Browsing: Boating accidents

Cruising Life
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How Did This Happen? See Video Reenactment

August 17, 2018, was a clear, calm day on the Chesapeake when a 34-foot powerboat ran into the side of a 35-foot sailboat near Annapolis. Fortunately, none of the seven people on the powerboat, or the two people on the sailboat, were seriously injured. But once the picture of the accident, taken by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, was released, it went viral. Boaters and non-boaters alike asked, how did this happen? The powerboat, a 34-foot deadrise charter boat named Hunter, was brand new. It was on its very first day in the water, with a licensed captain on…

Cruising Life
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Tiara Hits Reef off Norwalk, CT, Sinks. Police Save 2

A 2010 Tiara 3900 Sovran, on a delivery from Stuart, Florida, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, crashed into a reef off Norwalk, Connecticut, in five-foot seas recently and sank. Officers from the Norwalk Marine Police rescued the two men on board and brought them to shore safely. Greg Mahanna, 54, had just bought the boat, named Mach 3, in Stuart and was bringing it home to Portsmouth. An experienced boater, Mahanna is the former president of the Great Cove Boat Club on the Piscataqua River there. Also on board was Tom Raynor, 61, a delivery captain from York, Maine. The two…

Cruising Life
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NTSB Faults Duck Boat Company, Coast Guard, in Tragic Sinking

The National Transportation Safety Board just issued a report that spread the blame for the tragic sinking of a duck boat two years ago on a Missouri lake, killing 17 people, among the company that ran the tourist duck boat fleet there, the Coast Guard, and the design of the boat itself. The basic problem, the NTSB said, was that Ripley Entertainment Inc, which ran the Ride the Ducks operation in Branson, Missouri, should have shut down operations after receiving a severe thunderstorm warning before Stretch Duck 7 entered Table Rock Lake with 29 passengers and a crew of two…

Cruising Life
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Sandy Hook Pilot Dies After Fall from Container Ship

Captain Dennis R. Sherwood, who had been piloting ships in and out of New York Harbor for more than 35 years, died after trying to board an inbound container ship near the Ambrose Light. Sherwood, a member of the Sandy Hook Pilots Association, fell from the accommodation ladder on the Maersk Kensington (pictured above) at 0430 hours. He fell back into his pilot boat, which rushed him to Staten Island. He passed away in a hospital there. The Coast Guard responded to the accident, as did vessels from the New York Fire Department, and the New York Police Department Harbor…

Cruising Life
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New 42-Foot Boat Slams into Port Everglades Jetty

The 42-foot Hydrasports Custom Boats center console that hit a Port Everglades jetty in the middle of the night, seriously injuring two of its four passengers, was so new that the owner had not yet registered it at the time of the accident, according to the Sun-Sentinel.  Officials did not know whether the owner, Daniel Towriss, the CEO of an Indiana insurance company, was driving his new boat at the time. All four people, who also were from Indiana, were injured in the accident. The Sun-Sentinel said one woman was thrown onto the rocks by the impact. The jetty marks…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Ferry Captain Hits Boat, Says He’s “The Dog’s Badoodahs”

Even after his 305-foot passenger ferry ran into a 32-foot Doral cruiser with four people on board on the Solent near Southampton, England, veteran ferry captain Ian Drummond, 62, didn’t seem to feel much remorse. “I’m the dog’s badoodahs out on the Solent,” he told investigators from Britain’s Maritime and Coastal Agency. “I don’t know what to feel guilty about. I’m as good as it gets.” Drummond’s remarks were played in court, where prosecutors said he failed to keep a lookout on the day of the accident, Sept. 29, 2018. “If there had been a proper lookout, the vessel would…

Cruising Life
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Crew Puts Boat on Autopilot. Falls Asleep. Lands in Cave

TowBoatUS San Diego responds to an incredibly strange distress call caused by a one-in-a-million missed waypoint: SAN DIEGO, Calif., Oct. 23, 2019 — “There are not many times I can say it after 30 years as a towboat captain, but this was a first,” says Capt. Rob Butler, owner of the TowBoatUS San Diego. Butler was describing his company’s recent response to a 26-foot power boat stuck inside a deep sandstone cave along a southern California cliff wall. Butler’s company is one of more than 300 locations across the nation that responds to over 70,000 requests annually for on-water assistance…

Cruising Life
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NTSB Issues Annual Safer Seas Report of 30 Boating Accidents

The National Transportation Safety Board just released its Safer Seas Digest 2018: Lessons Learned from Marine Accident Investigations, and it has some interesting lessons for those of us who go cruising on recreational boats. It’s a summary of 30 marine accidents, including collisions with fixed objects, sinkings, fires, floodings, groundings and other vessel damage, involving vessels from recreational boats to passenger liners. The safety issues include: High-water/high-current conditions, watertight integrity, training for emergencies, remote emergency shutdowns, ice accumulation, mooring in strong winds, identifying navigation hazards and fixed ventilation openings. As in the past, towing vessels/barges topped the list of vessels…

Cruising Life
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Wealthy Dad Kills Son with Boat in San Francisco Bay

Javier Burillo Azcarraga was arrested on charges that he caused the death of his 11-year-old son in San Francisco Bay after the boy and his brother, 27, where thrown from Azcarraga’s 33-foot Targa Protector (pictured above) and he tried to retrieve them. Azcarraga was driving the twin-outboard Protector near Angel Island at about 7 p.m. on Sunday when the accident occurred. Police say they do not know why the boys were thrown off the boat, and that the boat hit them when Azcarraga tried to pull them out of the water. After he got the boys back on board, Azcarraga,…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Coast Guard Ending Massive Search for Two Missing Firefighters

The Coast Guard is ending a massive search for two firefighters who have been missing since they left Cape Canaveral last Friday morning for a short fishing trip. The two men were last seen launching their 24-foot Robalo center console on a boat ramp near Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral on Friday morning (see the surveillance photo above). Their families alerted the Coast Guard about 8 p.m. Friday when the men had not returned or responded to cell phone calls. The search started in Northern Florida and during the week expanded all the way up to the Outer Banks of…

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