USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

[jay_merrill]

Two NFL football players and two former USF players have gone missing in the Gulf of Mexico, off of St. Petersburg.

The basic info seems to be that they departed Clearwater Pass early yesterday morning, but did not return by afternoon or evening. The boat involved is reported to be a 21 foot Everglades Boats center console. Family members apparently reported that the group may be as far as 50 miles offshore. Weather/sea conditions in the morning were mild, but kicked up considerably by Sat. afternoon. I saw one news story reporting 7 foot seas by the end of the day, and another news story has them at 14 feet today.

Here are a couple of links:

http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2009/03/coast-guard-is.html

http://www.evergladesboats.com/boats/210cc.php

 

[tx1961whaler]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

They are in a very nice boat. Everglades are high end, foam-filled beasties, like a Boston Whaler (the designer of Everglades' is one of the originals from B.W.).

Hopefully they ride it out.

 

[aspeck]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

Thoughts and prayers are for them and for their families. Hopefully it will be a successful rescue and not a recovery.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

Like alot of these situations, there's seems to be some conflicting information as to where they might have been. All the reports that I have been reading indicate that they are believed to have gone about 50 miles offshore, possibly to a spot that they had fished before and marked via GPS.

One interview with a guy who fishes with Cooper frequently, however, indicates that "he knew to stay in cell phone range." Obviously, a cell phone isn't going to work 50 miles out in the Gulf, so I am wondering if they are 50 miles from the inlet, but only a few miles offshore. That scenario makes alot more sense to me, given that the boat is only 21 feet long and is a single engine model.

 

[triumphrick]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

We have been monitoring this story here on several forums since yesterday. I launched from the same ramp they did Saturday morning. We sea trialed a 20' Pro Line DC. The ride up the intercoastal was ok, but as soon as we headed out the pass into the gulf we were met with 3-5' seas and 20-25 knot winds. The Pro Line started taking spray in over the windward gunnel, so we headed back into the intercoatal to finish our run.

It was about 11 AM when we did that. I could not imagine for the life of me how anyone could have taken a boat 1 foot larger out into those seas...

The boat owner was Corey Smith, a local and ex Buccaneer. He owned the boat and was an accomplished boater and fisherman. They had made a similar run the past weekend and indicated they would head back to the same spot. And, yes, that was a run 50 miles offshore.

We are still monitoring local radio traffic as well as CG traffic to hear anything encouraging. The water temp is around 60-62 degrees and the gulf buoys were showing 12-14' swells......

 

[drewmitch44]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

is that fact that your cell phone will not work once you get 50 miles offshore? I was told that even if you go on a cruise that your cell phone would still work most of the time whyle you are under way. I might be wrong though especially since i have not been on a cruise and have never been 50 miles off shore. Maybee the cruiseliners stay along the cost or shmething. Just wondering.

 

[joed]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

Cruise ships have cell receivers on board. Not sure how they work. Possibly a uplink to satellite?

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

TR, thanks for the post - I had been reading some info that indicated that Cooper owned the boat, so I'm glad for the clarification.

For the life of me, I don't know what posseses people to run 50 miles offshore in small boats with only one engine. I wouldn't do that on a flat calm day. I also don't think it matters how experienced you are, because there are just too many things that can go wrong.

As for cell phone range, I just did a little surfing. On GSM systems, the theoretical range is about 25 miles in optimum conditions. For CDMA and iDEN (Nextel) systems, there is apparently no built in limit. The problem with using these assumptions, however, is that the cell towers aren't set up to take advantage of the full capabilities of the technology. Transmitters are usually set up to operate at less than full power and the antenna arrays are often mounted to point in a slight downward direction. These things are done to purposely limit range on a tower, so that the limited number of frequencies assigned to any one carrier, can be reused at other towers.

The other issue with cellular range, is the range of the handset. Once again, the CDMA and iDEN phones are much better than the GSM phones, with a range of up to 45 miles under best conditions. On a flat calm day, these phones might work quite some distance offshore, but that situation is going to be a function of tower limitations, as I just described. I think wave heights would also have to be factored into such a scenario. Seas of 7 feet and higher, are going to have a 21 foot boat in troughs every few seconds and line of sight coverage would most likely be broken quickly.

Hopefully, the USCG will find these guys today. With a search area of 750 square miles, that isn't going to be an easy task, but its not impossible.

 

[OldePharte]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

For those of you who do go out in the open ocean, don't you carry/rent an EPIRB just in case? How far would a VHF radio signal carry?

Sorry, but I am an inland boater and we don't have these issues. But I wouldn't go very far off shore without some kind of emergency notification device.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

Update:

I just saw news that an overturned boat has been found 30 miles west of Tampa, with one person clinging to it. Its not known if it is the boat in question, but I would hazard a guess that it is. Let's just hope that the others have PFDs on and can be found.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,503366,00.html

 

[tx1961whaler]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

 

[Cptkid570]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

I live in Tampa and have been watching this story closely as well. (I'm also a big Buccaneers and USF Bulls fan).. Apparently they were anchored and a wave swamped them. They all hung onto the boat for 12 to 16 hours.

I hope they find them all.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/article980435.ece

 

[chiefalen]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

Whats to add??

Guys all big strapping young men, maybe they come back, don't know one person that i spoke to who didn't wish them well.

Could have been avoided, no radio on board?

 

[CheapboatKev]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

Whats to add??

Guys all big strapping young men, maybe they come back, don't know one person that i spoke to who didn't wish them well.

Could have been avoided, no radio on board?

Having a radio and having the time to use it maybe 2 differnt stories..Diane and I were talking about this yesterday, with the case of a boat fire, what good is a radio if it's melting in a cabin or flipped over underwater?

Handheld, floating & waterproof on a lanyard ring attched to a PFD is looking really good to me right now..

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

i have a hand held i keep with my pdf.

 

[bowman316]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

they found one of the men clinging to the overtuned hull, and he said they were anchored when to boat suddenly flipped. And the other 3 drifted off before they could get to the hull. that happens in 15 ft seas.

I just don't know if the other 3 were wearing life jackets, they are dead if they were not.
here is the story abut what the survivor said:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090302/ap_on_re_us/missing_boaters_nfl

 

[chicknwing]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

I hope they find the other three.

TC

 

[Tyme2fish]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

USCG Searching For Missing Football Players.

Is it just me? Why does the news media have to sensationalize this accident. Why not, "Four boaters missing."?
Is it not still tragic if they are just ditch diggers or non-famous people out for a day of fishing? I guess the headlines have to grab our attention.

Let's hope the others are found soon.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: USCG Searching For Missing Football Players

he said they all had life jacket on. just goes to show, it does not matter how big, strong, and $$ you have. DON"T MESS WITH MOTHER NATURE!!! they went when the conditions were known to be turning bad, later in the day. single engine.