Term for a floating log

[jsc7]

What is the term for a floating log?

PS I am not referring to flotsam, which is a generic term for any kind of floating debris. There is a specific term for floating logs or planks as nautical hazards. I heard a commercial captain use the word on 16 once, but I forgot what it was.

[Tingum]

OH $Hit!

[JPA Cate]

Not sure if this is actually what you're referring to, but a partially submerged lot, floating more or less vertically, is called a deadhead. Also, there are logjams that get away from whatever's towing them. Sorry, I do not know of a term for planks as nautical hazards, but maybe somebody else here does.....

Ann

[jsc7]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Not sure if this is actually what you're referring to, but a partially submerged lot, floating more or less vertically, is called a deadhead. Also, there are logjams that get away from whatever's towing them. Sorry, I do not know of a term for planks as nautical hazards, but maybe somebody else here does.....

Ann

Yep, I think that was it. Thanks very much.

[andrewparker]

A straight whale.

[flyingfin]

If you have good insurance, it is called a floating submerged object!

[Stu Jackson]

***king Deadhead


One caught me just last month.

[ShellBack89]

Originally Posted by Tingum

OH $Hit!

[Shrew]

I hit a deadhead a number of years ago. I was in a planing boat doing about 23 kts in over 100 ft (30M) of water. It put a small tear in a SS prop and sheared the upper gears of the outdrive. It was completely underwater, I never even saw it.

[Cheechako]

To me a dead head is a partially or mostly submerged log. But maybe it's just a log. We have a lot of them up here in the PNW.
When I hear "deadhead" , I always think of one's I've seen that for some reason are submerged in a vertical position and ramming up and down out of the surface a few feet... for some reason all on their own!

[fxykty]

Correct, deadheads are vertically oriented and deadly due to being almost totally submerged, with as little as a single cm above the water (well, bobbing above and then below the surface). I don’t believe they can still float with nothing above the water as in that case they wouldn’t have positive flotation and would sink.

The reason they float low and vertically is that they’re fully waterlogged and the end closer to the bottom of the tree is denser.

Horizontally floating logs are floaters. That term also refers to drowned bodies.

In both cases (deadheads and floaters (logs)) they are usually (in the PNW) escapees from log booms and coastal log sorts.

I’ve known one boat, a C&C 41 back in the late ‘80s, that hit a deadhead while motoring at night in the Juan de Fuca straight just off Port Angeles on the return delivery after a Vic-Maui. She sank within 2 minutes and while a crew member was hand steering they didn’t see what they hit until they were in the water. A handheld VHF saved them.

[Paul L]

Kayak, also known as a speed bump

[parado]

They can porpoise FEET out of the water. On a calm day my dad saw one out of the corner of his eye, before it submerged. We waited about 20 mins or so before it came back up, about 6 feet out of the water, and was about 4 feet in diameter. No idea on the length, but certainly over 30 feet long. Just imagine the inertia that would have. One big hole in a boat for sure.

[Shrew]

Originally Posted by parado

They can porpoise FEET out of the water. On a calm day my dad saw one out of the corner of his eye, before it submerged. We waited about 20 mins or so before it came back up, about 6 feet out of the water, and was about 4 feet in diameter. No idea on the length, but certainly over 30 feet long. Just imagine the inertia that would have. One big hole in a boat for sure.

Yep, I one a few years ago. It seemed to pop out of nowhere. a true deadhead (vertical). It disappeared for a few minutes, then popped up again about 40 yards away, then disappeared. We were drift fishing, so we fired up and moved about 1/2 mile in the opposite direction the dead head was moving.

[Dooglas]

Agree, deadhead is the common term for a mostly submerged floating log. They can be very large and bobbing very slowly as others have described. The other term we use around here is snag. That is generally the term for a mostly sunken log or tree in shallower water where one end rests on the bottom and the other end is barely at the surface. Typically the end at the surface faces downstream as they are oriented by the current. As you can imagine, hitting one going upstream can do considerable damage. Very difficult to see if there is some ripple or wavelets on the water. In the summer good Samaritans often tie a milk jug to snags in commonly used waterways to warn other boaters.