Browsing: Boat accidents

Cruising Life
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Miami Charter “Captain” Arrested After He Kills Passenger in Biscayne Bay

A Miami man who said he had run some 40 charters on Miami Vice, a sleek 95-foot yacht , even though he didn’t have a Coast Guard license, was just arrested as he tried to flee the country after he ran over and killed a paying passenger in Biscayne Bay. The U.S. Department of Justice said that federal agents arrested Mauricio Alvarez, 49, and charged him with “misconduct or neglect of a ship officer that resulted in death.” Authorities said that one of the passengers was “sucked up by the propeller” while he was in the water and Alvarez put the…

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On Watch

Fishermen Jump Over the Side as Bayliner Runs Into Their Boat: Frightening Video By Peter A. Janssen This is one of the most graphic, you-are-there videos I’ve ever seen, a real nightmare that easily could have been fatal, but wasn’t. We know about it because it was captured, from start to finish, by a GoPro camera mounted on the deck of a 20-foot Weldcraft fishing boat that was run down by a 31-foot Bayliner near the mouth of the Columbia River last summer. Although the circumstances here may be unique, because we can see them unfold in real time, this…

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Grand Jury Indicts Captain of 60-foot Princess for Killing Fisherman on 23-foot Center Console

A grand jury in Providence, Rhode Island, just indicted the captain of a Princess 60 who ran down and killed a fisherman on a 23-foot Steiger Craft two years ago off Napatree Point on charges of seaman’s manslaughter. The indictment says that Cooper Bacon, 76 and a Coast Guard-licensed captain, was running his 60-foot yacht on autopilot and was not paying attention when he hit Walter Krupinski, 81, who was returning home to Stonington, Connecticut, after fishing. Bacon was enroute from Newport, Rhode Island, to Stamford, Connecticut, and running his Princess at 25 knots at 10:30 in the morning of…

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Fire-Fighting Seaplane Hits Tourist Boat in France. See Video

An amphibious plane that had just scooped up water from the Rhone River in France to fight a forest fire hit a tourist boat as it was taking off while passengers filmed the entire accident. The plane’s left wing clipped the boat’s mast as horrified passengers looked on. Incredibly, no one was injured and the plane managed to take off and limp to a military base nearby. The French government suspended the pilot and co-pilot. The video shows two of the fire-fighting planes, called SuperScoopers, starting to take off. The planes are Canadair CL-415 water bombers chartered by the government…

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Nantucket Ferry Captain Thought Sailboats were Buoys Before Hyannis Crash

Now we know what happened when the captain of a high-speed Nantucket ferry crashed into a jetty at Hyannis Harbor on Cape Cod, Mass., at 9:30 at night, injuring more than a dozen people: Navigating by radar, the captain thought a metal pole and sailboats behind it were buoys marking a safe entrance to the harbor. A report from the Steamship Authority says the captain logged the HH buoy correctly, marking the outer entrance to Hyannis Harbor, and then asked the pilot to light up buoy number 4 with the searchlight. The captain then checked the radar and saw what…

Cruising Life
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37-Foot Cruiser Crashes into Descending Lift Bridge in Minnesota

It was just after 7 last Friday evening, and the Stillwater Lift Bridge, connecting Stillwater, Minnesota, with the Wisconsin shoreline across the St. Croix River, was starting to come down after a scheduled opening. The captain of a northbound 1967 37-foot cabin cruiser tried to make it under the descending bridge. He crashed into it, instead, wiping out the upper portion of his boat. The captain was not injured, but a woman on board was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The bridge was closed temporarily while officials checked for damage. For more: http://www.stillwatercurrent.com/breaking-boat-crashes-stillwater-lift-bridge-causing-friday-evening-bridge-closure/

Cruising Life
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A Speeding Cat Kills Friend and Passenger on Smaller Boat in Fort Lauderdale

A 31-foot catamaran, going fast, crashed into the back of a 22-foot center console running slowly in the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale at 10:30 last Saturday night, killing two people on the smaller boat and injuring two more. No one on the cat was hurt. Witnesses said the cat, driven by Max Irvine, 36, rode up over the back of the center console as it approached Bokamper’s Sports Bar and Grill on the Waterway at 32nd Street. “The catamaran straddles the other boat,” said Timothy Heiser, the assistant chief of Fort Laudardale’s Fire-Rescue. The drivers of the two boats…

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Barge Crushes Loop Boat at Dock on ICW in Virginia, but Boat Owner Says She’ll Start Again

This is a story about having a dream, suffering some incredibly bad luck, and planning a comeback in the face of adversity. In April, after three years of saving and planning, Susan Pellett left her home in Riverview, Florida, just south of Tampa, to start the Great Loop on SuzieQ, her 1985, 21-foot Sport Craft.  Now, on a rainy Friday morning in May, she was walking up the long face dock at the Atlantic Yacht Basin, a large, full-service marina at mile 12 of the Intracoastal Waterway in Chesapeake City, Virginia. “I was 42 days into my Loop trip single-handed,”…

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Mesmerizing Video: Ferry Slams Into Concrete Breakwater

Ouch. From the start, this video is like watching a train wreck about to happen. It shows the Volcán de Tamasite, a 140-passenger ferry, slamming into a concrete breakwater in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. More than a dozen passengers were injured; five were taken to the hospital. The collision severed some underwater fuel pipes, and the Spanish government was cleaning up a small oil spill. Beaches around Las Palmas and Telde were closed as a precaution. The owner of the ferry said that it “suffered a technical glitch.” Others said it lost electrical power. Take a look for…

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Owner Charged with Drinking, Driving Fountain 42 69 mph into Lake Michigan Breakwall, Killing Two Friends

This story is about a tragic combination of booze, speed and boating at night. Tom Gibson (above), 37, an experienced boater from Lake Village, Indiana, was just indicted there on several charges as a result of a crash he had on his Fountain 42 last summer that killed the other two people on board. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources charged Gibson on two counts each of reckless homicide, criminal recklessness and operating a motorboat while intoxicated resulting in death. After he was booked, Gibson posted $60,000 bail. The trial date hasn’t been set yet. Prosecutors say Gibson left East…

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