Another Boating Tragedy

[hmason]

Boy taking sailing lessons dies after falling out of boat, striking propeller | New York Post

A club we visit often. The danger of accelerating too fast with people aboard. My prayers are with this family and the young sailing instructor.

 

[smitty477]

Boy taking sailing lessons dies after falling out of boat, striking propeller | New York Post

A club we visit often. The danger of accelerating too fast with people aboard. My prayers are with this family and the young sailing instructor.

My daughter works the dock right there in Northport and was there - it was a very sad situation and quite horrific. Prop strikes are becoming way too common with two deaths in this area in the past 3 days. The amount of strikes that do not end up in death are also alarming as is the amount of DUI's this past month.
Please stay safe out there......

 

[denverd0n]

Lesson for the rest of us... People sitting up on one of the tubes of an inflatable need to be told to HANG ON! If you can't, or don't want, to hang on then you need to sit DOWN in the inside, not up on a tube!

I'm sure that instructor will never again make the mistake of letting someone sit up on a tube. (Assuming he is able to get over this horrible tragedy and ever instruct again!)

This is much like the lesson that I learned a long time ago, working on a farm. If you are sitting in the back of a pickup truck, you sit down INSIDE the bed. You do NOT sit up on the side. As soon as the truck turns or accelerates you WILL tumble out! Luckily for me I learned this lesson without serious injury.

 

[psneeld]

The perceived number of prop stikes might be the result of inexperience....

Something brought up all too often on TF.

Seems the whole world who can turn a key thinks they can run a boat...or their supervisors do.

 

[hmason]

Lesson for the rest of us... People sitting up on one of the tubes of an inflatable need to be told to HANG ON! If you can't, or don't want, to hang on then you need to sit DOWN in the inside, not up on a tube!

I'm sure that instructor will never again make the mistake of letting someone sit up on a tube. (Assuming he is able to get over this horrible tragedy and ever instruct again!)

This is much like the lesson that I learned a long time ago, working on a farm. If you are sitting in the back of a pickup truck, you sit down INSIDE the bed. You do NOT sit up on the side. As soon as the truck turns or accelerates you WILL tumble out! Luckily for me I learned this lesson without serious injury.

So true about the pickup truck. My oldest daughter tumbled out of one by riding on the side during a football tailgate party at a high school. Fortunately it was on a field of grass and she wasn't hurt. I think she sticks to golf carts now.

 

[Group9]

So true about the pickup truck. My oldest daughter tumbled out of one by riding on the side during a football tailgate party at a high school. Fortunately it was on a field of grass and she wasn't hurt. I think she sticks to golf carts now.

We just had a kid killed here in a freak accident at Mardis Gras this year. Stone cold sober, fell off a pickup truck bed he was riding on, and was impaled on a piece of rebar that had been stuck in the ground to mark a no-parking area.

 

[Seevee]

This is tragic and totally preventable.

The capsized training should have had how to ride in a boat training first, and captain training on how to have your passengers ride in a boat.

I've seen a lot of people thrown overboard by an aggressive push of the throttle... it's quite often the guys wife (or worse, girl friend) that's holding the docking line stretching out to lasso a piling or cleat and the guy hits reverse a bit too fast.

In Florida they relaxed the law that prohibits riding on the bow with feet hung over under power. I hate laws but that one wasn't too bad and a captain needs some discretion on allowing this... could be find at idle with a good grip on the railing, but at high speed could be a killer.

I feel sorry for the boy, his family and friends...

 

[Shrew]

In Florida they relaxed the law that prohibits riding on the bow with feet hung over under power. I hate laws but that one wasn't too bad and a captain needs some discretion on allowing this... could be find at idle with a good grip on the railing, but at high speed could be a killer.

I see this a lot, even on plane. We have a morbid inside joke when we see this "Oh look, another boater who doesn't love his kids".

Even at headway speed, on a 24 - 30 ft express, coming into an anchorage, the operator is navigating and looking for a spot. I question whether most could drop into neutral in the short seconds it takes to get from fall to props.

It doesn't take speed. Wave and wake action can be enough. Kids don't listen well and they don't sit still.

I had nieces on the boat a few years ago. We were at anchor and the deck hatches were open. They wanted to sit our front. I brought them forward and pointed out the hatches and instructed them to stay away from them. I even had them stick their heads inside to see what is inside.

Literally 10 minutes later, one of them is crying from down below. Fell right through the open hatch. Fortunately, she landed on the v-berth forward.

 

[sbu22]

psneeld - What supervisors? It seems that everyone with a pulse is entitled to operate a watrcraft - paddleboard to 200 footer- as a right of birth. Not that I think a gummint license would cure the problem - 98% + of the idiots on the road have one.

Very sad and very preventable.

 

[BruceK]

Horror event for all concerned. Boat operator included.
You can`t put an older head on an 18yo. I don`t think our Oliver would have made the mistake, but many would, immature,brain still developing. He should not be put in that position unless the Club was very confident.

 

[psneeld]

psneeld - What supervisors? It seems that everyone with a pulse is entitled to operate a watrcraft - paddleboard to 200 footer- as a right of birth. Not that I think a gummint license would cure the problem - 98% + of the idiots on the road have one.

Very sad and very preventable.

Yacht club officials?

In this case, and many other operators out there with supervisors from parents to bosses.

