single engine dual rudder Convertible S/F

I've never seen dual rudders either. Those Wanchese one off builders do a lot of strange things from time to time. My guess is the single rudder wasn't large enough without going deeper and they wanted to keep the draft down as much as possible so they went with two to hopefully have more rudder surface without rudder depth from the hull. This is purely speculation.

I do wish the USCG or State of NC would quit being third world and dredge that inlet and get in safe and usable again.

looks like. the 'hot tuna' from wicked tuna was on the scene

Probably the majority of the charter boats up there have dual rudders Capt J, most private boats have twin engines so you wouldn't see dual rudders on a single usually. Helps a lot backing down on fish and there were a lot of them set up as "flanking" rudders where a second smaller rudder was added ahead of and slightly offset from the wheel, VERY interesting rudder linkage to make that work! Many of the old school guys could do slalom turns both directions in rewind, can't do that on most single engine boats!

They've been dredging that inlet almost constantly, right now it's in pretty good shape but one Noreaster can change that quick!

I have fished on a few boats out of Oregon Inlet and was surprised of the number of big single screw SF in the fleet.

Any info on what caused the hull breach?

It appears that the rudders were pushed through the bottom of the boat by touching bottom.

I've met TJ from wicked Tuna about 10 years ago. He was docked next to a boat I was working on in Palm Beach and had that giant green stick that I asked him about. He was a really nice guy.

Is that want brought her down, or is that collateral damage? I saw that damage, but didn't think it was sufficient to sink that boat, particularly if it was moving forward?

Word is they hit a submerged container. One of the other charter boats attempted to tow them in until the cleats pulled. All made it off safely, thanks to the help of the other charter boats.

thankfully we do not have many containers floating around in the LI Sound or BI Sound. Are there any telltale signs of a submerged container?

I do a lot of ocean miles every year, 10,000 or more per year and have for quite some time. I've only seen 1 floating container in all that time, so it's rare. That was about 20 years ago. BUT, usually you will see seaweed or other ocean junk floating around it. As the container usually is mostly submerged and the other stuff kind of forms a weed patch around it.

One of the other charter boats attempted to tow them in until the cleats pulled.

I once read that for heavy/stressful towing, a bridle of line going around the stern leading back to bow cleats and chocks along both sides is a good method for towing a big boat?

I see tow boat US and Seatow just using a bridle tied to both bow cleats to tow boats this size all of the time. I find it kind of odd that both of those pulled out. Sounds to me like this one might not have been built all that well. But who knows.

Anybody know who built the hull? Looks pretty stout from the pic

In the last pic of the transom with the rudder sticking through it, the pieces of the transom/hull that are bent out look pretty thin to me.

Never trust deck cleats. You remember that poor guy with a popped cleat into his forehead????

For just towing, We used to shackle the bow eye when we could.
When we had a hard pull, hard yank or hull full of water, a wrap around the hull kept it safer.

We used to fill a lift bag of water 2/3ds back for real hard drags. The thought of a parted line coming back at me was scary.

I pulled one boat with a angled transom and nothing to secure to. I passed a line over the shafts (under the hull) and pack forward. Had to tie our bags to this same line to keep them from blowing astern and off . It was not pretty, applied some power, but she came off and drug her home with trash pumps running & lift bags in place.
After she was lifted, our line was wedged between the shafts and hull, but no additional damage.

Never trust deck cleats for towing.

You kids remember a ProBoat article when a welded cleat (and some alloy deck) ripped off a work boat? That whip and missile just missed a few folks.

She's a "BC" boat Beau, built by Buddy Cannady in Wanchese. He's one of the old school charter captain/boatbuilders who used to build one every winter, fish it in the next summer then sell it in the fall, rinse and repeat.

Yeah but the tow boats aren't pulling a 1/2 submerged 50' charter boat that's continously getting heavier as thousands of gallons of water are flooding in. I'm pretty sure that would cause even the studies of cleat installation to fail.