[YachtForums]

KODIAK, Alaska, June 18--The Coast Guard is investigating the grounding of the 70-foot vessel Waters, homeported in Homer. The vessel struck the number four dayboard when it grounded on a rock in Narrow Strait north of Kodiak Island near the village of Ouzinke early this morning. A dayboard is a navigational beacon that clearly marks the channel when navigating in a restricted waterway.

Quite a balancing act the skipper has pulled-off.

[YachtForums]

JUNEAU, Alaska (April 20, 2004)--Coast Guard rescuers from Station Juneau responded to assist a crewman aboard the fishing vessel Tar Baby after it grounded near Battleship Island, Auke Bay, Alaska. The boat's skipper escaped the vessel uninjured.

[YachtForums]

SABINE, Tex. The fishing vessel Miss Eileen sits on the Sabine Jetty after it tried to use the reef as a launch ramp.

[YachtForums]

Miss Eileen from another angle...

[YachtForums]

A beached whale.

[YachtForums]

Even when the tide comes in, it may not be enough to break the surface adhesion here...

[YachtForums]

A great balancing act!

[palindrome]

Originally Posted by YachtForums

Even when the tide comes in, it may not be enough to break the surface adhesion here...

thats a cool pic. I wonder if you could knock it over

[YachtForums]

Yeah... I don't think stabilizers would be much help here!

[JHA]

I took this picture last year on a Hollywood, FL beach. Does anyone else have any other good "oops!" pics? The sunken sailboat pic kinda triggered this idea.

P.S. don't fall asleep while underway without a watchkeeper. the grinding, and crunching of the alarm clock must have really sucked for this skipper.

[trouty]

Not to mention the hip pocket!

Cheers!

[YachtForums]

What a pain in the props! I doubt there's any structural damage, but props, drive shafts and rudder struts... that's a different story.

This guy, and others like him, are the reasons our insurance premiums are so high. Short of a competent Captain on board, there should should be mandatory licensing to operate a vessel of any size. I've often said, so many boat owners have more dollars than sense.

I'm assuming this grounding is due to negligence, not mechanical failure. If the latter is true, disregard my comments and apply this... "It's a boat. Stuff happens!"

[trouty]

Despite everyones best intentions in this world accidents do happen.

Out at the Islands - the commercial lobster boat skippers all acknowledge that "one day" it will be their turn to run aground, it's I guess a function of the shallow and treatcherous uncharted coral atol environment they work in and the number of days at sea over a lifetime.

They all knwo it's gonna be there turn "one day" so they just resolve that, when "their turn comes" everyone else will drop everything and come to their aid.

Thats just a part of that Shyte happens thing you mentioned...no recriminations or monday morning quarterbacking the event afterward - they just treat iot like any other day and get on with the job of recovering the vessel - and they go for a few cold beers with the affected skipper afterward - to console him...

Most of these guys have been sunk at sea at least once in their lifetimes, either as crew getting their comercial hours up for Capts license or at their own hand...

The reasons are as many and varied as the weather patterns day to day over a lifetime - but it basically CAN (and usually Does) happen to everyone at sometime - qualified or not... The sea is an unforgiving mistress.

Yes - you get some lunkheads, with "more $ than sense" (intentional pun) in big boats beyond their capabilities - but hell we all started somewhere.

I wouldn't want to second guess what went wrong - how do we know he didn't have say a major holing and ran her up the b4each intentionally to save the vessel (and crew).

We just don't know.

I hate to criticise the guy coz sure as eggs, it'll be "my turn" to do something boneheaded next! (And for some dang reason - when it's my turn fdor some unknown reason - the whole world just happens to be watching!

Cheers!

[YachtForums]

Originally Posted by trouty

I wouldn't want to second guess what went wrong - how do we know he didn't have say a major holing and ran her up the beach intentionally to save the vessel (and crew).

We just don't know.

I hate to criticise the guy coz sure as eggs, it'll be "my turn" to do something boneheaded next! (And for some dang reason - when it's my turn fdor some unknown reason - the whole world just happens to be watching!

Cheers!

Good points and acknowledged. Wouldn't want to lay blame un-necessarily, that's why I put in the disclaimer "stuff happens". Josh mentioned the skipper might have dozed-off. He snapped the pic, therefore it might have been on-site info.

So true about everyone watching when it's your turn to screw-up. Ofcouse, I've never experienced that before...

So far, I've managed to keep water displacing objects from becoming real estate structures, although I did stuff one of my raceboats at 80 mph... and promptly proceeded to explore the ocean's bottom before bobbing back up to the surface.

That was a -less- than pleasureable experience. I wouldn't wish that accident on the guy that beating me in the race!

[JHA]

I got mixed parts of the story... Only the skipper knows what really happened.
What I heard was: He (the skipper) was an MCA 4 Master, delivering the boat back to Ft. Lauderdale from the bahamas without any crew. He had the auto-pilot set for a waypoint just off port everglades; set his heading got to cruise speed (22+ kts) went into the salon to watch a DVD and fell asleep. Aparently he was nowhere to be found when the insurance, coast guard, and various other authorities showed up. This is all hearsay. Only the guy at the wheel - or not at the wheel really knows.
The Azimut guys were there taking pictures for their files so that any future warranty claims could be immediately denied.