BELIEVE IT OR NOT !

[handball]

This happened within the last week.<br />30 foot sailboat motoring heading west from orient point new york,capt. below fixing head. crew on watch dozing, boat on autopilot.<br />34 ft. trawler heading east towards orient point, on autopilot with long distance cruisers aboard. trawler people doing there thing below, apparently<br />not paying attention to whats ahead.<br />The two boats hit bow to bow and glance off each other. Sailboat has extensive damage to roller furling, anchor roller, stainless bow rail distroyed, stansions pulled out of deck, etc etc.<br />trawler had upper hull penetrated and deck slighted lifted up at shear.<br />Crew at wheel of sailboat had international experience , but probably not enough sleep the night before.This just proves how accurite the new gps instruements are and how well the autopilots work

 

[alden135]

Re: BELIEVE IT OR NOT !

Too much money meets not enough brains.

 

[jtexas]

Re: BELIEVE IT OR NOT !

what, no TCAS? (traffic collision avoidance system)

 

[handball]

Re: BELIEVE IT OR NOT !

Hi fellows,<br />I have since found out that the sail boat involved in this accident has a radar that can be set to avoid a collision with an alarm to warn you. The weather that day was beautifull and clear so the radar was not on. There was 2 people on each boat and not one out of four were watching or paying any attention at the time. The fellow on the sail boat claims they were bucking a lot of current and only making about 3 knots, the trawler probably was going about 7 knots. these careless boaters had to be preoccupied or sleeping for a good bit of time not to have seen the other boat coming.Its people like this on the water that increases insureance costs for all of us.<br />Bill

 

[Mark42]

Re: BELIEVE IT OR NOT !

Out there on Long Island I am always the smallest boat around. I have assume that no one sees me in those yacht because I am always having to get out of someones way. <br /><br />Granted I am more manuverable, but that is no excuse for bearing down on me from behind like I'm not even there.

 

[fgough]

Re: BELIEVE IT OR NOT !

I used to manage In/Out dry storage marinas. On a slow day, the whole crew would watch people coming into and out of the public ramp across the ICW from the marina. In one day, we have seen more than 20 boaters forget to put in their plug. <br />My worst trick was driving home from the marina one night in OC, MD, in a 21 Checkmate. I stopped at a restaurant/bar after leaving work for a couple of wine coolers. Halfway home, my spotlight blows a bulb. Do I slow down? No, that would have made sense. Assawoman Bay averages about 2' deep, with mudbanks everywhere. You guessed it, tide was low, and ebbing. At 45 mph, I missed the turn in the channel by 15', ran up hull dry onto the mudbank some 40' from the water line. Boat came to a stop, and tilted over to one side. <br />Here's what's funnier. I called a friend who was an Ensign in the USCG, asked him to send a boat to pull me off in a couple of hours when the water got deeper. Not 30 minutes later an 18' Whaler with two teenaged Coasties on it runs agound at about the same speed on the same mudbank not 100 feet away. When I asked, they said they had come to help me. I laughed so hard I fell off the bow of my boat into the mud. <br />We both got pulled off by the CG 41 footer a couple of hours later.<br />I got my first motorboat at age 8 in Palm Beach, 100 ton Ocean Operators license at 18, and have had 2 or 3 boats ever since.<br />Sooner or later, we all become candidates for the infamous "Channel Diggers Award"