Sailboat tragedy

tdschafer

tdschafer

Well-Known Member
Aug 24, 2009
6,154
Long island , NY
Boat Info
1997 330 sundancer
Engines
twin 454's, Carb, V-Drives
I feel bad for these children. How could this father make a trip like that without a vhf radio? I can understand not having a epirb but a VHF radio is a minimal cost item that can at least be utilized for a distress call, especially when out of range of a cell tower. This sounds lIke a tragedy that could have possibly been avoided.




http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/06/2...boat-goes-missing-off-florida-gulf-coast.html

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My biggest fear. In fact my wife and I were debating between getting a plane or getting a boat. I am a professional pilot and she's has her commercial license. So it was the most natural to get a plane. But I didn't want to put my entire family in a single engine airplane and start making long trips. Never bothered me until I had kids. So we decided that having a family boat we would get more use out of it and overall less likely to have any serious issues.

That being said, I know we are both new to offshore cruising and are committed to mitigating as mush risk as possible by taking all the classes we can at the local school, metitculous upkeep and preventative maintenance, etc. Stories like this give me chills. No radio? No Epirb? I am planning on using Spot on my boat as well. So many ways this possibly could have been avoided. There are no shortcuts in regard to safety. Very sad.
 
Agree, flying is statistically very safe, but I would not take my family on a single engine either...if I knew how to fly a plane, which I don't .

What is "spot"?

IFlyEm said:
My biggest fear. In fact my wife and I were debating between getting a plane or getting a boat. I am a professional pilot and she's has her commercial license. So it was the most natural to get a plane. But I didn't want to put my entire family in a single engine airplane and start making long trips. Never bothered me until I had kids. So we decided that having a family boat we would get more use out of it and overall less likely to have any serious issues.

That being said, I know we are both new to offshore cruising and are committed to mitigating as mush risk as possible by taking all the classes we can at the local school, metitculous upkeep and preventative maintenance, etc. Stories like this give me chills. No radio? No Epirb? I am planning on using Spot on my boat as well. So many ways this possibly could have been avoided. There are no shortcuts in regard to safety. Very sad.
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Plb's have 1/2 the battery life of an Epirb 24 vs 48 I don't know if plb's are "better" our Epirb is also registered to us with our info programmed . Everyone knows it goes in the ditch bag and throw it overboard . Plb's are great if you move from boat to boat and clip it to your vest.
 
Why would they have had family aboard if they were transporting the boat to make repairs. 6' waves destroyed the boat and made a debris field? Lots of unanswered questions about the seaworthiness of the vessel.
 
blaster said:
Why would they have had family aboard if they were transporting the boat to make repairs. 6' waves destroyed the boat and made a debris field? Lots of unanswered questions about the seaworthiness of the vessel.
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"Debris field" in this case was gear and belongings such as kayaks, tarp, water bottles, tennis shoes, and life jackets (supposedly 6 of the 7 typically on board), etc., not pieces of the sailboat. