Two boats sink in wind storm

[Germaine Marine]

Sucks, but avoidable if you plan ahead for a worst case like this. Do yourself a favor if you are a new owner and run through what if scenarios in your head even if they sound far fetched and unreasonable. Ive always lived by the mantra that you can never over prepare. Bad decisions are usually the killer here and bad decisions usually are caused by a lack of preparation.

[Jetdriver]

I can see the craigslist listing now...For sale, very nice Malibu. Looks beautiful under, er I mean on the water. Couple gelcoat scratches, typical for the age. Took a swell over the bow and now the carpet is slightly discolored, nothing a good cleaning won't solve. Comes with a two props, one new and one has minor scratches on it from a brief encounter with a sandbar.
75k OBO come check it out, you won't be disappointed. I baby all my stuff

[dukesofhazzard]

I am glad everyone was ok, but that is some of the worst boating I have ever seen. There was no reason unless he was almost out of gas that he couldn't have just kept everyone in the very back of the boat heading bow first into the waves and kept moving forward, just like the guy with the little yellow boat. Why the power turns, do that even with a double up or surf wave and you'll be in trouble. Hopefully we all learn from this. I agree filming and not helping is a douche thing to do, however like I said hopefully we can all learn from their mistake.

[Solman]

Not a nice thing to watch, fortunately we don't get "freak" storms like that rolling through over here, so haven't had to deal with any really bad weather.
And you'll never know how you'll cope until you are faced with the test.....

Priorities first.... DON'T PANIC, get the jackets on everyone, get the guy out of the bow and focus on your driving.

The reason the jet didn't go under is the way it approached and took the waves and he was running with the waves when he could. He also didn't have a big spoon (open bow) to collect the water so was able to shed a lot of it off the bow.
I'd always been told to keep the bow up and break down on the waves rather than cutting through like the Malibu was doing a lot (that could've also been as a result of weight in the boat as well), never turn broadside to the waves and her turn on top of a wave.
The amount of water he was taking on I wonder if the bilge pump could have even made a dent.

I don't know if I would've tried to trailer my boat to be honest, if it was getting that dodgy out there I'd probably beach it (particularly if it's a sandy bottom) and get everybody off safely. The boat is repairable/replaceable... my family and friends aren't.....

Hopefully I'm never faced with the choice either way


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[UNSTUCK]

...If it looks really ugly...

In the video of the Bu sinking, was that really ugly? I've never encountered bad weather. Last weekend the lake was FULL of boats and was a nasty chop. That's the worst we've had. The boat had no issues at all, but my kids were getting nervous.




I guess you're fine until water starts coming in the boat. At, or just before that point is when you need to start considering options. I assume it's never a better idea to abandon ship? These boats are small enough that they wont suck you under as it goes down? Or do you need to swim away from it before that happens? I'm not sure if my boat would sink sink or just sit at the surface of the water.

[Tigenator]

I can see the craigslist listing now...For sale, very nice Malibu. Looks beautiful under, er I mean on the water. Couple gelcoat scratches, typical for the age. Took a swell over the bow and now the carpet is slightly discolored, nothing a good cleaning won't solve. Comes with a two props, one new and one has minor scratches on it from a brief encounter with a sandbar.
75k OBO come check it out, you won't be disappointed. I baby all my stuff

Haha ain't that the truth!

I saw this a day or two ago. It's easy to look down on these people because I've been boating for so long, but I did some pretty hilarious stuff when I started. What is not good though is the basic stuff, and that is because they all seemingly went into a panic (other than the woman who backed the trailer in, she's boss). No life vests, random course changes and just little to no common sense.

[Jetjock15]

Canceled our trip to Powell this weekend. Was supposed to be a 5 day vaca, with kids just out of school. Wind forecast in mid 30s. There is an active alert for area up to 50mph. Not worth the stress to me. We will take the kids to St George Utah and ride UTVs instead.

Question for my learning, what wind amount makes you cancel a trip? I had to put a lot of thought into it over last week and concluded sustained 15 or peak over 25, pretty much takes the fun and turns it to stress. Thoughts ?

[jmhatchett]

I think it is all relative to location, body of water, and other factors.

I have been on a very large lake that is very open when a 60 mph storm blew in and beached the boat and had to move it into a protected cove that was covered from the wind until the storm blew over. That was the scariest moment in my Boating Life.

On the other hand the lake I frequent and keep the boat at is very narrow in most places and more or less sheltered by high banks. Where i live we have many days of sustained 25+ mph wind days and while it isn't ideal for riding it still allows a day on the water and be with friends. This lake is not vulnerable to high waves or anything as it is so protected and narrow. It is all a comfort thing and also a familiarity with the region. The most dangerous part of any lake (to me) is other drivers. Our lake is not large and I know many of the other drivers and trust most of those people. Just my opinion and input on things.

[freeheel4life]

UNSTUCK,
Have only seen a couple of truly " sunk" fiberglass boats and from what I've seen they never truly sink. They will usually be totally submerged but just under the water. Just my experience though. Also just my opinion, but if things are going that badly, or have gone that wrong, if you can just beach it. There's plenty of good fiberglass and gel coat repair guys out there.

[Bakes5]

Has anybody ever used a sea anchor/drift sock with their wakeboat? Seems like if your stuck out in the open without any coves and you have decided to just wait out squall, a good strategy would be to motor, in a controlled/non-panic'ed fashion, into the wind as far as possible and then throw out a sea anchor and drift with the wind for a while. Repeat as needed.

On thing is pretty clear on these videos....the dudes just kinda drifting are not in trouble while the dudes powering through are actively sinking their boats. I agree, no amount of bilge pumps could compensate for 400lbs of water in the bow every 10 seconds.

Another strategy is to do what the family with the outboard boat did at the start of the video. You can see their boat, kinda beached in that semiprotected area and everyone on shore. With enough people, you could most likely keep it off the shore...kinda like the folks in the McCoys video. If you have a box anchor and an anchor buddy bungee line you could throw the anchor off the stern and then hold the boat just off shore with a 10 foot line or something.

Anywho...I think the moral of these videos are that if you are heavy (ballast, water, people, etc) you had better not be motoring through big waves. Far better to just drift,bail and come up with a coherent game plan.

[talltigeguy]

In the video of the Bu sinking, was that really ugly? I've never encountered bad weather. Last weekend the lake was FULL of boats and was a nasty chop. That's the worst we've had. The boat had no issues at all, but my kids were getting nervous.




I guess you're fine until water starts coming in the boat. At, or just before that point is when you need to start considering options. I assume it's never a better idea to abandon ship? These boats are small enough that they wont suck you under as it goes down? Or do you need to swim away from it before that happens? I'm not sure if my boat would sink sink or just sit at the surface of the water.

If I understand what you are saying...you're right, those waves are not that big. There are storms at Lake Powell that would make this look like skiing weather. And I have seen videos of Utah Lake much worse than that as well.

The second video with the imbecile with the beer on the beach looks like a pretty bad situation. I felt sick to my stomach when the houseboats came off anchor and went floating by. My houseboat got blown off anchor at Powell once, and I never want to relive that situation.

Like was said above, your boat will probably just float right at the surface, depending on how much lead you have in the boat. But some wakeboats do sink. There are pictures galore of that.

[Bakes5]

" what wind amount makes you cancel a trip? I had to put a lot of thought into it over last week and concluded sustained 15 or peak over 25, pretty much takes the fun and turns it to stress. Thoughts ? "

Well...any amount of wind makes me cancel day trips. I almost sold my boat until I figured out that if I camped out overnight and then hit it first thing in the morning, I typically got 4-6 hours of great, crowd free water. Just wake up with the birds/first light about 0515, pop anchor, idle out 50 yards and hit it. Then get off the lake by 1:00 when the storms/wind/crowds/boneheads start coming in.

For Lake Powell...well, storms just go with the territory. Always expect at least one storm. I don't think I would cancel a fully booked, waited all year long Powell trip unless the weather was going to be some sort of "event"

[IDBoating]

Had a similar situation come up on our lake a few years ago. Unbelievable squall appeared from nowhere out of a clear sky. Our son and his friend were across and down the lake in a pedal boat, cliff jumping where (by definition) there are no beaches. When the squall hit we realized they could be in real trouble. Best case they sit it out on shore, but if they were in the middle of the lake in the pedal boat....

So in the near-cloudburst downpour and ~40-60 MPH winds this terrified Daddy jumped on one of our overpowered jetskis and headed out on a rescue mission. The machine was going airborne off four foot whitecaps. Progress was really slow, as you might imagine. I get to where they were going to be (our son is really good at giving us his plans and sticking to them) and... nothing. No boys, no pedal boat, nothing. So I start scouring the area in a widening pattern, kinda hoping I don't find anything. Eventually I near the house of a close friend on the lake and a bunch of people are screaming at me from his dock. I get over there and see our pedal boat beached, boys nowhere in sight. Uh oh.

Then they inform me that the boys are safe and sound, up in the house, drying off. Seems they saw the storm coming and headed for his house because it was much closer than hours (smart). He saw them and what was happening, and roared out to them in HIS boat to tow them back faster than they could pedal. Everything was fine. I headed back through the storm to our dock and all was well. Though I might have been drier if I'd gone diving!

BTW, the jet ski was a really good tool for that job. Designed to take water over its bow, plenty of thrust-to-mass, self-recoverable if capsized, etc. Took some serious arm strength to control it in the storm and would have been a bit overloaded with an adult and two teens but I never felt in danger - just wetter than usual. [grin]

[KXCORKY]

Would you mind spelling it out a bit, what he did wrong? As a pretty new boater these videos did scare me a bit. Not going to lie!

Here's what I'm thinking if I get into the same situation: If I don't feel I can safely get the boat on the trailer...

-Keep the boat bow high and travel into the wind staying perpendicular to the waves. I'm thinking empty all ballast, but maybe I should keep the rears full to help keep the bow high?
-Keep the speed just fast enough to maintain control of my direction, keeping the boat perpendicular to the waves.
-Once I get to the end of the lake (or wherever I want my turn around spot to be), turn around and let the boat drift with the wind, making corrections to keep the boat perpendicular to the waves.
-Keep doing these laps until the weather passes.
-Of course, everyone in jackets. No one in the bow. One person to hold the UHF handheld. I'm thinking maybe someone else to hold a tube rope. We could tie off to each other if we end up in the water. Bad idea?

So glad our new boat is out of the water like a foot higher than our old boat. That should help.

Unstuck, Not sure if you saw the video/news clip of the Mastercraft that sank that day, but he said someone got stuck in one of the wake board ropes while the boat was sinking.. We always have our surf rope out but this makes me think that wouldn't be the best thing if weather was moving in.

[IDBoating]

someone got stuck in one of the wake board ropes while the boat was sinking.. We always have our surf rope out but this makes me think that wouldn't be the best thing if weather was moving in.

I'm kinda OCD about not having clutter in the boat. "If it's not being actively used, stow it!" After your comment, I'm not feeling too bad about that. I'm especially wary of stray ropes... water and ropes can kill people. You learn this pretty quick in whitewater kayaking and rafting.