Collision and Dismasting

[sailorboy1]

It was Dec 30, 2023. 8:30pm with a West wind of 5-10kn, seas of 1-2 feet from the West, clear conditions with no moon up yet. The boat was on a starboard reach tack with just the mainsail out with a reef still in from high wind earlier in day. We were doing 4 knots on a course of 165 magnetic with the autopilot steering and approximately 12 nm south of the St Augustine entrance and 2 nm offshore with approximate position of 29.667988 Latitude and -81.154310 Longitude.

My wife was on watch and been for about 20 minutes. I recall in the watch turnover telling her the course, speed, sails, that the autopilot was on and that visually there was no one around. She was sitting in the companionway under the dodger to be out of the cold wind and facing forward. As normal at night and alone she had her life vest/harness on and was tethered to the boat with the short tether at the companionway.

Suddenly she went “shit there is boat dead ahead coming at us”! I jumped up to come out to cockpit while she unclipped to get to the helm. She managed to get the autopilot off and start a turn starboard about the same time I got out to cockpit. Within 1 second of that the other boat, which turned out to be a commercial fishing boat, and our boat were alongside each other with barely any clearance. Our boat went under the fishing boats’ outrigger arms breaking our mast and tearing away all our rigging. Our boat became adrift with our mast and sails in the water on our starboard and the boom inboard on the starboard lifelines with the mainsail foot over the lines.

Once the initial shock passed, we checked that each of us was Ok and checked we were not taking on water and sinking. We both seemed OK, and the boat wasn’t taking on water. I went out on deck to determine the damage and to see what needed to be done. I recall noting our bow navigation light was on, which we also had verified operational earlier in the afternoon when we had turned it on. We noted that the fishing boat had stopped and it then came toward us to within shouting distance and asked if we were OK. We had a hard time hearing and understanding them. We attempted to call them on our backup handheld VHF and discovered its’ battery was dead and plugged it in.

I determined we had no choice other than to cut ourselves free of the sails and rigging and started doing this. I sent my wife down for some tools and flashlight and at that time the handheld VHF was charged enough that we heard the Coast Guard calling and my wife answered. We learned the fishing boat had called the accident in. After answering the standard questions from the CG my wife came back out on deck to help me. I commenced cutting running rigging lines and driving out pins on the standing rigging to get it free. Once I had that done the sails and rigging were still holding the boat as the boom was inboard with the sails draped across the lifelines.

I noticed Open Seas motoring up on our starboard side, which was where the rigging and sails were in the water and told them to back away so they would not get tangled up in the sails/rigging. They backed off, and then left us completely and motored away. We never were able to establish VHF communication with Open Seas and by the time we got ourselves free they were distance dot of light.

We tried to lift off the boom from the lifelines and also using a boat hook as a lever, but the weight was too much. I was finally able to free the boom from the mast and throw the mast, still attached to the mainsail, into the water. That reduced the weight of the boom/sail across the lifelines and we were able to lift it over the lines and it fell into the water and disappeared. During this the CG frequently called us to ask questions etc. and we finally told them we were not in any current danger and would call them once we were in a stable condition.

After the rigging and sails seemed clear to us, I shifted to securing our dinghy that was hanging by only 1 davit line and some ratchet straps. I found that the rear of the dinghy must have gotten caught on Open Seas and that a davit line clip had broken. I was able to lower the dinghy down and get into it and attach another line to temporally hold it safely. Once we had the dinghy back up, I started the engine and tried to slowly motor. I noted that we were not making speed and went back to neutral and sent my wife down to watch the shaft. I then motored away again making better speed but noticed a stay cable going overboard that was tight and determined it was still attached to the mast/rigging/sails. I was not able drive out the pins on the line and finally hacksawed through the turnbuckle and the sails/rigging assembly finally fell away. Overall, it took us 2 hours to get free and secure the dinghy.

After waiting a few minutes, I again tried to motor away and could tell we were free. The closest entrance was St Augustine and we proceeded to motor there and got to the entrance about 0200 on Dec 31 and were anchored near the Vilano Beach bridge at 0230. The next morning the CG was calling to come inspect the boat, but we put them off till later to be able to make it to Jacksonville in favorable currents and tides. We tied up in Jacksonville about 1600.

A couple of days later the CG came to inspect our boat and get our story. We told them the basic info above and that we didn’t really know how we didn’t see the other as we well maintaini9ng a watch the whole time. We told them maybe it was blocked by our mainsail, but that it was hard to believe as I hadn’t seen them while on watch 20 minutes prior or how we didn’t see till too late. They had already spoken with the fishing boat and told us its’ name was Open Seas who told them:

- They were fishing with their nets out doing 2 knots
- They didn’t see us on radar
- We didn’t have our lights on
- They tried to call us on the VHF
- We told them to leave

All I can say to that is:

-I don’t know if they had their nets out, but if they had we probably would’ve been caught it in. We were doing 4 knots and we appeared to close way faster than the 6 knots relative if they had been doing 2 knots.
-I cannot say anything about their radar. I would think a 41’ sailboat with solar panels up high and a large stern arch would be seen on radar.
-We are positive our running lights were on
-We discovered our hand-held VHF in the cockpit battery had died. But if they had just changed course instead of calling us and waiting a response, we would not have collided. Later we could not get them to answer our VHF calls.
-We didn’t tell them to leave. We did tell them to stay clear till we got the rig etc. free so they didn’t get fouled by it. They were long gone before we got free and knew we could still motor and control the boat.

