Sailing boat overrun by motoryacht, deadly accident

[Jim Cate]

I have witnessed as many dumb ass Captains of sail boats as I have with power boats.

Even if this was true (which I dispute, due to the relative ease involved with a tyro getting started in a motor boat), how many of those "dumb ass (sailboat) Captains have caused death by their ineptitude?

The obvious difference is the speed at which motorboats typically operate compared to the rather sedate speeds involved with sailing of small recreational boats. More speed = more kinetic energy to dissipate in a collision... and it goes up as the square of the speed.

Being a dumb ass at thirty knots is a LOT more hazardous than the same behavior at five knots... let alone folks like RumRace who enjoy the thrills of 50 plus knots.

Jim

[Rumrace]

Yes 50n is a nice speed to warm the engine and cool the intake. We have only rebuilt analog instruments from the 80’s a tough compass handheld GPS. The GPS clocked us at 71mph the Donzi speedo agreed. We had more throttle but no control. We made sure hoping waves was no idiots ahead.
I enjoy slow night sails also. The little power boat is a work in progress gets very few hours. The Jeanneau is perfect nothing is broken. My steaming light anchor and spreader lighting upgraded so Donzi’s doing 60 can see me cut them off.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Rumrace

Yes 50n is a nice speed to warm the engine and cool the intake. We have only rebuilt analog instruments from the 80’s a tough compass handheld GPS. The GPS clocked us at 71mph the Donzi speedo agreed. We had more throttle but no control. We made sure hoping waves was no idiots ahead.
I enjoy slow night sails also. The little power boat is a work in progress gets very few hours. The Jeanneau is perfect nothing is broken. My steaming light anchor and spreader lighting upgraded so Donzi’s doing 60 can see me cut them off.

The story you told previously about flying closely past a sailboat which turned into your path, and which, due to your limited controllability (can't slow down, can't turn) you narrowly missed but were gleeful about scaring the daylights out of, and whom you then disrespected, tells us all we need to know about who the idiots out there are.

I am a powerboater, originally and still am, and for years had a Sea Ray Pachenga which I too loved to run fast in rough water, and after that other fast powerboats, but I hope I had enough brains to never get close enough to a 6 knot sailboat that any turn he could make would put us into danger of a collision.

[Kd9truck]

Originally Posted by PJS

my objections to powerboats running so close to sailboats.

(They can run into breakwalls as often as they like, as far as I care)

Ah, there it is... I knew someone would identify the issue. It MUST be those damned POWER BOATS!

Couldn't be the fact that it's a Captain with poor judgement, or a mechanical issue or ego's (no one willing to give way).

It's funny how often I hear people who are sailors on this forum bash/demonize power boats but say NOTHING in kind about sail boats?? I have witnessed as many dumb ass Captains of sail boats as I have with power boats.[/QUOTE’

Hey, relax everybody
There’s enough ignorance to go around for all,from super power yachties to kayaks and SUPs, no need to rush the forum boys,and girls, and all those other things.
Part of being human, just please stay away from my boat

[Rumrace]

I guess you had to be there all seeing one. The dude had just tacked. Was running nice. He never glanced our way just took the right of way. It’s a route from Toronto to Niagara on the lake. He was the only moron who thought he was alone.
I really enjoyed his where did that red bullet come from shocked look. His crew was frantically waving at him. I hope he stays more aware of his surroundings.
No other boat we passed sail or power passed judgement on our version of boating for a couple hours.
Honestly I’m not here to argue or defend my ethics by someone going thread to thread demanding we smoke the same cigarettes as him full of assumption so pick on someone who cares K thanks.

[carstenb]

Back to the original story. The Danish newspapers had this.

Turns out the people on board the motorboat were Danes. The skipper and his son were (supposedly) on the bridge piloting the boat.
This explanation has been provided by one of the women on board (one wife of skipper, one wife of son) who were sunning themselves on the aft deck.

She claims that the two on the bridge were blinded by the sun and the autopilot was on, therefore they couldn't see the sailboat until they were right on top of it and with the autopilot on - they couldn't make evasive maneuvers.

The motorboat was going about 30kn.

So, if you are blinded by the sunshine and the glare on the water - why the h*ll do you continue to make 30kn? any skipper worth his (her) salt would immediately slow down.

If the above is true - total irresponsibility on the part of the skipper. I hope they throw the book at him if it is true

No mention of alcohol involved (yet).

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Even if this was true (which I dispute, due to the relative ease involved with a tyro getting started in a motor boat), how many of those "dumb ass (sailboat) Captains have caused death by their ineptitude?