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

Bow rider woman killed in St Augustine inlet last weekend with husband operating boat. Hit a wake..

 

[Benthic2]

I just read about that St Augustine incident. How tragic...the guilt the dad must feel......the conflicted issues the kids will have with dad involved in mom's death....wow. That poor family.

 

[BandB]

Wifey B: Another very sad example of Captain responsibility, whether a 200' ocean going vessel or a Zodiac rib. Don't let people sit in dangerous positions, not even for a short distance. Boats have seats. Seats are made for sitting. Not sides, not tubes, not the back of a pickup truck. Hubby has always been a stickler on people sitting in boats. We had a bowrider with a great sunpad in back but you did not sit there when we were underway. He had a morbid fear of someone falling into a prop. I remember when friends had a friend alone and hubby stopped the boat, told her, started back and she was back up there again. Omfg if looks could kill. He told her if she got back up there he was putting her out of the boat, wherever we were at the moment and she could swim to shore and then walk home. She pouted. He cut the trip short. Our friends apologized profusely. I'm sure in her somewhat inebriated state she thought he was being ridiculous. Reading this story, I just kissed him for sometimes being so. I didn't grow up on boats so I wouldn't have known. On the lake these type things happened at least once a year.

Everyone remember as the owner or captain, you have the responsibility. Others lives and health are in your care. Nice and carefree are not always the way to be. Your moral responsibility is one to take seriously. That's without even the financial side. Might be the end of this particular sailing school. This just breaks my heart. I feel for all involved. Lives changed forever. Can you imagine the pain the operator of the boat is now experiencing? I can't, because it's probably greater than any pain I've ever felt. What about the kids there? Well, we have great friends who live with us on the water and did on the lake but will never get on a boat because of a childhood experience of the wife at summer camp. She's now 60 years old and the memory is so vivid still.

My first emotion is just sadness, even horror. But then it has to remind us all of our responsibilities.

Now, also something to think about. You observe unsafe operation. What's your responsibility there?

 

[jleonard]

Also remember that when someone is standing on the swim platform while the bat is docking is an accident waiting to happen.
One of the people at my marina witnessed a death this way several years ago.
Yet a very large percentage of boats that are backing in their slips have someone on the platform which is wet and slippery.

 

[BandB]

Also remember that when someone is standing on the swim platform while the bat is docking is an accident waiting to happen.
One of the people at my marina witnessed a death this way several years ago.
Yet a very large percentage of boats that are backing in their slips have someone on the platform which is wet and slippery.

So many things in docking. People trying to protect the boat. We make it clear to guests to not try to help unless instructed to do so and then do only what they're told. Positively no use of hands either. They always lose vs the power of boat engines.

 

[dhays]

So many things in docking. People trying to protect the boat. We make it clear to guests to not try to help unless instructed to do so and then do only what they're told. Positively no use of hands either. They always lose vs the power of boat engines.

I was afraid I was going to witness a death this last weekend.

The fairway behind our slip is very narrow. It is an adjacent marina. A guy was bringing in a 20' boat with an outdrive and attempting to dock in a slip opposite from our neighbors boat across that fairway. There was a pretty good breeze blowing, but nothing unusual.

He was having a very hard time controlling his boat. Being an outdrive, he had no helm unless under power and he was applying power in an erratic fashion. He hit three boats that I could see.

What was the most scary is that he was alone, and when he saw he was going to hit something, he would leap out of the cockpit and try to fend off. That is just plain dangerous, but to make it worse he was doing all this without a PFD.

At one point he was aiming for the stern of my neighbors boat and I saw him leap over his dodger, bow, and anchor pulpit to jump onto the finger dock between us and try to fend off. I had run around to that side to see if I could help fend off but when I got there I realized that his boat was still in forward gear. I told him that his boat was still in gear so he leapt back on to his boat over the bow and made a dive for the single lever throttle/shifter. Not sure if he was confused about facing the throttle from forward instead of aft, but he reached in through his canvass and hit almost full throttle.

The boat jumped forward up onto my neighbors swim step and aft transom. I was able to jump out of the way and fortunately the guy didn't fall off the his boat as he was on the forward cabin top leaning over his windscreen reaching the throttle.

He was completely sober, he was just panicked, upset, and over his head. Eventually, the small group of other boaters from both sides of the fairway from the two marinas got him into his slip. It took a while for the guy to calm down and he immediately started to contact the owners of the boats he hit and the dockmasters of the two marinas.

I chatted with him when he came over to inspect the damage on my neighbors boat. He was a young (in his 40s?) guy and mentioned that the only real boating experience he has is his son's small sailboat. He also mentioned that he thinks there is a problem with the gear linkage.

On this last, I think he is correct. I watched him and he would attempt to put the boat in gear (either forward or reverse) and was moving his throttle/shift lever slowly. However, he had to move it a ways before the transmission would engage and by then the engine had throttled up. When he had jumped off the boat when it was still in gear, I remember seeing the throttle/shift lever position and it was straight up in what should have been the idle/neutral position.

Anyway, just some gelcoat that needs to be repaired. Not sure if it is a boat new to him or what, but I hope he gets a mechanic to check out the boat and some instruction on how to operate it. I/O boats have to be the most difficult to dock in my mind. Unfortunately, they are often found on entry level boats purchased by folks with little to no boating experience.