Heart of Gold collides with a have sunk and capsized fishing dory at
aproximately 10:15 PM Thursday Evening. 30-40 minutes earlier, the dory
had been struck by a large motor yacht, probably a trawler. The trawler
did not stop. Additional details are as follows:

1) A proper watch in this case would have required me to stand at the
bow, not something done while passing stepping stone alone at night.
There are often a few fishing boats there, but I was not in the strip
where they anchor. It was dark, there was chop and the underside of the
capsized vessel was red. Essentially black on black and I'm surprised I
could see it at all in the final moments before impact.

2) The victims were close enough to see (and I could easily hear one).
They were within a hundred feet of my boat. I did throw my lifering
with attached line into the water, but didn't remember doing it.

3) Heart of Gold was raised and the cause of the sinking was not the
impact at the bow. The impact was pretty violent and this made the
dripless packing rubber cover fail. The surveyor at the scene also
suggested that my prop fouled hard on debris when I motored off as
there is also prop damage.

4) The victim with the crushed head was not hit by my boat. The initial
capsizing of the fishing rental was caused by a hit-and-run by a large
trawler that never stopped. The survivor gamely hung onto his friend,
not knowing he was dead. Afterwards he said he was moments from
drowning as he did not have a vest. The Heart of Gold impact ended up
saving his life.

5) According to the survivor, I helped him aboard via the swimplatform.
I then pulled in the lifering and threw it to his friend. When he made
no motion towards it and didn't respond to my calls, I dove in after
him. A moment later I swam back (having discovered his awful condition)
and reboarded the boat. My genoa was furled, but neither I nor the
survivor recall when I did that. I then motored back at top speed after
sending a second distress message on channel 16 and finally getting a
response. I also activated a flashing beacon on my masthead according
to the survivor, but I don't remember doing that either.

Now. What did I do wrong?

RB
35s5
NY

First off... a Dory is only a maximum of 22 ft long and won't remain upside
down in the water.

Secondly.. if you hit a dory with a trawler... the dory would be in
splinters.

Plus..... nobody would commercial fish out of the LIS.

Look Bob... if you are going to go into accident scenarios to spur
debate.... at least make it a bit more realistic. Keep in mind that
commercial craft are heavily regulated to have the latest of life-saving
gear aboard. [Unlike Heart of Gold] One of those being water activated
lights on every floatation device plus a water activated EPIRB with a
strobe. Those fishermen would have been lit up like a street light with all
the reflective tape on their lifejackets.

Now try again....

CM

"Capt. Rob" wrote in message
oups.com...
Heart of Gold collides with a have sunk and capsized fishing dory at
aproximately 10:15 PM Thursday Evening. 30-40 minutes earlier, the dory
had been struck by a large motor yacht, probably a trawler. The trawler
did not stop. Additional details are as follows:

1) A proper watch in this case would have required me to stand at the
bow, not something done while passing stepping stone alone at night.
There are often a few fishing boats there, but I was not in the strip
where they anchor. It was dark, there was chop and the underside of the
capsized vessel was red. Essentially black on black and I'm surprised I
could see it at all in the final moments before impact.

2) The victims were close enough to see (and I could easily hear one).
They were within a hundred feet of my boat. I did throw my lifering
with attached line into the water, but didn't remember doing it.

3) Heart of Gold was raised and the cause of the sinking was not the
impact at the bow. The impact was pretty violent and this made the
dripless packing rubber cover fail. The surveyor at the scene also
suggested that my prop fouled hard on debris when I motored off as
there is also prop damage.

4) The victim with the crushed head was not hit by my boat. The initial
capsizing of the fishing rental was caused by a hit-and-run by a large
trawler that never stopped. The survivor gamely hung onto his friend,
not knowing he was dead. Afterwards he said he was moments from
drowning as he did not have a vest. The Heart of Gold impact ended up
saving his life.

5) According to the survivor, I helped him aboard via the swimplatform.
I then pulled in the lifering and threw it to his friend. When he made
no motion towards it and didn't respond to my calls, I dove in after
him. A moment later I swam back (having discovered his awful condition)
and reboarded the boat. My genoa was furled, but neither I nor the
survivor recall when I did that. I then motored back at top speed after
sending a second distress message on channel 16 and finally getting a
response. I also activated a flashing beacon on my masthead according
to the survivor, but I don't remember doing that either.

Now. What did I do wrong?

RB
35s5
NY

First off... a Dory is only a maximum of 22 ft long and won't remain
upside
down in the water.


Dory is a brand, Mooron.

Secondly.. if you hit a dory with a trawler... the dory would be in
splinters.

