Our beloved SV MONICA wrecked by incompetent marina

[sailingmonica]

The marina where we had our boat stored since 2018 has not been dredged in three years, but they assured us that they can tow us out past the silted entrance, so we can finally take our boat home to Nova Scotia, where we moved at the beginning of Covid.

This is the video of the unsuccessful attempt, taken by a fellow boater. We ended up damaged, water and fuel spills inside, dragged onto the rocks, mast and rigging bent. Of course, I put in an insurance claim, but nothing can be done until the boat gets hauled out, the mast gets taken down, and the inspection by the insurance company takes place. Except that the marina will not haul us out until after August 15th, because, guess what, they are closed for summer vacations. So, we are being held hostages here since last Tuesday, and for at least two more weeks.

Yesterday, a marina representative came and proposed a quick haul out, without taking the mast down, so they can fix any "scratches". We declined, saying that the insurance needs to have the mast down to assess damage, as well as assess the damage to hull, keel, and rudder. The marina representative said we will not be hauled out now, if this is what our plan is, and we will have to wait until after August 15th.


https://youtu.be/cpx3NkbJ2C8

[LouK]

Tortuous to watch, guess these boys had plenty of horsepower between them but no depth sounder. So, so sorry.

[grantmc]

A very sad sad display, and I am sad for your problems.

But as owner and helm don't you share some of the responsibility? I don't in any way mean to be judgmental or uncharitable but depth is always a constant concern for anyone with a boat.

Originally Posted by LouK

Tortuous to watch, guess these boys had plenty of horsepower between them but no depth sounder. So, so sorry.

A depth sounder wouldn't have helped. But someone doing a reconnoitre with a 3 mtr pole in hand before starting the tow would have been prudent.

Here's another video of a similar problem but tackled in a different way. Careful measurements were made of depth and tide, divers in the water at the ready through the entire channel transit, and the operation planned ahead of time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2yHOcp_fII

[OliveJuice]

This makes me want to add a hand-held depth sounder to my wishlist.

Sorry this happened to you

[Pandor]

Wow. I’m sorry you and the boat had to endure that. If that was absolute high tide and yard birds were pulling you along the deepest side of that inlet, there was never a chance that was going to work. But I have some take-always:

1) Never let a guy wearing a hard hat tow your boat.
2) Do survey the depth thoroughly with a bamboo pole or hand held depth sounder before committing.
3) Why worry about the delayed haul-out? I don’t think that boat will be leaving until the next dredging.

[flee27]

I am so sorry for your situation. That was painful to watch. A great example of how something simple can quickly compound into a big problem.

Best of luck

Foster

[Marathon1150]

A very sad outcome for a very beautiful boat. As others noted - very hard to watch the video.

I recently had a warm discussion with a local marina where we were going to tie up for one night. The person on the radio indicated that there was lots of water at our slip assignment but from previous experience in that marina I knew that getting to that slip required going through some very shallow water. After a relatively brief exchange of opinion regarding water depth and our boat's draft, we were assigned a different slip where access was through deep enough water.

Good luck with healing the boat, and your bruised feelings.

[Checkswrecks]

What the F***?

Simply checking with the dingy and 4 lb scuba weight on a line would have prevented the entire thing. Even just using a boathook to check for depth.

And there is ZERO excuse after the shallow draft of the tow boat first grounded before the sailboat hit bottom.

[wingssail]

I really don't understand how the owners could have embarked on this tow knowing that the channel had not been dredged and was heavily silted without verifying the depth. It appears that they lacked a meter of water. Inexcusable.

In a similar predicament in San Blas Mexico a couple of years ago when our re-launch was delayed and we were concerned about the water depth, I rented a small boat the day before the re-launch and with a friend, a hand held GPS, and lead line we surveyed the entire river outlet.

We found some shallow sandbars and some deeper areas and after transferring those soundings to a chart, identified a safe route and were able to transit to deeper water.

That type of precaution would have saved this couple from their ordeal.

[Oeanda]

Ugh. Painful. 2020 hindsight is always so clear. It could have been even worse though hey?

Last week a cabin cruiser tied up to the pilings at the tidal grid here. He did a bad job tying up and then took off home for a while as the tide dropped. The boat flopped heavily over, leaning away from the pilings. The flimsy keel couldn’t take the weight and snapped. A diesel tank ruptured and got pumped out into the ocean. The boat is a write off. All could’ve been so easily avoided. A lesson for the future I guess.

[Bobby Lex]

Originally Posted by Pandor

If that was absolute high tide and yard birds were pulling you along the deepest side of that inlet, there was never a chance that was going to work.

This was in Ontario Canada. No appreciable tides that I'm aware of. Dredging appears to be the only solution to getting them access to the lake.

Originally Posted by Pandor

Never let a guy wearing a hard hat tow your boat.

Not to mention: never let a guy who looks like Jim Carey from Dumb & Dumber, who is driving a boat named after a liqueur, come within 1/2 mile of your boat.

Very painful to watch.

Bob

[ItDepends]

Was there no point during this cluster F*** where you said, "STOP!!!!!"???

What made this so hard to watch was that is was so painfully clear so early on that the boat was NEVER getting out that channel in one piece.

[Pauls]

Those yard guys! What a pair of doofuses. Does that make them doofi?

The guy in the lead is so clueless about water depth that he runs aground in his little power boat. The heeling guy heads the sailboat towards the break wall over and over. Neither have a clue about what they're doing.

Why on earth trust your boat to a couple of guys you don't know? You can heel your boat yourself by swinging out the boom and hoisting enough weight from it (you can pile a lot of weight into that big tender).

On the brighter side, I saw nothing in the video that would harm the rig. And assuming that the keel hit nothing harder than mud/sand, it ought to be fine.

[Lodesman]

That's rough.
Not meaning to rub salt in the wound, but for next time, or the next person in this situation, I offer some thoughts.
It didn't appear they had much of, if any, plan. You should have discussed the plan in detail beforehand, then researched careening, so you could have had a better idea of how it might have worked better.

Using the boat to careen your vessel is problematic from 3 standpoints - you couldn't fix the angle; it would change as the boat moved in and out from your vessel, leading to the keel dragging or bouncing off the bottom, rocks, etc. The boat pulling sideways would tend to drag your vessel sideways in the narrow channel, something you wouldn't want. And the repeated loading and unloading of the strain on your masthead is hard on the rigging.

A much better plan would have been to survey the channel and determine what the minimum depth was. Then calculate the angle of heel necessary to achieve that depth - knowing the beam and draft, it's just a bit of trig.
You could have used 50 gal drums - a couple filled with water, wrapped with cargo straps and clipped to your main halyard, then you winch your vessel down to the necessary angle measured on your inclinometer. You could have worked it out tied up alongside. The angle stays steady and the load at the masthead is the minimum necessary to keep you heeled. It's self-adjusting as the immersed volume is neutrally buoyant.

Then the main towboat pulls forward and the trail boat on a line to your stern steers left or right to keep your vessel centred in the channel.

Hope you're fixed up soon.

[SailFastTri]

I feel sympathy for you in this distressing situation. You may wish to consider contacting marine salvage and construction companies to try to get a price quote for a crane on a shallow draft barge that could lift your boat in slings and take it elsewhere.
Edit: Or haul it when you can at that marina and truck it elsewhere.