In hindsight we really can only fully come up with 1 reason to not have seen them till the last moment. Given that on a clear night we can normally see a lit up commercial fishing boat for well over an hour, we must question if they were running dark. We saw no lights till right before the collision then they were highly lit up and if not for the small turn we managed seconds before the collision would have hit nose to nose.

Besides the mast and boom, all standing and running rigging and sails were lost. There is damage to our dodger and its’ frame was lost frame. We lost some aux anchor lights mounted on our solar panel frame and our Star Link antenna was ripped away. We must have hit Open Seas with our port stern quarter, and it knocked apart a section of the rub rail that covers the deck/hull joint. The deck also has a couple of compression cracks in that section and at same general area inside the boat there are a couple of cracked areas in the overhead liner. There may be additional damage that a better inspection will find.

We consider ourselves very lucky. The only injuries were some nicks and cuts to my hands and a badly bruised butt. We could have easily hit bow to bow and sunk. If Open Seas outrigger arms had been 6” lower, we probably would have been hit in the head as well as it would have hit our stern arch and ripped the rear deck off. Also, if not for a very slight angle to Open Seas the broken mast would have come down into the cockpit and right on us instead of off to the side. The sea conditions were calm, and the broken mast did not hole the hull and the sails did not get tangled up on our keel/rudder/prop

[Mike OReilly]

Oh hell... that really sucks. So sorry to hear this news Don. Just glad to hear you and your wife were uninjured.

Hope the recovery goes well.

[boatman61]

Bumma mate... know how you feel.
Not the first to be run down by a fishing boat running dark and likely far from the last.
I was hit at a combined speed of 16kts which ended up with the insurance writing off the cat.
You"ll likely find the insurers will cut a 50/50 deal.

[rslifkin]

Ouch! Glad to hear you're ok after all of that. The tone of your recent posts had given some indication that some undesirable events had occurred, but I wasn't expecting to hear anything this bad.

[Wotname]

Ouch - that hurts!

Very sorry to hear of your collision. Glad it wasn't worse!!!

Do you know if there is any historic AIS tracking in the area? I guess there isn't otherwise you would have mentioned it.

[JPA Cate]

Oh, Don, my heartfelt sympathy to both you and your good lady wife. It happened on her watch, too. After we were dismasted, I actually had therapy for PTSD.

Have you documented what you did in the ship's log? I sure hope so. Especially relative to the nav light still working after you cleared the deck? What you both actually can swear to honorably in court?

Is your boat reasonably reparable? Good on her for getting you to safety, and good on both you and your wife.

Ann

[kayakerChuck]

Wow!

I'm glad you and your wife are mostly unscathed.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

[Sam Woodbridge]

Wow, that is a riveting nightmare of a story.

I’m sincerely sorry it happened.

[Orion Jim]

Luckily you and your wife were not injured. This is the type of nightmare scenario which any sailor can relate to. I presume you are not equipped with AIS?

[Don C L]

Wow, what a story! I too am glad to hear neither of you were hurt and the hull wasn't more damaged. I am not too surprised that the fishing boat reported to the Coast Guard info that seemed to exonerate them completely. Additionally, the fact that they just left you there is very disturbing. I wonder what the Coast Guard will have to say about that?

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Additionally, the fact that they just left you there is very disturbing. I wonder what the Coast Guard will have to say about that?

The CG told me they said I told them to leave.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

The CG told me they said I told them to leave.

And the Coast Guard was ok with that?

If I were the skipper of a fishing boat that caused a dismasting, and they told me to leave, I wouldn't leave. To leave a potentially disabled boat, still in danger with rigging over the side? That breaks a basic law of seamanship in my book, no matter what the other skipper tells me to do.

I have mentioned in other threads about crewing on a boat that lost its rudder in the South China Sea. After a day of wrangling with various sails to make it either to the Philippines or the Paracel Islands, a 400' British Royal Fleet Auxiliary freighter "Sir Tristram" came along. Though we asked Captain Green to just pass along a request to send a tug back for us when he got to Hong Kong, he very cheerfully and politely and firmly was having none of that. He made it clear there was no way he was just going to leave us, no matter what we said. Pretty clear instruction on that law to me.

Terrific man that Captain Green, the world needs more like him.
Sadly the Sir Tristram was badly damaged in the Falkland Islands war the following summer.

[JPA Cate]

Well, from what sailorboy1 wrote, it may have simply been a misunderstanding between the fishing boats skipper and Don and his wife, as they DID wave him off. And, honestly, I would not expect the skipper of a warship and a professional fishing boat to be held to the same standards, either. Ymmv. Each tried and failed to make VHF contact. The insurance will sort it out, I hope.

Ann

[wholybee]

What a terrible thing to have to go through. I am very sorry. Hopefully everything works out for you. Are you still on the boat, or hotel, or ?

[AA3JY]

Don-

This is sobering for us cruisers. However I’m trying to find an incident report by the USCG Seventh District and there’s nothing available at the moment. Usually these initial reports are generated immediately.

Glad you and Dana are OK 👍

Regards,

Clay & Leslie
aboard s/v Tango