By Ryan Clark
Enquirer staff writer


DAYTON, Ky. - All along the river here, where gawkers mixed with
passersby, everyone wanted to know what happened. Why did the boat go out
so early in the morning? Why couldn't they signal the oncoming barge? Why
couldn't the barge see the small houseboat? The quiet marinas lining
Northern Kentucky were mobbed after a man was killed, another escaped and
two others are missing after a barge hit their 36-foot houseboat
overnight.

As officials searched and the day wore on, life began to get back to
normal Thursday, aside from the flashing lights of emergency vehicles and
TV cameras along the shoreline.

"It's different on a boat," said 48-year-old Randy Griffith. He lives in
Newport but keeps his boat at the River City Marina, just a splash from
where the collision occurred. "In a car, if you have an accident, you can
get out. In a boat, it's either sink or swim."

Griffith, who has kept his boat at the site for five years, said he's
leery of being on the river at night.

"You've got to be careful," he said. "That's like I say, you have to stay
on this side of the river. If you wander out, you can find trouble."

Less than a half-mile from the wreck, Capt. Dennis New watched the search
from his perch on board the Queen City Riverboat.

"Whatever happened, a boat has no business being out on the river at 4
a.m.," said New, who has been working on the river for 33 years. "Then
again, every boat needs a lookout to watch for things. Basically, if you
do what you're supposed to do, these things won't happen."

Greg Sizemore, 46, watched the recovery attempt from the Queen City
Riverboats parking lot. Owner of a 40-foot offshore boat, Sizemore, of
Covington, was considering bringing it to the River City Marina for the
Labor Day fireworks show.

Now he isn't sure.

"It just shows you how dangerous the river can be here at dark," he
said. "Especially for the fireworks show, where people will be
partying. People need to be careful down here. I'm just not sure if we'll
come or not."

At the Watertown Yacht Club, those who live on the water are divided about
whether the incident will affect their lives.

Ron Boenitsch has lived on his boat, the Weekend Retreat, for more than
three years. But after 23 years in the Navy, the 57-year-old said there
isn't much that scares him.

"I've seen much worse than that," Boenitsch said. "You just shouldn't go
out there at night."

But Johnny Goodwin, 75, from Clifton, who spends time on his Seabird at
Watertown, said he may stay away from the area now.

"It's just so dangerous," he said. "... People need to know that there are
times when it's hard to see you out there."

E-mail

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...508260397/1056

Is this news?

Garrison Hilliard wrote:
By Ryan Clark
Enquirer staff writer

DAYTON, Ky. - All along the river here, where gawkers mixed with
passersby, everyone wanted to know what happened. Why did the boat go out
so early in the morning?

What difference does it make why they went out? What might matter is
the condition of the pilot (inebbriated? drugged up?)

Why couldn't they signal the oncoming barge?

Maybe they did.

Why couldn't the barge see the small houseboat?

Maybe it did.

The quiet marinas lining
Northern Kentucky were mobbed after a man was killed, another escaped and
two others are missing after a barge hit their 36-foot houseboat
overnight.

[snip]

"It's just so dangerous," he said. "... People need to know that there are
times when it's hard to see you out there."

It's *always* difficult for a large vessel to see a small one.

I don't live near one of those commercial arteries, but I am dam' sure
those barges (especially when they are rafted up) are pigs when it come
to emergency evasive maneuvers, and I am sure that if I put on the
river -- day *or* night -- I would regard it as *my* responsibility to
stay out of their way.

This pathetic article didn't give a word of description of the barge
itself, which might have helped in understanding how the incident
occured. I thought the job of the reporter was to give us answers, not
questions. *My* question is: why did he bother to turn in the article
before he gathered a description of the barge and interviewed the
survivor? Of *course* "everyone wanted to know what happened", and it
is the reporter's job to tell them!

Thanks for posting this, Garrison. I'm starting to take an interest in
the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers, and what goes on on 'em. I
wish the reporter had actually reported something substantive.


-Richard, His Kanubic Travesty
--

================================================== ====================
Richard Hopley Winston-Salem, NC, USA
rhopley[at]earthlink[dot]net
Nothing really matters except Boats, Sex, and Rock'n'Roll
rhopley[at]wfubmc[dot]edu
OK, OK; computer programming for scientific research also matters
================================================== ====================

On 26 Aug 2005 11:52:18 -0700, "Oci-One Kanubi"
wrote:

Is this news?

Garrison Hilliard wrote:
By Ryan Clark
Enquirer staff writer

DAYTON, Ky. - All along the river here, where gawkers mixed with
passersby, everyone wanted to know what happened. Why did the boat go out
so early in the morning?

What difference does it make why they went out? What might matter is
the condition of the pilot (inebbriated? drugged up?)

Why couldn't they signal the oncoming barge?

Maybe they did.

Why couldn't the barge see the small houseboat?

Maybe it did.

