Sailboat sunk in Delaware Bay

[malbert73]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

There's 30-50 feet of water well outside the shipping channel most of the way to the C&D Canal, but we don't know exactly where they were hit or by what so we are all just speculating. I'm still perplexed as to why they towed a dismasted and sinking sailboat all the way from Brandywine Shoal up to Lewes when Cape May was much closer.

Yes Cape May is closer but perhaps they would be prohibited from towing a sinking boat through Cape May canal due to use by ferries at outer end? And certainly it would be further and dicier around the Cape.
Or, there were no marinas in Cape May harbor willing/able to do an emergency haulout?

In any case it seemed like length of tow in open water wasn’t the issue. I bet the boat stayed afloat only while being towed at speed and once they slowed down in the canal it foundered

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by SV Confianza

Narrow canals in the fog are nightmarish. Radar is basically useless because of everything around. Always afraid of going off course and running into something.

I don't see why you think radar is useless? I usually switch to head-up in a narrow channel, and run parallel indices (PIs) to the banks or markers. Generally need to range in and offset, to get the best information, but with traffic only coming from two directions, a lot of the decision-making is simplified.