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Part 1: Northern Marine 90' Yacht Capsizes Upon Launch...!

Discussion in 'Northern Marine Yacht' started by olderboater, May 19, 2014.

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  1. Kevin

    Kevin YF Moderator

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    Yes, the "Blofeld" act, complete with lap-rat, is a little over the top... all that's missing is a comedic eastern European accent and a scar.
  2. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    Hi,

    If this were really the case then there might well be grounds for an insurance claim which might reduce the losses.
  3. jamesjr934

    jamesjr934 Guest


    What's with people dissing the man's dog? :rolleyes:

    Jason is highly respected in the industry, grow up and have some respect.



    P.S. I'm not new here, it's been awhile and I forgot my login.
  4. keyboardcapt

    keyboardcapt Guest

    Trim

    I think the balast at launch is set up just to get the boat floating safely, after incline testing and seatrials, trim balast is used to fix any issues, I think. But I'm no expert.
  5. lobo

    lobo Senior Member

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    Don't be too harsh: it's probably a rat he saved from the sinking ship
  6. YachtForums

    YachtForums Administrator

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    How are you privy to this information? And if the owner intended to sell it, then why remove the project lead; Aaron Pufal? It sounds like the owner and Fraser had concerns about Aaron's role...
    The list was FAR more than a blown dolly tire.

    Why would the engine be running OUT OF THE WATER? Anyone else notice the engine room door was open at launch? Or the amount of air escaping from the transom when the boat hit the water? Looks like a flooding engine room compartment to me...

    If you are going to uncover the truth, then one must start with full disclosure, NOT by registering under an alias screen name and directing blame at others.

    Apparently you're NOT!
  7. YachtForums

    YachtForums Administrator

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    Really? I've never heard of him!
  8. keyboardcapt

    keyboardcapt Guest

    Jason is a fine person and does good work. I only feel he should have published all the video or none. My opinion.
  9. jamesjr934

    jamesjr934 Guest

    And I've never heard of you...

    And you call yourself the admin and let your mods get away with making fun of people in the industry. Now I remember why I left! Disrespectful ***** the whole lot of you!
  10. keyboardcapt

    keyboardcapt Guest

    With respect: "It is recommended that an Inclining Experiment, supervised by Roddan Engineering Ltd., be performed at launch (and after final ballasting) to confirm the stability estimates and determine exact VCG (vertical Center of Gravity) and LCG (Longitudinal Center of Gravity)."
  11. YachtForums

    YachtForums Administrator

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    I thought Kevin brought some levity to the thread. How could anyone NOT draw a similar conclusion.... caressing a Chihuahua is downright Evil!
  12. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    "The list was FAR more than a blown dolly tire. "

    Yes, but with the dollies having such a narrow track, loosing the heigh of a tire will result in a much greater list than if the tire had been further out.
  13. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    I suspect those who commissioned him to do the video limited what was published. This was supposed to be their huge celebratory video. The good part for investigators is that there is video of the entire launch.

    And the video was so cheesy with the poor devastated man in chair with pet. And "major mourning for everyone in the industry?" Everyone got out unscathed? Can we say spin doctoring?
  14. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    Amazing to me how on every forum there are new people suddenly surfacing or old people suddenly returning to speak on behalf of the poor poor owners of Northern who have put their "blood sweat and tears" so into this. Yes, even using that exact term over and over in the different places. The real blood sweat and tears was put in by those who were then abruptly informed they no longer had jobs.

    And so you say anything they don't like then you're attacked. I wonder how many of these people really know those they're standing up for at this point or know any of what's been going on at Northern.

    Oh and jamesjr whoever you are. So you were here before and you've never heard of Carl. Well, then let me introduce you. He's not just the administrator, he's the owner. And he's quite well known and highly respected in the industry. Well, maybe a few disagreements, mainly with those trying to use the forums for their own purposes, many by sending shills in to post.
  15. YachtForums

    YachtForums Administrator

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    True, but the transom was deep enough to sustain hydrostatic equilibrium.

    Simple speculation at this point, but I suspect the reason that several workers were trapped inside the engine room is because it filled with water at launch, so they closed the engine room door, leaving one way out... a port window on the starboard side.
  16. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    Looking at the video again, the aft dolly has a much wider track so scratch my comment about tire and narrow track.

    looking at the angle of the boat when she started rolling, the platform had to have been under water. If they had left the door open as it appears to be in an earlier shot, the ER had to have been flooding.

    Didn't a 100' mutt sink on the new river a couple of years ago from a tug wake coming in the transom door?
  17. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    Hi,

    If you can remember that, try to remember this.

    Don't come back, the forum does not need input like yours in this thread.

    We get along just fine without you and will no doubt continue to do so.
  18. Kevin

    Kevin YF Moderator

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    Exactly.

    The video is 5:37 long. Almost half is James being melodramatic, going on about how heart-breaking this incident is, "blood, sweat & tears", how everyone is mourning, and let's not forget "the Phoenix shall rise again!"... :rolleyes:

    The actual launch starts at 2:22 and ends at 3:59, at which point Alistair Cooke is back for his "thank you and goodnight", which is then followed by a minute and a half of... oh, some Northern Marine promotional video?

    1:53 of narration
    0:29 of ceremony
    1:37 of it all going pear shaped
    1:38 of Northern Marine promotion

    Not that there was an agenda, or anything...
  19. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Was there any communication between the on board crew and the tow operator?
    LIKE: Flooding!! STOP backing us up?

    Probably hard to tell and may not be an indicator, but for / aft trim (even on her side after the roll) did not look to bad after the bow jack released her.

    Exhaust or air escaping? What was that (and how) blowing from the port stern?
  20. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    Don't know what transpired on the boat. Haven't heard crew speak about it in that level of detail. All we do know is that they stopped the one time before launching. Then just decided "what the heck, let's do it anyway." Oh, they'd say, they examined and saw all was ok or something but they didn't take enough time to have done that or to have evaluated the situation.

    More and more this looks like a situation where ready or not, for whatever compelling reasons, they were determined they had to launch that boat right then on that night.

    Now, this is pure speculation, so take it as such. But had to launch. Then the launch goes poorly you close. It's not because you lost the boat. Surely you had insurance for that and also that loss didn't hit you immediately. Was the closing planned anyway? Could have been. Could have even been doing the owner a favor getting the boat floated before locking the doors. Or could there have been a progress payment tied to the launch as there often is and they needed that payment to stay open? Point A is failed launch. Point B is closing doors. But point A doesn't naturally lead to point B. There has to be more getting one there.
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