"Paul" wrote in message
.rogers.com...
I was thinking about this last night ... I guess I didn't have enough of
my
own problems to worry about.

I was imagining it from the perspective of the skipper of the 35 footer.
It
sounds as if he might have been trapped, he was near a boat launch and
going
below 5mph. Probably not much room to play with ... trapped in that area
he
must have had to watch fairly helplessly while he got rammed.

That there were no injuries aboard his boat and that he was hit on the bow
makes me wonder if he saw it coming and maneuvered to keep his bow between
him and the other boat.

Either that or it was a complete surprise and he was just lucky. Some luck
though.

Imagine the sound it must have made, a 20 foot Bayliner would weigh what,
about 6 or 7 tons? That's a lot of momentum and the impact would have been
tremendous at 25 knots. The aftermath would be a nightmare, if the driver
of
the ramming boat didn't get the throttle back before impact the engine
might
still be alive and at high rpm ... making the boat squirrel all over the
place until it got shut down -- with that impact there might have been
people in the water. What a ****ing nightmare.

Trying to account for your crew, trying to figure out who had been on the
other boat. Witnessing injuries to such young children -- the boy died
from
"head trauma", I believe that would be a euphemism for something I hope
never to see.

It happened at 7:22 pm so it would be getting good and dark to add to the
confusion.

You'd have to assess your damage in the middle of all this to see if your
boat is going to sink and deal with that.

Jesus, I shouldn't have thought about it.




a 20' Bayliner would be maybe 2500# max. Still a lot of energy to expend.
Could hole a cruiser in the side, but a bow helped save the big boat. Still
a frightening experience. I was stopped at a signal light with a car in
front of me with a little kid in it so could not get out of the way.
Watched a car coming up up behind me and knew he was not going to stop. Way
to fast and to close. You just brace yourself and hope for the best. Car
destroyed the back end of my first ever new car. 35 mph and no brakes.
luckily I braced myself and layed across the seat and was not injured.