Tragedy strikes when sailboat hits low hanging power line

[Shrew]

Also keep in mind, the mast doesn't have to actually touch the line. If close enough, an arc can occur. I have a friend who's sister's boat burned to the water line after her mast was hit by an arc while passing under a high voltage powerline. She had a few (+2') feet of clearance.

[Steadman Uhlich]

Originally Posted by Shrew

Also keep in mind, the mast doesn't have to actually touch the line. If close enough, an arc can occur. I have a friend who's sister's boat burned to the water line after her mast was hit by an arc while passing under a high voltage powerline. She had a few (+2') feet of clearance.

Very good point!

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Tx J

... The air draft of a Hobie 16 is ~26', IIRC.
... Hobie finally implemented a fleetwide recall/upgrade in the early-mid 1980's to refit all existing full aluminum masts to one with a "Comptip", in which aprx the upper third of the masts were a non-conductive composite.
The refit was free, and included all kinds of 'cautions'; the Hobie literature had always covered such dangers..

The Hobie 16 has a Mast Length of 26' 6" / 8.07 m. Don't know the exact Air Draft.
https://www.hobie.com/sail/hobie-16/specs/

[Steadman Uhlich]

Originally Posted by bailsout

In 1980 my girlfriend, another guy friend of hers and I rented a Hobie cat on Lake Mead. She was at the helm and we were in the middle of a large cove scooting towards shore maybe a100 yards or so out. The very top of the mast hit those huge towered power lines. I was sitting on the rail and the charge blew me into the water. She was blown half way off the boat. The guy on the trampoline felt nothing. No one at the helm the wind pushed the boat off the power. He managed to pull her aboard and sail to the cove's shore where there were people. A boat went out to get me. I was told later by the paramedic from the helivac team that he found me with no respiration, no pulse. Whatever. I recovered fully except for burn scars, entry and exit. She suffered the same plus delayed spinalcord injury which has left her permanently palsied. The lake levels had never been so high and it had opened up new navigable water. She was looking at the lake's surface , not up. The power lines were intersected at their lowest point. We all wore life vests.

Wow! Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

[Tx J]

Originally Posted by GordMay

The Hobie 16 has a Mast Length of 26' 6" / 8.07 m. Don't know the exact Air Draft.
https://www.hobie.com/sail/hobie-16/specs/

Gord,
On sand, then the Hobie 16 air draft is somewhere around 30'+, a little less in the water, depending on load. I've had my hulls in pretty deep with a few passengers, the Hobie only weighs about 350#'s itself all up, and the narrow banana shaped hulls aren't 'zactly cargo or CV load-bearing shaped.

The "exact" air draft hardly matters, given such conditions in which the tidally affected sand/water surface datum varies, and even the power cable catenary varies with temperature and wind deflection. Plus, wet salty sand, and the usual humidity saturated S. TX air, a KV powerline, and the potential to arc.
I don't know what the final determination was, don't know/remember whether they were on sand or shallow water. All involved were friends, it was a very tragic event.
I think that line was later raised or relocated. We all sailed under it out on the water with lots of clearance, even the big boats did then, but it lowered as it came ashore to the power station.
Some of you might remember when on 15Sep2011, a tug-4barge combo struck the 'new' Queen Isabella Causeway and took out a whole section about 0'darkthirty, killing eight motorists before traffic was halted. IIRC, the maritime operator (one of the biggest around TX) had a spotty record. I used to sometimes work and live on SPI.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Isabella_Causeway

Should probably check a current chart, I plan on going down there (soon?) for one or more of the launches out of the new Space-X Spaceport at Boca Chica (still abuilding), just a few miles south of SPI.

[SV Bacchus]

Originally Posted by Heliades

Hobies switched from alum to composite tip masts back in the 80's I think - when someone was electrocuted at a boat ramp. Hobie Cat was sued and barely survived if I recall.

Stories like this amaze me. You buy a Hobie and "somewhere out there" run it into a power line. What part of this is Hobie's fault?

The USA, yes I'm a citizen, needs serious Tort reform!