Depends how it was hit.


Plus..... nobody would commercial fish out of the LIS.


Who said anything about commercial fishing?


Look Bob... if you are going to go into accident scenarios to spur
debate.... at least make it a bit more realistic.

Why?


Keep in mind that
commercial craft are heavily


What commercial craft???


RB

___What did I do wrong?------

Nutsy,

You collided with the capsized boat. You caused the collision. You were
sailing at night, which is OK and you were on deck, which was proper.

What you didn't do was to avoid the Collision. I'm 3000 miles away and
only have your account of the collision BUT; it was your duty as a
skipper to avoid the collision. You admit you heard the call of
distress. The burden was on you and your boat to avoid further damage to
the overturned boat.

Good Luck!

P/S It doesn't sound like you to be sailing in the dark, so I truly
don't believe it happened to you as you described




http://community.webtv.net/tassail/ThomPage

P/S It doesn't sound like you to be sailing in the dark, so I truly
don't believe it happened to you as you described


Thom, the post was a test for certain folks here. Most failed. The
"whole proper watch" thing is a joke!!! Roughly 1/3rd of our sailing is
at night (perhaps less this year with Thomas). We keep a careful watch.
But even with some shore-light, sailing alone, most folks who ACTUALLY
DO sail at night know a collision is something that can happen to
anyone. A careful watch won't help you if something, like a damaged
boat, lies partially submerged in choppy waters at night. You'd have to
be damn lucky to spot it and not many folks are standing on their bows
with high powered spot lights at night. We sail most of the time (the
"we" being people who actually use their boats) knowing the such
dangers exist, but it's probability that really protects us. The troll
simply exposed another level of dopey inexperience and mindless
response from the so called sailors here. You can't avoid what you
can't see...and you can't see everything especially at night. The
wisest suggestion would be to never operate a boat at night...or a car
or plane for that matter.


RB
35s5
NY

That's pretty disgusting joking about gruesome death. What
kinda man does something like this?

Ellen

"Capt. Rob" wrote in message ups.com...
|
| P/S It doesn't sound like you to be sailing in the dark, so I truly
| don't believe it happened to you as you described
|
|
| Thom, the post was a test for certain folks here. Most failed. The
| "whole proper watch" thing is a joke!!! Roughly 1/3rd of our sailing is
| at night (perhaps less this year with Thomas). We keep a careful watch.
| But even with some shore-light, sailing alone, most folks who ACTUALLY
| DO sail at night know a collision is something that can happen to
| anyone. A careful watch won't help you if something, like a damaged
| boat, lies partially submerged in choppy waters at night. You'd have to
| be damn lucky to spot it and not many folks are standing on their bows
| with high powered spot lights at night. We sail most of the time (the
| "we" being people who actually use their boats) knowing the such
| dangers exist, but it's probability that really protects us. The troll
| simply exposed another level of dopey inexperience and mindless
| response from the so called sailors here. You can't avoid what you
| can't see...and you can't see everything especially at night. The
| wisest suggestion would be to never operate a boat at night...or a car
| or plane for that matter.
|
|
| RB
| 35s5
| NY
|

Ellen MacArthur wrote:
That's pretty disgusting joking about gruesome death. What
kinda man does something like this?

Ellen



A disqusting gruesome little man ?

Joe

"Ellen MacArthur" wrote in
message
reenews.ne
t...

That's pretty disgusting joking about gruesome death. What
kinda man does something like this?

A stupid one with no class.

Scotty

"Scotty" wrote in message . ..
|
| "Ellen MacArthur" wrote in
| message
| reenews.ne
| t...
|
| That's pretty disgusting joking about gruesome death. What
| kinda man does something like this?
|
| A stupid one with no class.
|
| Scotty

For sure, a stupid ass.

Cheers,
Ellen

Nutsy,

Night sailing here in the NW is just about a necessity. Some of the best
sailing here is in the Winter with the "Trades" reaching us but our days
are short as Hell. Being a Sailor has the advantage of Slow Speed. The
Pilothouse with the Large Sliding Window (Can't even call them port)
given the opertunity to use a hand held "Spot Light" The same holds true
for the outside Helm

Al six Knots or under, a Sailboat can snap the "Spot" on and off. That
clears the area of a tack for several minutes and also lets others gauge
our progress and direction.

I can't tell you how many time I've have power boat wait for me at the
Entrance of Bellingham Bay and follow me in.

It is a practise I've developed here in the northwest. Back on LIS it
wasn't necessary. When day got short the boats were up on the Hard.




http://community.webtv.net/tassail/ThomPage