Ever Have a boating accident?

[ShipOfFools]

If so what happened? can be minor too, doesn't have to be major. What was the cause?

[Chuck34]

When I was a teen, my best friend had built an inboard speed boat, engine in front of the single bench seat. While accelerating and turning slightly to starboard, the boat flipped. I survived with a couple of bad bruises, but I easily could have been killed. The engine cover being in front of me, got ripped off when the boat flipped and I'm very lucky it didn't hit me in the head. If I had been hit, at the very least I would have been knocked unconscious and probably would have drowned.

[ShipOfFools]

Originally Posted by Chuck34

When I was a teen, my best friend had built an inboard speed boat, engine in front of the single bench seat. While accelerating and turning slightly to starboard, the boat flipped. I survived with a couple of bad bruises, but I easily could have been killed. The engine cover being in front of me, got ripped off when the boat flipped and I'm very lucky it didn't hit me in the head. If I had been hit, at the very least I would have been knocked unconscious and probably would have drowned.

thanks, i hope you had a life jacket

[Chuck34]

Originally Posted by ShipOfFools

thanks, i hope you had a life jacket

Are you kidding? 1968, Maybe I had a flotation cushion. The force of the water hitting me in the head, ripped me out of the boat. Got a bad bruise on my back and even worse bruise on one leg.

[ShipOfFools]

I stumbled upon this on youtube a few years before i even became interested in boating.

[4K Beaches]

I have not had a boating accident but I did film one. This boat nearly sank due to developing a crack mid-voyage due to wood rot. Video Here

[DefinitelyMe]

Many. None serious fortunately. The above video reminded me of the following incident:

A couple of years ago I was racing around Bermuda on a 39-foot sloop that had been loaned to me. I had planned to do the race single-handed but at the last minute three friends asked if they could come along. It was blowing about 25 knots and we were about 2 miles South of the island, outside the barrier reef that runs the length of the coastline. One of the crew went below to get a couple of beers, and stepped down into about 3 inches of water, sloshing from side to side across the sole.

We turned on the bilge pump and I started to dig around to try to find out where it was coming in, but it was impossible. The through-hulls were all below water and there was so much splashing around that we had zero chance of detecting where it was coming in, blindly groping around in the bilge amongst a smorgasbord of stuff. I closed what through-hulls I could, but there were loads of them, some were seized, the plumbing was a nightmare and because it wasn’t my boat I didn’t know how everything was set up. And because we were on an exposed shoreline in 25 knots of wind, conditions were too dangerous for me to jump overboard and detect the leak from the outside, which would have been the easiest way to find it.

The water level continued to rise. It was clear that the bilge pump was not sufficient to stem the flow. Fortunately, a bit of digging around in a locker revealed a bucket. We set up a bucket brigade bailing system. It’s amazing how much water you can move in a short time with a bucket and three scared people! We were winning. Slowly the water level came down and we got to a point where we could rest for 3 or 4 minutes for every 10 minutes of bailing.

It took us about 2 hours to get to the E end of the island, where we pulled in to a protected harbour, anchored and I jumped overboard to find the leak. From the outside it was obvious - it was coming in through the shaft log. Back inside I pulled some stuff out of the way, crawled to the stern and discovered that the hose had popped off the shaft log. The boat had just come out of the yard, and the only job that the owner hadn’t done himself was to hire someone to replace the stuffing box and the hose that connects it to the shaft log. That was done by a so-called ‘professional’ mechanic. Two minutes with a screwdriver and the problem was solved, but finding it ‘at sea’ was impossible.

I was bloody lucky. If my mates hadn’t asked to come along at the last minute I doubt I could have coped with the problem by myself. The boat had no autopilot and the distance between the cabin and the cockpit (to bail the water) was too high for me to have been able to bail it fast enough by myself.

Lessons that I took from the experience:

1) Always have a bucket on board. It’s not just a handy thing to have, but the last line of defence against sinking and probably the most effective bilge pump ever made.

2) Keep sea cocks in good shape. If they aren’t working, don’t hang around when it comes to overhauling or replacing them.

3) Know your boat systems and keep them simple.

4) Don’t trust someone to do something right just because they are being paid to do it.

5) Friends are great!

[DefinitelyMe]

Originally Posted by 4K Beaches

I have not had a boating accident but I did film one. This boat nearly sank due to developing a crack mid-voyage due to wood rot. Video Here

Awesome video!

[Digdug]

This happened last year where I boat. It is a charter boat with paying customers on board and the captain’s first paid trip in his new to him boat. This is what happens when you aren’t paying attention.

[sagablu]

If by an accident you mean some single cell moron who decided that a windy day was a good time to bring his boat into a marina with a narrow path between the slips and who then loses control ( didn't see that coming) and further takes off my solar panel and then does $15K of damage to a power boat. If that is what you mean by accident, yes I have had one.

Oh forgot, he denied responsibility. Luckily there were three witnesses. Week after there was another one in a nice 40ish ft Mono who gave a sport fishing boat a nice kiss with his Rocna. That will leave a mark! I'm only three years in and even I know better.

