Sea Tow: Only for milquetoasts?

[S/V Illusion]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

I read your earlier comments. Note, however, you are "self-insured" to the extent that you have to go out-of-pocket up front and remain so until your insurer reimburses you (ignoring to tole getting such reimbursement will require), if so. Moreover, make a towing reimbursement claim more than once or so, and see the effect on your annual premiums, which can easily exceed the cost of a BoatUS membership/towing policy. N'any case, as I said earlier, if that approach works for you, good for you/others, good for you/them. Different ships/different long splices, eh?

I think most people would disagree that constitutes "self insurance" but regardless, our underwriter has stated (in writing) tow service up to 6 times/year use will not result in an increase in premiums.



The reason being they would rather we get towed than cause, inflict or receive more damage as a result of reluctance to getting towed. In fact, underwriters can consider it negligent to NOT get towed.


I agree with the 'your boat, your choice' principle and was just trying to give people something to think about as a viable, more flexible and cheaper alternative.

[wcrosby]

Originally Posted by Jammer

A Sea Tow boat passed me the other day and it made me wonder about their service.


Their memberships, popular among occasional pleasure boaters in the USA, are $180 per year and entitle the member to free on-water assistance under a fairly limited set of specific circumstances and within certain financial limits.


It seems to me that most of the situations they cover are ones that I would expect to be able to resolve without their help.

A couple of years ago on Labor Day in 6-8 foot seas and a 25 Knot SW wind in Buzzards Bay, MA, My anchor freewheeled and stuck me in the middle of the shipping lane. The Windlass breaker was blown, and the anchor would not come up under power.



I called Tow Boat US out of New Bedford, and they maneuvered me into place so 4 of my crew could manually pull the anchor in. It would have been incredibly unsafe to do it any other way.



I am a big believer in these services.

[Clamdigger]

I am of the old school of seafaring I gladly interrupt my boating to aid any fellow boater that appears to be in distress. Example, during a sailboat race in which I was on the home stretch, in fourth place with a chance that I would be taking third place ( as I was getting a wind shift that the third place boat was not able to).I saw a family in a 15ft run about just sitting as I passed. I asked if they were ok, and got a 'motor is down'. I told my sailing crew member we are aiding a vessel in distress prepare to come about. I sailed up alongside the run about and dropped sail. I had everyone put on life jackets, and took the 2 children and mother aboard my boat.I had my crew get them below out of the sun and told them to eat and drink anything they found down below. I have the father a bottle of water and 2 slices of cold pizza. I then rigged a tow role from his bow cleat to my 2 stern cleats, and hoisted sail, and got underway. The looks I got from other skippers and their crews in the face as they passed me was one of disbelief, and this was in the 80s! They could not seem to understand the premise I was operating from in my decision to stop my face to offer assistance. We made the last 1/4 mile last the committee boat and got the horn in 23rd place.Even the face comes could not believe that I was taking a boat across the finish line! I got the run about cast off to a rock and slipped my boat, and humbly accepted the family's thanks. I figured I'd go see what the rest of the boats placed and went into the clubhouse. As I stood in the back of the room listening to the finishing remarks, I caught one of the face comes due and he quickly pointed me out to the others. Next thing you know I was up front accepting the 1st place trophy for Good Sportsmanship! Unbeknownst to me the other skippers in the room had all approached the face committee and mentioned my act of Seamenship, towing a boat under full sail on the course. I still have that trophy, and the subsequent newspaper article that was written about my actions after the family contacted the local paper. Even more is that the trophy was made by a now deceased friend of mine, and it will always be my most coveted sailing trophy!

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Clamdigger

Unbeknownst to me the other skippers in the room had all approached the face committee and mentioned my act of Seamenship, towing a boat under full sail on the course. I still have that trophy, and the subsequent newspaper article that was written about my actions after the family contacted the local paper. Even more is that the trophy was made by a now deceased friend of mine, and it will always be my most coveted sailing trophy!

Now THAT is a great stuff Clamdigger!

[Clamdigger]

Don, as it should be, for it was instilled in me by my parents, and those I crewed for growing up in the 1960's in New England waters. I was told "you *always* go to the aid of anyone in distress on land of afloat." There were other memorable acts of seamanship on my part over the years, but I wanted to illustrate that safety is paramount regardless of what activities we are engaged in while using our vessels. Even my singlehanded half circumnavigation does not eclipse the memories of that day and trophy! I actually took that family out for a day sail a few weeks later and the children seemed to really enjoy it.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Clamdigger

Don, as it should be, for it was instilled in me by my parents, and those I crewed for growing up in the 1960's in New England waters. I was told "you *always* go to the aid of anyone in distress on land of afloat." There were other memorable acts of seamanship on my part over the years, but I wanted to illustrate that safety is paramount regardless of what activities we are engaged in while using our vessels. Even my singlehanded half circumnavigation does not eclipse the memories of that day and trophy! I actually took that family out for a day sail a few weeks later and the children seemed to really enjoy it.

