We had occasion two weekends ago to reconsider the matter of removing
large amounts of water from a boat in a hurry. This event caused by
crossing inside of the green day mark #3 marking the Middle Ground ledge
in Woods Hole, MA.

While the events leading up to this are still being debated among those
onboard, part of the problem appeared to be a fixation on the part of
the skipper/helmsman with electronic charting over the real world. If
the course had been adjusted when the alarm had first been raised,(by
humans) or the second or third time, there would have been no incident
to reflect on.

Driving a 20,000 lb, 38 foot sloop drawing about 6 feet over a ledge
with 3 or 4 feet of water over it is an experience I would not wish to
repeat. The full keel and skeg hung rudder took the brunt of the impact
and the bottom of the ruder skeg with it's gudgeon were left on the
ledge (presumably).

The rudder dropped straight down and the now two extra feet of leverage
given overcame the strength of the interface between the rudder's
stuffing box and the hull, ripping open a 2-3 inch hole, depending on
where the rudder/shaft assembly was leaning at any given moment.


The two 2500 GPH bilge pumps were immediately overwhelmed. It is a
sobering sight to see salt water rising inexorably toward the air intake
on a diesel engine. In the confusion, I could not decipher which hose was
the raw water intake to add the engine cooling capacity to the bilge
pumping (and I did not wish to risk my hands in the belts of the dual
alternators). During this, others managed to leverage the rudder
quadrant/shaft into the upright position, mostly closing the hole, and
slowing the ingress of water to a point where the pumps could almost
hold their own. The arrival of a local fisherman in response to the
radio call was comforting, in that a tow line kept us from additional
impact with other natural hard spots in the passage.

The Coast Guard 41 footer has impressive dewatering capabilities in both
portable and built in pumps. We only needed the portable gas pump to
establish equilibrium. It was a long 30 minutes until they arrived from
their training mission off of Edgartown, however.

Once we were dewatered, and all the floorboard hatches were put back in
place (they tend to float off at some point) TowBoat US took over. While
our pumps were mostly capable of holding us while we were under tow to a
boat yard, they had put aboard two of these:
http://www.starmarinedepot.com/detai...duct_id=RU1416

You have to look a little harder to find these to purchase, than the
2500 gph, but I think one will be high on my list of must haves for the
coming years. It is interesting to look at the loss due to "lift" and
voltage, even this powerful appearing pump actually has. 6 foot lift
would not be uncommon in a boat that has standing headroom in the cabin.
Between lift and the voltage drop to 12v vs 13.5 when an engine is
running, even this pumps capacity gets reduced by about 30%

Just thought I'd share.

Jonathan


--
I am building my daughter an Argie 10 sailing dinghy, check it out:
http://home.comcast.net/~jonsailr

Ah, that brings back the memories. It was a hoot sitting in my
waterfront office at Woods Hole Oceanographic and watching boats hit
and miss that ledge. People would come down with the tide behind them
alarmed at the shore going by faster than the boat usually could move.
They would throttle back, and back, and back trying to slow down until
they were dead in the water and then wonder why nothing happened when
they turned the wheel to swing into the right channel.

Others would come down that nice lane of red and green buoys without a
chart and then head between the next red and green they saw. It's
just that one is in one channel and the other in the opposite leg.

Some of us once worked through a Labor Day weekend just so we could
watch the show.

I remember a big Dutch botter yacht towing a fair size I/O powerboat
with an outboard behind that and then a dinghy. He got fooled by the
current, slowed below steerageway, hit the buoy just before the ledge
broadside, bounced off, and then towed the whole assemblage upstream
and around the buoy (he must have used stout towlines) as the current
carried him before sticking briefly on the ledge and then heading off
into Vineyard Sound like he did this every day.

I wonder if there is a spot in New England where more boats, many with
very experienced skippers, have come to grief.

--

Roger Long

Roger Long wrote:

Ah, that brings back the memories. It was a hoot sitting in my
waterfront office at Woods Hole Oceanographic and watching boats hit
and miss that ledge. People would come down with the tide behind them
alarmed at the shore going by faster than the boat usually could move.
They would throttle back, and back, and back trying to slow down until
they were dead in the water and then wonder why nothing happened when
they turned the wheel to swing into the right channel.

Others would come down that nice lane of red and green buoys without a
chart and then head between the next red and green they saw. It's
just that one is in one channel and the other in the opposite leg.

Some of us once worked through a Labor Day weekend just so we could
watch the show.

I remember a big Dutch botter yacht towing a fair size I/O powerboat
with an outboard behind that and then a dinghy. He got fooled by the
current, slowed below steerageway, hit the buoy just before the ledge
broadside, bounced off, and then towed the whole assemblage upstream
and around the buoy (he must have used stout towlines) as the current
carried him before sticking briefly on the ledge and then heading off
into Vineyard Sound like he did this every day.

I wonder if there is a spot in New England where more boats, many with
very experienced skippers, have come to grief.


