Accidents, mistakes etc... you've actually witnessed or been a part of on the water

[Kelly]

So the "what not to do while backing your boat in the water event" in the events section had me thinking... what are some of the accidents, mistakes/blunders or close calls have you had regarding you and your boat or that you've witnessed?

This past summer while on a day trip to Westport my family and I walked up to the pier and saw this:
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It was quite the spectacle with an onslaught of spectators. I felt bad for the guy. My theory is he recently bought the boat and this was his first or second launch and forgot the plug. He launched first thing in the morning, motored around to the dock to either have a quick breakfast or pay for license fees and came back to this. If you look at the corner of the dock you can see one of the divers setting up.

For me it was during a bass fishing tournament in Tennessee back in 1998. During the blast off I reached a top speed of about 72 mph and hit a stump with my skeg...broke it clean off. I only felt a slight 'bump' when it happened but suddenly felt the slip in the stern as it was not gripping like it was before. I stopped the boat and trimmed up the outboard and asked my fishing partner to take a look...I'll never forget when he said "holy crap...you're skeg is gone!" That was the day 1 of a 5 day tournament.

[McSkagit Tim Jones]

[ATTACH]15474[/ATTACH] Well, I was in the assistance towing, rescue and salvage business for 25 years, so I have lots of pictures and stories. I've seen just about everything that can happen on the water.
Here's a picture of a Juan De Fuca tow. Following sea about 15 to 20 feet. Pretty scary! One wave pitched my Glasply bow down so steeply, the engine alarm came on.....no oil pressure! All the oil was in the front of the engine! My underwear was...er..um...damp when I got back to Friday Harbor.
My tow boat was a 1979 Glasply 23 cuddy hardtop. Heavily modified for single handed towing. Powered by a Volvo Penta 200 hp turbo diesel. Great boat engine combination.

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[Kelly]

Wow Tim! That first pic is amazing...I'm sure that was amazing to see in person. And those waves...soiled pants would have been the least of my issues!

[Bflaherty]

With my little flat bottom havoc we tore the turn fin off the bottom during a slough run... That was exciting cause at 40+ mph the completely flat bottom boat would turn the hull but actually change course direction!! Attempting to navigate the remainder of the Sammamish slough was probably the hardest boat handling I've ever done...

With the Chris Craft we got a 40 year old EZ-Loader, roller style, trailer which had rollers that were rusted "solid" and a bow winch that had no saftey catch...... You might guess where this is going... On our fourth trip to the lake, while backing down the ramp, the rollers decided to free themselves and the boat weight was too much for my copilot to restrain with just the winch handle... Dropped the whole boat about 3 feet short of the water! Broke a prop blade, bent the shaft and rudder. Rudder and prop strut were salvageable but the shaft and prop became gifts to the speed gods...

Thankfully I was smart enough not to photograph the scene as I didn't want my insurance to find out...

Lesson learned: now I will never own another roller style trailer for as long as I live...

[Kelly]

I've seen that with the roller trailer before.... that was scary!

[Bflaherty]

Kelly, seeing your picture at the beginning. If you do a forum search for "New Years brunch" at this event a few years ago we had a club member who came out to find his boat in the same situation. The wind was howling that day and you was forced to tie up with the stern into the wind. Being a mid winter event he had forgotten to pull the drain plug out of his splashwell... The wind waves were tall enough that they were splashing into the splashwell and without a drain the well simply filled up the point where the water was spilling into the cockpit. Eventually the water weight got the gunnel low enough that the whole boat sank... Luckily the club member was close friends with several people form vessel assist and they came with big pumps and got the boat back to the surface enough to get it on to the trailer...

Here is link to the forum post with pics and explanation... http://www.classicboatclub.com/forum...669/#post-8538

[Kelly]

Man Brian, that was tough to look at knowing it was somebody on here and a classic boat to boot...glad it turned out the way it did in the end!

[Stan D]

http://youtu.be/hZ4KSTv1bKE
Brian, here's a short video of you blasting through Redmond in 2010. It looks like you have pretty good control at this point.

[Bflaherty]

Stan, that was the last time we ever did that event... The turn fin incident was three years prior (first trip in the havoc). In that video I had just installed a ski boat style dual fin (definitely improved handling). Although the porpusing was due to the motor being trimmed all the way up to avoid hitting bottom...

[Steve_Kiesel]

Brian, why are you always setting on top of the seat? Just curious, it looks uncomfortable being hunched over to steer. Maybe I'll learn something here.

[Skagitguy]

Steve, It's "cool looking" when you are younger plus you might be able to see what's up a head that you might be going to hit ! See my young son ? Here he is sitting on top of the center section. Us old guys need all of the support we can get by sitting IN the seat. Right ? See the gloves ? that was a cold day in Jan going to Ivar's.[ATTACH]15480[/ATTACH]

[GregJ]

I don't need that support. I'm not an old guy.

[Steve_Kiesel]

Yup, better line of sight is a good reason. There are some nasty logs floating around the sound. Old? Who's old?

[Bflaherty]

Steve, the reason for it in the havoc was all about better line of sight. I typically drove from the seat when not dodging deadheads and sandbars... The slough run was tricky on a good day and a bit insane at our speeds...

[Helmar]

You know, we did have a discussion about doing that again, whether its legal or not.
I do remember the speed limit. I remember the last time we did that run they were dumping in all kinds of deadheads, but I wonder, is it still listed as navigable waters?
I remember several boats that didn't make it. Lon, his hydro turned over was one.

7964_SloughRun2007TeamNorskieatRamp.jpg