[Bullshooter]

Back in 1986 or so I was taking a concerned citizen to a pollution complaint (I worked for DEQ). He even told me to stay in the middle of a shallow, winding bayou we were on (Bayou Blue) to keep in deep water. We were in the state's 15 foot whaler. As we rounded a tight bend, a boat came at us very fast with 3 people and a dog, including the daughter who was riding on the bow with her legs hanging over. I took a hard right into the bank but he took a hard left into me. We cracked front quarters as we beached into the marsh. The daughter was very lucky we did not hit head on, and she went flying off the bow. The wife hit her head on something and was bleeding from the ear.

This story could get quite long, but to summarize: after many months of rumors blaming me for the crash, I was very lucky that a pilot who was flying in the area had taken a photo from his seaplane as he went to get help. This was after the depositions in which the other boat operator claimed I was so far over to his right that he had no choice but to turn to his left. The photo showed that I was much closer to my right, and in shallow water with a muddy trail that showed essentially a diagram of the crash.

I was exonerated during the trial - in which two boating accident reconstruction experts were certified, and both testified that it was not my fault. I wish I could say that after the trial, that the plaintiffs did not get money from the state. But this is Louisiana, and the case was quietly settled after the trial.

The pilot had stayed out of it until, after the lawsuit had been laying dormant for a long time, a new investigator was asked to look into it, and he asked the right questions. To me, the whole thing was like a Perry Mason episode where Paul rushes in with the key evidence to solve the case.

[jrau18]

[QUOTE=DefinitelyMe;2927974

Lessons that I took from the experience:

1) Always have a bucket on board. It’s not just a handy thing to have, but the last line of defence against sinking and probably the most effective bilge pump ever made.

2) Keep sea cocks in good shape. If they aren’t working, don’t hang around when it comes to overhauling or replacing them.

3) Know your boat systems and keep them simple.

4) Don’t trust someone to do something right just because they are being paid to do it.

5) Friends are great![/QUOTE]

Having seen this exact mistake made by a yard crew on a friend's boat, I'd add lesson 6: check every through hull on the boat right before and right after splashing. In fact, I've been launched by yards that require you to go below and check the through hulls before they'll take the slings off, because they've learned that lesson. It's like a pilot with a checklist, they might trust their mechanic, but it's worth the double check.

[jrau18]

Originally Posted by sagablu

I'm only three years in and even I know better.

Dont get too confident. That's how big mistakes happen. Better to make a small mistake, like kissing a docked boat with your anchor. That would be embarassing, but at least that's a mistake that can be repaired with money, the worst mistakes cannot. Even the best sailors make mistakes or suffer from not catching somebody else's mistake at some point, kind of the point of this thread.

[sagablu]

Originally Posted by jrau18

Dont get too confident. That's how big mistakes happen. Better to make a small mistake, like kissing a docked boat with your anchor. That would be embarassing, but at least that's a mistake that can be repaired with money, the worst mistakes cannot. Even the best sailors make mistakes or suffer from not catching somebody else's mistake at some point, kind of the point of this thread.

My point was that I know better to put deliberately put myself in a situation that is unsafe to my personal safety, the safety of others, or their property. Yes, sometimes the situation picks you, I get that. I am not overconfident, quite the opposite. I try to think thru things before I act. Like hey, its too windy to take my boat into the marina today. I will just leave it on the mooring until tomorrow. I doubt the guy he hit said 'no biggie, he has learned from his experience". I suppose more like ' THAT DUMB%&^#@@! HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!!!".

[jrau18]

For my own story:

I was looking for a spot to anchor near Charlotte Amalie. I had come through the channel by the cruise ship a few times. A large ship was coming opposite me in the channel. Since he was draft restricted and I wasnt, I hugged the edge of the channel to keep out of his way. I knew that you could cut the corner of one of the buoys by about 200 feet and have enough draft, I had been over that spot with my dinghy multiple times and knew exactly where the reef was that was being marked by that buoy, it was a matter of course for people to cut that corner all the time.

I cut the buoy by about 15 feet as we passed the large ship going opposite. Bam, right into the reef. They had moved the channel marker a few weeks earlier, it was now right on the edge of the reef. I broke my nose when I fell into the wheel, everybody else was fine (I was standing, they were all sitting). Hauled the boat a few weeks later when it was a more convenient time to repair the crushed fiberglass at the tip of the keel.

Learning experience: dont trust that 10 foot tall channel markers wont be moved one week to the next. Multiple other cruisers hit that same spot that week before word got out. Presumably people unfamiliar with the area are still hitting it, unless they somehow have an updated chart, or unless they moved the marker back.





For a more lighthearted mistake:

On 36 hour hop between islands, we were hit by a solid squall around 3am. After an hour of 50 knot winds, it finally broke, and we were glad to ditch our rain jackets and be able to use autopilot again. My wife through the jackets down through the companion way to be put away properly later. The wind was still around 30kts, so we didnt hear the hum of the electric pump, one of the jackets had brushed the faucet with a perfectly aimed throw and our freshwater was all draining into the sea. I finally heard it about an hour later when the wind dropped a bit. It wasnt the way I ever envisioned losing all my freshwater, but luckily we had planned for losing our whole tank from a puncture or contamination, so we had redundant Jerry cans that lasted us the 4 days until the next source of water (the next island we were going to had no water).