The quiet marinas lining
Northern Kentucky were mobbed after a man was killed, another escaped and
two others are missing after a barge hit their 36-foot houseboat
overnight.

[snip]

"It's just so dangerous," he said. "... People need to know that there are
times when it's hard to see you out there."

It's *always* difficult for a large vessel to see a small one.

I don't live near one of those commercial arteries, but I am dam' sure
those barges (especially when they are rafted up) are pigs when it come
to emergency evasive maneuvers, and I am sure that if I put on the
river -- day *or* night -- I would regard it as *my* responsibility to
stay out of their way.

This pathetic article didn't give a word of description of the barge
itself, which might have helped in understanding how the incident
occured. I thought the job of the reporter was to give us answers, not
questions. *My* question is: why did he bother to turn in the article
before he gathered a description of the barge and interviewed the
survivor? Of *course* "everyone wanted to know what happened", and it
is the reporter's job to tell them!

Thanks for posting this, Garrison. I'm starting to take an interest in
the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers, and what goes on on 'em. I
wish the reporter had actually reported something substantive.


-Richard, His Kanubic Travesty

Two weekends ago my brother, my two sisters and I took a two day river
trip on my 19 foot cuddy down the Ohio from Pittsburgh to (almost)
Marietta OH. This is about 150 miles and 5 locks. Anyway, on Saturday
night we tied up at a dock on the Ohio side. My sisters slept in the
cuddy and my brother and I slept on the fold-down seats - him on the
dock side and me on the river side. About 3:30 in the morning I hear
my brother yelling at me to wake up. I did so just in time to see a
wall of steel no more than 6 or 8 feet from me (it felt more like 6 or
8 inches). It was the last boat in a 3 wide by 5 boat long barge. It
seems that two barges were passing each other right there and the one
on our side was getting a lot closer to shore than I have ever seen a
barge get while underway. It was completely unloaded and thus took
little draft and was waaaaay up out of the water. It scared the sh*t
out of me. My brother was just as bad. The waves that followed after
the tug passed really rocked the hell out of the boat and the dock we
were tied up to, but the sisters slept through it. A few more feet
closer and they might never have found any of us - certainly not
alive. It was an experience. Next time I might consider stopping on
the non-channel side of some island and turning on the anchor lights
(even though we weren't actually anchored).

The Other Dave Hall

I used to sail on Lake Guntersville on the Tennessee River. Whenever
one of those barge strings would appear on the lake, everybody gave him
as much lake as possible. They cannot see you, cannot stop and cannot
turn without miles of room.

On Fri, 26 Aug 2005 17:55:58 -0400, Dave Hall wrote:


Two weekends ago my brother, my two sisters and I took a two day river
trip on my 19 foot cuddy down the Ohio from Pittsburgh to (almost)
Marietta OH. This is about 150 miles and 5 locks. Anyway, on Saturday
night we tied up at a dock on the Ohio side. My sisters slept in the cuddy
and my brother and I slept on the fold-down seats - him on the dock side
and me on the river side. About 3:30 in the morning I hear my brother
yelling at me to wake up. I did so just in time to see a wall of steel no
more than 6 or 8 feet from me (it felt more like 6 or 8 inches). It was
the last boat in a 3 wide by 5 boat long barge. It seems that two barges
were passing each other right there and the one on our side was getting a
lot closer to shore than I have ever seen a barge get while underway. It
was completely unloaded and thus took little draft and was waaaaay up out
of the water. It scared the sh*t out of me. My brother was just as bad.
The waves that followed after the tug passed really rocked the hell out of
the boat and the dock we were tied up to, but the sisters slept through
it. A few more feet closer and they might never have found any of us -
certainly not alive. It was an experience. Next time I might consider
stopping on the non-channel side of some island and turning on the anchor
lights (even though we weren't actually anchored).

The Other Dave Hall

I have a good deal of respect for professionals in any occupation. Anyone
doing something day in and day out, can become quite skillfull. However,
putting one of those monsters that close, you have to wonder if anyone is
*that* skilled. Glad luck was with you, although, I think I might have
preferred to sleep through that experience. ;-)

"Garrison Hilliard" wrote
Why couldn't they signal the oncoming barge?

Why do reporters ask questions they've already answered?
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...508260390/1056
"All four passengers were below deck trying to restore power when the boat
was struck"

Basically, if you do what you're supposed
to do, these things won't happen."

Exactly.

I mix with barges on the Kanawha River day and night. You stay out of their
way, they don't run over you. I know it's speaking ill of the dead, but
drifting in the middle of the channel at night with no lookout was foolish.

Something I've noticed, that you might not expect if you haven't been around
them, is that you often can't hear a string of barges approaching. Typically
they're moving relatively slowly and the noisy end is a couple hundred yards
back from the part that you'll encounter first. If there's no wind or other
sounds you may hear a little rustling when it's within a short distance but
that's about it. They're pretty hard to miss visually, though, if you're
watching. Bottom line is you really should keep your eyes open and your
thumbs out.