Yes, the CG was pretty blasÈ about the whole thing. Their remark, "Oh,
we get about one a week in season, it's been a little slow the last few
weeks."

I kept thinking, "He's gonna turn now, he's gonna turn now". But, he
didn't He later said that when the "picture finally "clicked" into his
head, he was afraid of getting swept into the daymark and adding
tangling the rigging, bringing down the rig, on top of the now certain
collision.

So he figured the strongest part of the boat was probably the leading
edge of the keel anyway.

The prelim estimate is 25K on the boat, he paid 60K for, just about 20
hours earlier. Ouch.....

Jonathan


--
I am building my daughter an Argie 10 sailing dinghy, check it out:
http://home.comcast.net/~jonsailr

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 14:14:23 -0500, "Jonathan W."
wrote:

The prelim estimate is 25K on the boat, he paid 60K for, just about 20
hours earlier. Ouch.....

===================================

The insurance company is going to love that. Hope he has an iron clad
binder in place.

Although I've run this passage in different boats, my best memories are of
trips in the "Prudence" when taking her from Hyannis to Kelley's boatyard
for spring haulout.
For whatever reason we normally seemed to go through there when the current
was against us and as we'd pass the buoy at the turn for "Broadway" (can't
remember the number) we could stand and have a good look at that buoy
getting knocked down by the current...... yup, still passing the
buoy........G old Prudence was steaming wide open throttle and maybe
making 1/2k over ground.

otn

It still amazes me that there is no better system than red and green
bouys that change and mean just the opposite halfway thru a difficult
channel. I have seen this in a number of places such as Woods Hole or
the Coast of Maine or Boston and nearby harbors. I use charts more
often than not and almost always in unfamilar waters, but I hope that I
will live to see the day when one can look at the navigational aids and
know right away what they mean.
Actually, I do kind of like to figure them out as we are going along.
Adds excitment to the day. and I do own a power boat so I tend to have
less time to figure it out than a sail boat, but I don't draw as much
and I can hit reverse pretty hard if I needed to.

What do you mean, "change and mean just the opposite"? The buoys in
the Woods Hole are absolutely consistent and perfectly easy to
understand just by looking at the chart before hand.

Have you ever looked at a chart?

http://mapserver.maptech.com/homepag...latlontype=DMS

--

Roger Long



"richard" wrote in message
oups.com...
It still amazes me that there is no better system than red and green
bouys that change and mean just the opposite halfway thru a
difficult
channel. I have seen this in a number of places such as Woods Hole
or
the Coast of Maine or Boston and nearby harbors. I use charts more
often than not and almost always in unfamilar waters, but I hope
that I
will live to see the day when one can look at the navigational aids
and
know right away what they mean.
Actually, I do kind of like to figure them out as we are going
along.
Adds excitment to the day. and I do own a power boat so I tend to
have
less time to figure it out than a sail boat, but I don't draw as
much
and I can hit reverse pretty hard if I needed to.

On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 11:19:53 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

Have you ever looked at a chart?

http://mapserver.maptech.com/homepag...latlontype=DMS
===================================

I like this view better:

http://tinyurl.com/de2wo

I agree that the buoys are consistent (no reversal), but somehow the
chart does not adequately prepare you for what you are about to
encounter. I've been through the "hole" many times in different boats
and I still find it to be one of the most intimidating places I've
ever negotiated. Things happen really quickly and there's barely
enough time to sort out the conflicting visual images that present
themselves, sort out the cross currents pulling you sideways, avoid
the locals fishing in mid passage, and select the correct channel.

You are right Roger, I was thinking of another place and yes, I have
looked at a chart. Do it all the time. Actually love charting. When I
bought my first GPS I would not let myself use it until I took a course
related to reading charts. (Paper charts, that is). I think that maybe
you missed my point. I am sure that you have been cruising at some
point in your life, where you were leaving one harbor and entering
another and the "red on right" changed to "green on right" becuase you
were changing from "leaving" to "returning". If that make sense. and I
am sure that some times a bouy or nav aid does not make sense to you
right away. My point is that it is not a perfect system and will keep
improving. I am sure that you have been to places where one time the
markers were one way, and then they changed them and maybe years later
they changed them again
anyway safe cruising to us all.
my boat goes out of the water tomorrow for the season. we had to cut it
a little shorter this year. we usally go from April to Dec or Jan. Not
to bad for a pleasure boat from chilly Boston.

"richard" wrote in message
oups.com...
It still amazes me that there is no better system than red and
green
bouys that change and mean just the opposite halfway thru a
difficult
channel. I have seen this in a number of places such as Woods
Hole or
the Coast of Maine or Boston and nearby harbors. I use charts
more
often than not and almost always in unfamilar waters, but I hope
that I
will live to see the day when one can look at the navigational
aids and
know right away what they mean.

Where there's chance of ambiguity, Europe uses cardinal bouys as
well as the red and green. Is this not common practice in the USA?

JimB