They had rigging issues and were "drifting". Except they were on an inland lake, 100 yards from the boat ramp, in water that was only 3-4ft deep.

[toddster8]

Originally Posted by TooCoys

As I 911 dispatcher, I believe this.

I've received calls:
- to find out what the superbowl score was, the caller was stuck in traffic on a frozen over interstate and couldn't find a station with the score and he had a bet riding.
- to find out what time WalMart closed, it was Christmas eve, and the kicker is that we didn't even have a WalMart in our city.
- to report that his neighbor was throwing grass clippings on his yard


To make this boat related, I work in a city on the coast. I recently got a 911 call from a boater on a Hobie cat. They had rigging issues and were "drifting". Except they were on an inland lake, 100 yards from the boat ramp, in water that was only 3-4ft deep.

I did see a follow-up news article to this incident (which is pretty rare) that stated the fellow had a medical issue and was too weak to operate the boat.

Re: Hobie Cats - I got my first marine VHF radio, so I could tell people NOT to rescue me. People driving by on the interstate would see the boat capsize and call 911. Jeez. If you dont flip it over once in a while, you're not having enough fun!

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by Ben245

This incident occurred during the white marlin open, a large fishing tournament out of Ocean City, MD. The boat was a Pursuit 34, a high quality express style sport fishing boat (I’ve owned several). They suffered an exhaust system failure while fighting a fish. Likely a hose clamp on the exhaust broke thus water ingress from the transom exhaust as well as the engine pumping exhaust water into the engine room. Not entirely uncommon especiAlly If there was deferred maintenance which we all know is all too common. The other likely scenario is a shaft seal failure of a dripless shaft seal. However the speed of the sinking suggests exhAust system. There were almost 500 boats fishing this tournament and the fishing grounds are like parking lots- dozens to hundreds of boats in same hot areas. Liken it to a sailboat going down during an around the bouys race.

My understanding of this from talking to someone who was on the boat is the same, a broken exhaust hose followed by massive flooding. There were also two professional captains on the boat, so it wasn't a group of scared amateurs.

So pretty much all of the preceding rank speculation was entirely incorrect. Perhaps the folks who engaged in that rank speculation here can exercise some self control going forward. You clearly had no idea what you were talking about in this case, and there's no reason to think you would know any more in the future when you're tempted to pontificate. Thanks.

[Ltfdrebbin]

Originally Posted by Ben245

This incident occurred during the white marlin open, a large fishing tournament out of Ocean City, MD. The boat was a Pursuit 34, a high quality express style sport fishing boat (I’ve owned several). They suffered an exhaust system failure while fighting a fish. Likely a hose clamp on the exhaust broke thus water ingress from the transom exhaust as well as the engine pumping exhaust water into the engine room. Not entirely uncommon especiAlly If there was deferred maintenance which we all know is all too common. The other likely scenario is a shaft seal failure of a dripless shaft seal. However the speed of the sinking suggests exhAust system. There were almost 500 boats fishing this tournament and the fishing grounds are like parking lots- dozens to hundreds of boats in same hot areas. Liken it to a sailboat going down during an around the bouys race.

That is a different incident than what the OP was talking about. Still an interesting video and good work by the competing fishing boat.

[japawil]

Two different cases…..
Case 1: (OP)
7 rescued off 40’ sportfisher by CG hoisted to helicopter following EPIRB activation. No mention of fate of boat.
Case 2:
6 rescued off 34’ sportfisher by competing tournament boat following VHS distress call. Boat sank while rescue boat was on scene.
In Case 2 multiple interviews explaining what happened; understandable.
In Case 1 little information available beyond video and short statement from CG; video leads to questioning of necessity of intervention.
Other anecdotal cases completely unrelated other than to express level of ignorance of some in “the boating world”.