Unfortunately, it seems most assistance is to people ill prepared. JMH experience.

[chris95040]

Originally Posted by wcrosby

A couple of years ago on Labor Day in 6-8 foot seas and a 25 Knot SW wind in Buzzards Bay, MA, My anchor freewheeled and stuck me in the middle of the shipping lane. The Windlass breaker was blown, and the anchor would not come up under power.



I called Tow Boat US out of New Bedford, and they maneuvered me into place so 4 of my crew could manually pull the anchor in. It would have been incredibly unsafe to do it any other way.



I am a big believer in these services.

I hope that now you are also a big believer in properly securing your anchor.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by chris95040

I hope that now you are also a big believer in properly securing your anchor.

Yes, something redundant.



Honestly, I don't think it would have occurred to me to call for a tow (unless I misunderstand something). You put a float on the rode, let it go, and come back for it under more benign conditions. If it's too much to haul hand-over-hand, you use a cockpit winch and some manner of grab. Old school stuff, I guess.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Yes, something redundant.



Honestly, I don't think it would have occurred to me to call for a tow (unless I misunderstand something). You put a float on the rode, let it go, and come back for it under more benign conditions. If it's too much to haul hand-over-hand, you use a cockpit winch and some manner of grab. Old school stuff, I guess.

Imho, it is more that people don't know what they don't know, and these days, if they haven't seen a you-tube of it, they likely don't know.

Previously, when there were no classes for aspiring yachties, we all learned from experience, only, and unless you had to get up all your chain when the windlass broke, you wouldn't have known how to do it. Once seeing it done, and flaking the chain out on deck prior to stowing, you knew. Otherwise, you would have had to figure it out. Except if you'd been mentored, and the mentor had shown or told you about it, or you'd read about it somewhere.

For those of you out there who are unfamiliar with the technique, use a CF Google Custom Search and find some of the old threads about it. They're pretty understandable, and maybe someone even posted a You-Tube on it.

Ann

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Imho, it is more that people don't know what they don't know, and these days, if they haven't seen a you-tube of it, they likely don't know.

Previously, when there were no classes for aspiring yachties, we all learned from experience, only, and unless you had to get up all your chain when the windlass broke, you wouldn't have known how to do it. Once seeing it done, and flaking the chain out on deck prior to stowing, you knew. Otherwise, you would have had to figure it out. Except if you'd been mentored, and the mentor had shown or told you about it, or you'd read about it somewhere.

For those of you out there who are unfamiliar with the technique, use a CF Google Custom Search and find some of the old threads about it. They're pretty understandable, and maybe someone even posted a You-Tube on it.

Ann

Ann, I guess I'm a crochety old bastard but it seems there are a bunch of experts because they found it on line.
Roger

[JPA Cate]

Cadence,

I think I understand what you mean. One doesn't really "know" until he or she has done whatever the "it" of the moment is. Until then, it is only one's concept of it, essentially a fantasy. Perhaps awareness of the difference is limited.

Ann

[mikesailin]

The minimum cost of a tow would pay several years of SeaTow insurance. Anyone who has never been aground has never left the dock.

[Clamdigger]

Cadence, though you may be correct with your previous supposition, " mostly unprepared people needing help", back in the day, let's say up until the 1980s boating folks were a different group from those of today. In that folks who were into boating of any type prior to 1980s were probably brought up boating, and were raised to learn how to get themselves or others out of a man on the water (and off).IMO

This happen beyond our control in the real world, we are after all relying on electronics in a salt air environment, and engines be they gas or diesel, that have minds of their own and many a gremlin
operating in them!

In the case of the young family I assisted, their outboard engine was non-repairable, and they did not have a cell phone back then, and their single boat battery was dead from repeated cranking trying to get the engine to start. Glad I asked if they needed help, as the father thought he'd never get any help from a sailor in a face going by him on all sides, he later confided in me. They were drifting away from shore, and it was a weekday not many choices for help out there that day.
It
All I'm saying is it can happen to the best of us, so if one can safely render aid with consideration of the (todays) liability involved do so. Like I said a few posts up in reply to don's post, it was more gratifying to me in a show of my seamanship skills to my crew member to aid that family, than it was to sail halfway around the Earth when lots of folks had full circumnavigations under their keeps already. It proved to me that I had the 'sailing chop's' at the time to operate my vessel with skull and finesse.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by mikesailin

Anyone who has never been aground has never left the dock.

Or maybe some of us are simply more attentive to location and depth than others, especially as most places in the world you are on your own.

I don't count intentional beaching of previous cat or lightly rubbing the bottom sneaking through shallows on rising tide as groundings.

[thinwater]

Yup, mostly milquetoast, from what I'm reading.


I'm glad to have 35 years of premiums, plus the time value of money, in my pocket. Certainly enough to pay for a tow... though that will never happen. Bear in mind that if there is actual peril, Towboat won't cover it and my insurance will.