Interesting predicament. Here are my thoughts in no particular order.

First, you got the children and your other passengers to land safely. Sure,
you did some damage to your boat but that is small potatoes compared to some
of the other possibilities.

Even if you could have ridden out the storm in a swamped boat, I'm wondering
if that would have scared the hell out of the children? Would that have been
worth saving the damage to the boat?

The swamped boats I've seen are almost totally underwater and I've never
seen them with people in them so I'm not sure if that would be enough to
sink them. You would still have to deal with the waves which you said were
pretty big. You would have to somehow hang on to the boat and the children
at the same time -- I'm not sure how many arms you have but if you're
equipped like me then it's only two.

I'm assuming it's an outboard and if it totally swamped and you got the
powerhead under the water you might still have expensive damage, scared
children and now you're in a swamped boat with no motor. At best.

You wouldn't be able to keep it faced into the wind/waves without applying
some power. If you faced into the waves would that have taken you farther
from shore? If so then how far to the other shore, was it a small lake? What
I'm thinking is that heading out into a large lake in a thunderstorm in a
boat that is clearly wallowing wouldn't be my first choice even without kids
on board.

You say that after the storm you pumped and bailed out the water, how long
did that take you? Did you have to stop for a rest? Now imagine trying to do
that, keep the boat faced into the waves, the boat keeps getting more water
into it, take care of the children, and keep your own panic under control.

If the waves were big enough to get into the boat it must have been rocking
pretty good. Sounds like it might have been easy to lose a child over the
side. Major complication if that happens, don't even want to think about it.

And I know you said not to say it but I'm going to say two things anyway.

A weather band radio might be a good thing to listen to if you see some
clouds coming in. I'm not sure where you are but where I was this weekend,
Thousand Islands/Lake Ontario area, there were constant reports about
thunderstorms accompanied by extremely heavy downpours. We didn't go out on
Saturday because by the time we were ready I wasn't confident about the
weather -- I'm a newbie boater too.

The other thing I'm going to say is that you can always go back out so just
come in next time and wait and see.

Bottom line, you damaged your boat but I think you did the right thing.
Maybe if you (and I) were more experienced it never would have happened but
it did and you still met your first obligation, the safety of your
passengers.

Good job.



"pb" wrote in message
om...
I am new to boating and have a couple questions about what to do when
caught in bad weather. Last weekend I got caught on a lake in a bad
thunderstorm in a 16.5' bow rider, deep V fiberglass hull powerboat.
Clearly the biggest mistake I made was not to get off the lake when
the sky began clouding up, but the storm came quickly and this
question is about what to do after the storm is on you. Please no
flames, am trying to learn from my mistakes here.

The waves were surprisingly (to a newbie, anyway) high and the boat
got swamped. The water level was somewhere above the deck and below
the seats, hard to say for sure (it all happened so fast!) We were not
far from shore and had children on board so I chose to beach it ASAP
(unfortunately on a fairly rocky shore) and wait the storm out. Once
beached, the boat was forced by the waves onto its side and waves were
coming into the boat, and the rocks beat up the hull. After the storm
we got some help and got the boat back out into the water and
pumped/bailed out the water.

The question is, what should I have done after we got swamped? I am
told the boat will not sink due to foam filled hull, so I think I
probably should have turned the boat into the wind and waves and
waited the storm out on the water, while running the bilge pump and
bailing. Is that correct? Or what should I have done?

Thanks.