On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 02:44:36 GMT, "Charles" wrote:

Hey guys,

Yes, the pontoon boat was tied to the dock. Nobody was even standing on it
when the tube came by.

As far as "sounding his horn as he left the dock" goes... I really don't
think you have a clear picture of this. This is not a public dock, fishing
wharf, or any such thing. This was a small private boat dock on an inland
lake. Sure, sound the horn if it makes you happy, but the only people that
are going to hear it are the ones on your own boat.

Charles

I think everybody got the facts except a few latecomers. Thanks,
charles.
noah

"Capt. Frank" wrote in message
thlink.net...
Hi Charles,

They sound like a perfect candidates for the USCG Auxillary Boating
safety class. The kid was just plain luckey.

It sounds like between the pontoon boat and the tow boat the bunch
managed to ignore most of the "rules of the road."

The tow boat would have been held culpable had the kid been injured.
I did not notice you mention the pontoon sounding his horn as he left
the dock in a traffic area.
It also sounds as though the tow operator was not familure enough with
his equipment.

I am glad no one was hurt and there was no property damage.


Capt. Frank USCG-A
La Dolce Vita
Formula 26 PC

Charles wrote:

Gang,

I want to relay an "occurrence" that happened at my local lake this past
weekend. You are NOT getting this story third hand. I was THERE, I SAW
it.
This isn't one of those, "I know someone who saw...."

Anyway, I stopped by a friend's house up at the lake this past Sunday.
They
had a big crowd all hanging around and we were standing on the dock
talking.
There was a fairly large pontoon boat tied along the front or lake-side
edge
of the dock. This wasn't on the main lake, but the cove wasn't no-wake.
It's a pretty big cove. Anyway, I was marginally aware of someone out
in
the middle towing a tuber but not really watching them closely.

I heard him come by and it seemed fairly close when he passed. Then all
of
the women on the dock started screaming "Too close" and I saw the kid in
the
tube, headed right for the front of the pontoon boat. The driver had
misjudged or didn't know about the tube "sweeping" wide on the turn. My
eyes are dead on the kid and he sees the pontoon boat coming. He ducks
down
tight inside the tube. I didn't see it but apparently the driver saw
what
was happening a second or so before and finally backed off. Way too
much
momentum to really matter at this point. Well, the tube goes right down
the
"tunnel" between the pontoons. The boat is heavier in the back (of
course)
so the gap between the bottom of the decking and the water gets narrower
as
you go. The tube, kid inside, wedges itself between the deck and the
water
about 2/3 the length of the boat.

The women are screaming, the rest of the kids are crying, everyone who
could
swim jumps in and drags the tube back out from under the pontoon boat.
Not
a scratch on him. He wasn't even crying or really all that upset.

I know what a lot of you are thinking here. The first thought is almost
for
sure just anger and calling this guy names. Second thought is, what
could
"I" have done, besides not pulling a tube anywhere near another boat or
dock. Let's take a look at the math here. I worked this up at lunch
today:

Let's assume the guy was pulling the tube at 20 mph. Not an
unreasonable
speed for a tube and I've been wakeboarding for years at 19.5. I feel
like
I'm a pretty good judge of 20mph. Anyway, 20 mph is 1760 feet/min which
turns into about 29 feet per second. Let's also assume that the driver
saw
what was happening the minute he crossed the bow of the pontoon and has
a
zero reaction time to slam into reverse or something. With a 60 foot
rope,
he has two seconds before the tube hits the pontoon boat. At 15 mph he
has
just a little less than three seconds. "Time is the fire in which we
burn."
I ripped that off from a Star Trek movie. With between two or three
seconds
at most, that kid is hitting the boat. The math is right there.

Anyway, I am not here to pass judgment or call him names. I'm not going
to
get into what "could have happened." I'm telling this story because I
want
all of you to always keep in mind what's going on out there. It's all
great
fun and everything is a blast until something goes wrong. Please don't
let
an inexperienced driver pull a tube or a skier. If that means you, well
maybe the shoe fits.

Be careful out there gang. It's easy to get complacent. Believe me,
you
don't want to see something like this happen in front of you. It was
really
horrible.

Charles