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Scary Experience Last Night- Lesson for all
Wildboating
Member Posts: 957 ✭✭✭
We had been out to dinner and to a bar until about 1am last night with family and friends when we made the 5 minute drive back to our new marina. We quickly arrived back to our marina and my crew promptly tied me up. We were standing around for maybe 10 minutes when another vessel entered the marina, as we always do, when we see someone else pulling in we try to offer them a hand. A boat diagonal from me and directly next to my best friend across the dock came back with a group of maybe 7-8 people on board. The Captain pulls the boat into his slip as I grabbed the dock line and tied up the bow. 2 of my friends whom were with me grabbed their stern and spring lines and began to tie up as well. The captian steps off the boat with the engines running to make sure his lines were being tied as he wanted I suppose. Well, this is the moment all heII broke loose. A female passenger whom had been drinking (as was most of their crew) fell into or leaned into the throttles and the twins came to life in this 340 Searay. I hear a loud pop as the boat comes up onto the dock then slides back off while under full throttle. The captain who was standing next to me was yanked into the water as his boat flies across the waterway and shoots up the swimplatform and into the rear of a smaller cruiser. I immediatly yank the captain out of the water and look up to see the boat now under full throttle in reverse. We are all screaming at the people onboard to cut the engines off however between the crew and the female behind the wheel NO ONE, NOT ONE of his crew knew anything about boats. Instantly this boat comes back across the channel which is probably 40' wide and plows into my buddies carver stern first directly into his bow chine. At this time my buddy had ran onto the bow of his boat as the people onboard proceed to again shove the throttle fully back forward and begin to accelerate back across the channel. Somehow, at the perfect time he leaped from the bow of his boat into this other vessel and shut it down just before it hit another vessel across the way. Our docks are floating style, and let me tell you they were bucking beyond anything I would have thought was possible. Sadly, 3 boats were heavily damaged. A small cruiser which the swimpad, rear transom wall, rear seat, camper enclosure, poles etc were all heavily damaged. My buddies boat, a Carver was hit so hard in the bow that it split the Searays swim deck wide open and a big chuck broke out of the swim deck. The Carver sustained severe damage to the front chine gelcoat and fiberglass. His boat also was slammed back so hard that his swim platform took severe damage from the 45 degree angle metal dock box braces. Lastly, as all of this happened two other terryfing things occoured. First was as the carnage began some of the crew on his boat started screaming a girl was in the water, this was as we were yanking the captain out and as the boat came flying back at us. Fortunatley that was not the case, she was thrown to the floor after hitting the first boat but none the less I thought I was about to witness someone get chewed up by props. The 2nd was after all control had been regained, I learned that the boat snapped 2 lines in half and ripped the mid cleat slap out of the dock and according to a friend it almost hit me in the head. He ran down the finger i was on as this all happend as he thought i was being launched into the lake as well. Such a terrible way to end the night. The cops came and shockingly, no one was arrested! I chose to stay out of it, and let those with the damaged boats and the crew of the Searay along with its Captain work it out with the cops. So lucky no one was seriously hurt or killed.
So this brings me to a lesson which I have preached over and over to my admiral as well as my crew. I believe it is extremely important that others on the boat know how to operate a boat. The alcohol fueled female clearly should not have been anywhere near the helm and probably not even on a boat but that is a whole other conversation about DUI / and being resonsible. Had anyone on that boat knew how to bring the throttles to nuetral or even simply turn the keys off alot more of the damage would have been prevented. This was the scariest and intense moment of my boating life. That Captain will have a hard time showing his face back down there I imagine. Not to mentinon his insurance is about to get a hefty bill. I feel bad for him as he parked the boat flawlessly and was tying up when this happened but I also feel he is responsible for those who he has on his boat. Sadly we later learned the girl was a random he had met and picked up in the bar earlier that night....... Bad first date.
2003 Rinker 342 Fiesta Vee, 350 Mag MPI, Bravo 3 2.20:1 w/ 22p 4 x4 props
Comments
Regards,
Ian
The Third “B”
Secretary, Ravena Coeymans Yacht Club
https://www.rcyachtclub.com/
two gear and two throttle
Absolutely crazy! Just glad no one was hurt! That had to be very intense. I typically have other boaters on my boat (if anyone else is on my boat besides family), so they'd know what to do. But I will say, if my boat goes out at night (or during the day), I stay sober if I'm moving it, and my wife tends to stay pretty sober (maybe one drink) so she can be my navigator and, god forbid, if something like this happened she knows what to do.
I feel bad for the captain, as you've stated, he did things correctly...but will really get screwed and is the one in charge of that mess. Definitely like to see pictures.
Dream 'Inn III -- 2008 400 Express
I'm going to add a new item to the safety briefing that I give to guests who haven't been on my boat before. I'll show them the ignition keys, and say to turn them off if something goes horribly wrong.
They were extremely fortunate that no one was injured. I do feel that the captain of that boat made one very serious error, and that was leaving the helm before powering down the engines. In my opinion, the captain should never abandon the helm until the boat is properly secured and the engines have been shut down. Had he remained at the helm the accident likely would not have happened or, had his friend bumped the shifts he would have been in position to take control of the boat.
Just my opinion, in hindsight of course.
In that scenario i agree the captain should have powered down likely. However i will say when its just my wife and i will not power down the boat until i have two lines secured (bow and spring in my case). So if i need to adjust the boat due to wind, current etc i can do that without having to worry about a restart. My wife secures the bow and i quickly secure the aft spring.
I think the message here is teach your guests to stay away from helm and power it down if something were to happen. As well as don't leave the boat when you have plenty of people that could help secure it when youre docking. Mess with the lines later. I'm sure the captain now realizes this hindsight being what it is....
but I guess when leading I have it running ?
on the flip side, i can't tell you how many times i've docked solo and left the helm with engines running. the premise being able to have maneuvering ability instantly if something goes wrong with hooking- which sometimes wind and current manages to do...
Regards,
Ian
The Third “B”
Secretary, Ravena Coeymans Yacht Club
https://www.rcyachtclub.com/
Boat Name: King Kong
"Boat + Water = Fun"