[BandB]

Originally Posted by SV Bacchus

Stories like this amaze me. You buy a Hobie and "somewhere out there" run it into a power line. What part of this is Hobie's fault?

The USA, yes I'm a citizen, needs serious Tort reform!

Much of that determination is based on internal communication. If they had documents that showed they knew there was a problem, they had a solution to that problem, but they continued manufacturing the same way they had, then they would have major fault. If not something like that, then far less fault.

Companies continue to make the mistake of becoming aware and doing nothing. Once you have knowledge, you have to act. You can't ignore and you can't pretend it's not real or hide the internal communication. I am speaking in general as I don't know the details of the Hobie situation.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by BandB

Much of that determination is based on internal communication. If they had documents that showed they knew there was a problem, they had a solution to that problem, but they continued manufacturing the same way they had, then they would have major fault. If not something like that, then far less fault.

Companies continue to make the mistake of becoming aware and doing nothing. Once you have knowledge, you have to act. You can't ignore and you can't pretend it's not real or hide the internal communication. I am speaking in general as I don't know the details of the Hobie situation.

So, what was Hobie supposed to do... make masts out of timber so they wouldn't be conductive? Of course they knew that aluminium masts would conduct electricity, and that if you ran the mast into a high tension line bad things would happen. To ascribe manufacturers liability to that would be akin to Ford being held liable if a driver runs into a bridge abutment.

Even with American Tort law being what it is, I find the above example hard to believe, and do not remember Hobie nearly perishing from such a suit.

Jim

[a64pilot]

Jim, many years ago. Bell helicopter was sued and lost a huge amount of money when a wealthy man who had just bought his 206 ran it out of fuel and froze and didn't autorotate, crashed and died.
The helicopter had a 20 min fuel light as it was a Military requirement and Bell of course was a large Military manufacturer.
During his training at Bell helicopter he had signed a form that stated that he understood that the 20 min light was a low fuel indicator may or may not be 20 min of fuel left based on fuel consumption rate.
15 or so mins after he reported on radio that his low fuel light was on, the engine quit.
It could have been on for 10 min before he made the call, no one knows of course.
Wife sued and won Millions.

Only in the US can you order hot coffee, spill it and burn yourself badly, sue and win cause they gave you coffee that was too hot.

[David M]

It's insane that there are still low hanging power lines around boat ramps and other places where there are boat masts.

I really think this is a legitimate case to sue any municipality or electric companies who do not have the common sense to remove high voltage wires from such places.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

So, what was Hobie supposed to do... make masts out of timber so they wouldn't be conductive? Of course they knew that aluminium masts would conduct electricity, and that if you ran the mast into a high tension line bad things would happen. To ascribe manufacturers liability to that would be akin to Ford being held liable if a driver runs into a bridge abutment.

Even with American Tort law being what it is, I find the above example hard to believe, and do not remember Hobie nearly perishing from such a suit.

Jim

I have no details of the Hobie suit and neither do you. I just looked a little and found one suit they lost to the tune of $2 million, hardly enough to break them. In fact, I'm sure that amount was covered by insurance. I found one they settled that was due to a Hobie flipping when a tow boat sped up.

I am not saying this is how this case worked, but Hobie did address the problem and solve it, replacing masts, so there was a solution. The issue in any suit becomes when did they know there was a problem and when did they develop the solution. They went to a composite, non conductive tip.

Oh, the power company was also sued on one case. That was the one Hobie apparently settled and was dropped from.

I agree there are many suits that don't make sense. However, there are some that are very sensible. If you're an auto manufacturer and know you have a problem, you have a solution, then you better do a recall before more people die.

The biggest issue with civil suits is juries that can get out of control. They are a jury of peers often to just one side. If a poor lady is suing a wealthy electric company she'll likely win and often an outrageous amount. That's a reason most large companies will try to settle. They don't mind suits in front of judges, but juries scare them.

Hobie's issues over the years have been far more often over ownership. The company started with a fight and split into three companies in the 70's and just a year or so ago all returned to a single ownership.