The obvious difference is the speed at which motorboats typically operate compared to the rather sedate speeds involved with sailing of small recreational boats. More speed = more kinetic energy to dissipate in a collision... and it goes up as the square of the speed.

Being a dumb ass at thirty knots is a LOT more hazardous than the same behavior at five knots... let alone folks like RumRace who enjoy the thrills of 50 plus knots.

Jim

There are sailboats which can and have run over powerboats and caused injuries and death. Speed and size are the issues.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by Rumrace

Sad to hear. This was 20 years ago. I’d just bought a SeaRay lightly used and was out for my second time for a moonlight putt before I headed home to Honey Harbour Ontario. We were like 3 miles out we had putted over to the dunes and back. At the time the 390 Express was their biggest boat. I’d bought a 310 and just inside the Breakwall a 310 got written off by debris and I was temporary in that slip row. We got put at the gas pump and had the state police interview us the next day.

What were the "state police" doing in Honey Harbour ?
Thats 130 miles from the US border !

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by wingssail

There are sailboats which can and have run over powerboats and caused injuries and death. Speed and size are the issues.

Sure, Fred, but those boats are not, after all, "small recreational boats" to which I specifically referred.

World wide there are thousands of motor vessels capable of deadly speeds. How many cutting edge sailing vessels capable of such speeds are there, and of those, how many are operated by incompetent skippers/crews?

I do worry about the big multihulls that are raced offshore by single or doublehanded crews, for they do constitute a risk to innocent vessels, be they sail or power... but they are a rare breed indeed compared to the flocks of 30 knot m/vs.

Jim

[Popcorn]

I can not complain about power boat captains, except that a large percentage of them were once sailboat captains.
Being involved with near misses, once going to Pender Harbor, BC. Casually under sail, approximately 5 knots, my wife on watch notices a motor yacht gaining on us, about a mile away. She brought this to my attention, thinking the motor yacht would see us, and avoid hitting us dead astern. In this situation turning in either direction without the knowledge of getting out of the way for certain, you would watch the motor yacht's position and get on the radio. That didn't work and we viewed a young man, maybe 15 years of age, waving his arms to get out of the way. Which way, why was this boat not going to go around us. So evasive action was taken when it appeared that this was not the captain, but an inexperienced person, not knowing what to do. The boat was on it's way to Orcas Is, notably assumed later on to have been on auto pilot and the captain was down below asleep. If not being attentive, in broad daylight, we would have been in a rear collision.
They never changed course, and I would imagine the captain never was notified.
Inexperienced crew in charge? Irresponsible captain? Did they care, who knows, but for sure, this is not good seamanship.

[jipcho]

Many folks on these threads point out that sail boaters are often just as irresponsible as power boaters. This is, of course, true. The biggest difference, though, is that sailors at fault are far less likely to cause fatalities.
An analogy which is very current might be this: A dangerous sail boater is like a criminal with a hand gun. A dangerous motor boater is like a criminal with a military grade assault rifle.
We can't force boaters to stop buying speedboats to inflate their egos, but we can and should require and enforce safety training which includes understanding COLREGS. As someone who has sailed around the world, citizens of other nations are usually shocked when I tell them that there is no requirement for training or licensing of boat owners or renters in the US. My experience with American boaters, sail and power, especially in the Caribbean, was frightening. Of course, those clueless bare boat charterers are often European (usually French) as well as American. After one season in the lesser Antilles, I sailed to the Western Carribbean, where anchorages were far less crowded, and sailors were more experienced.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by Rumrace

I guess you had to be there all seeing one. The dude had just tacked. Was running nice. He never glanced our way just took the right of way.

There is no such thing as "right of way" in Canada.
Collision Regulations.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/...r.c.,_c._1416/

The only place that mentions "right of way" are US Inland Navigation Rules

[Rumrace]

Maybe I wasn’t clear we were in Indiana picking up a boat. Indiana State police delayed our departure to interview us. Then we headed home for Honey Harbour. We know the trip well 😁

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by Rumrace

Maybe I wasn’t clear we were in Indiana picking up a boat. Indiana State police delayed our departure to interview us. Then we headed home for Honey Harbour. We know the trip well 😁

Pretty impressive, a 260 mile round trip for a "moonlight putt"

[Rumrace]

Yes Jipcho exactly right I believe. Reality gets blurred by Internet jockeys.
I think Barvaria just stated despite the C line success Sailboats represent 25% of production. I have no idea how many power boats Beneteau group makes but you just need money to buy a boat with two freight train motors.
I think Sea Doers are the worst boaters but darn they are all having fun and most of them are pretty responsible.
I’ve notice most young teenagers in a 14’ aluminum boat with their legal limit a 9.9 incredibly responsible. Adults should follow these children’s lead somedays.