External Combustion
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2007
- Messages
- 608
I just saw an item on the local news channel a few minutes ago. It seems three men thought it a good idea to go wakeboarding on a local shallow lake with the winds blowing from 35 to 45MPH. The waves were in the three foot region and they thought it would make for good jumping. They allowed their ski boat to be swamped from waves breaking over the transom. It went down and was eventually blown onto the riprap on the dam and broken up. The skipper drowned. A 80 year old passenger is in the hospital and it doesn't look good for him. The wakeboarder managed to make it to the dam and flag down help. It wasn't clear if they were wearing PFDs.
The Lake Patrol (which is the local police department) launched a recue boat. The local news station captured on video for the world to see, the rescue skipper also presenting his transom to the waves. He took three waves over the top as the video was rolling. If it were not for the self bailing cockpit he too would have gone down. The next cut of the video shows the rescue boat being slammed against the riprap repeatedly. I have no knowledge as to the qualifications of the resue skipper, but obviously they must not be high. The standards for the rescue boat were much higher and it saved it's skipper.
Let's be careful out there. Know the capabilities of your boat and learn to handle it even in foul weather. By turning either boat into the wind and waves and slowly backing towards their target, they would not have been swamped. A good boating course would have taught them that. Reading Chapman's "Piloting, Seamanship and Small Boat Handling" or Knight's "Seamanship" would also teach the basics of staying safe. We owe it to those who would risk their lives for us and those that we would leave behind to educate ourselves to the task of safe boat operation.
As a parting note: it is against the law to ski or wakeboard at that lake. Go figure.
The Lake Patrol (which is the local police department) launched a recue boat. The local news station captured on video for the world to see, the rescue skipper also presenting his transom to the waves. He took three waves over the top as the video was rolling. If it were not for the self bailing cockpit he too would have gone down. The next cut of the video shows the rescue boat being slammed against the riprap repeatedly. I have no knowledge as to the qualifications of the resue skipper, but obviously they must not be high. The standards for the rescue boat were much higher and it saved it's skipper.
Let's be careful out there. Know the capabilities of your boat and learn to handle it even in foul weather. By turning either boat into the wind and waves and slowly backing towards their target, they would not have been swamped. A good boating course would have taught them that. Reading Chapman's "Piloting, Seamanship and Small Boat Handling" or Knight's "Seamanship" would also teach the basics of staying safe. We owe it to those who would risk their lives for us and those that we would leave behind to educate ourselves to the task of safe boat operation.
As a parting note: it is against the law to ski or wakeboard at that lake. Go figure.
