Had to tow a boat tonight - how fast?

[Home Cookin']

Re: Had to tow a boat tonight - how fast?

I really hate lawsuits sometimes. I know they are necessary sometimes, but it stops people like me from offering help when people need it. I have only had a boat a few weeks, but I saw someone waving me down and I thought it was an obligation to offer any and all help you could in that instance. I honestly had no clue what do to do, but did my best. I figured there would be a day in the future that I would need the same help. I might not completely buy into karma, but I won't screw with it either

OK before we open up the tired "obligation to help" discussion--the right thing to do morally is to help someone else out. How you do it, and whether you do it, has a whole range of applied circumstances. Generally, you have to assist if the other person is in danger and you can do it without putting yourself in danger. After that it's circumstantial.

Second, don't confuse a products liability case (chris craft and its cleats) with a negligence case (you do something that hurts someone). They are as different as chalk and cheese. And no, CC did not go bankrupt over one lawsuit.

Third, it is not true that if someone gets hurt when you are helping them that you have to write a check. Not true. Not not not. The owner of the cris craft was not liable. There is a list of required elements to meet before you are liable (for example, you knew your cleat was in rotten wood and would pull out--and that's just one).

You did the right thing, and it would have been wrong to leave a 19' boat adrift a few minutes from the marina. You also did the right thing by asking details on towing methods here, and being interested in learning new skills.

 

[joed]

Re: Had to tow a boat tonight - how fast?

Another point I didn't see mentioned. If you have room, as many as possible of the passengers from the towed boat should be moved into the towing boat. Less weight in the towed boat is better.

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Had to tow a boat tonight - how fast?

View attachment 211723
I towed in our village idiot while his girl friend rode in the boat with me.View attachment 211727

Good luck restarting that jetski... Just lucky it didn't sink! Seadoo's, and maybe others, can't be towed that fast without clamping off the water intake line in the pump. What happens is that you have enough water pressure moving through that it starts pushing water into the cooling system, and then the exhaust, and then filling up the cylinders. If the hose pops off from pressure, it sinks the PWC.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Had to tow a boat tonight - how fast?

Good luck restarting that jetski... Just lucky it didn't sink! Seadoo's, and maybe others, can't be towed that fast without clamping off the water intake line in the pump. What happens is that you have enough water pressure moving through that it starts pushing water into the cooling system, and then the exhaust, and then filling up the cylinders. If the hose pops off from pressure, it sinks the PWC.

And the problem is....?

 

[gtochris]

Re: Had to tow a boat tonight - how fast?

J
I have seen molded handles on tinnies give way, and deck cleats pull out of boats tied to a dock in a bad storm. I've owned boats myself that were bolted, and some screwed. Fact is that most of us don't own Cobalts or Formulas, so we need to be forewarned.

I've always been under the impression that a serious grounding like you had- it's best to run a line around the boat perimeter using all the cleats making a circle so the tow boat is distributing the pull equally. Anyone else recall this?

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Had to tow a boat tonight - how fast?

no but distributing weight makes sense, even if rigging a harness to put the weight on two points. Also if one cleat/eye/whatever pops, the other is there to hold or at least take the zing out. I think what you may have heard about pertains to towing a floating vessel, a different drill from removing one from land.

But I would not pull a high-and-dry boat off by the stern cleat unless it was floating pretty well. In addition to the weight, you have the transom digging in. Again, the advice in the general discussion is not about taking one off a stranding.

A sailboat about 35' came ashore in a storm on an island I frequent (sand beach) and they got a big launch, tied its hawser around the base of the mast, and headed straight out to sea. At first tension, the sailboat, laying parallel to the shore, spun perpendicular. Then it moved in short jolts toward the sea, as the hawser's 4" diameter got smaller and smaller. When it hit the point where it was afloat, with all that stored energy, it shot like a paperclip from a rubber band across the surf and almost into the stern of the launch!

don't try this at home.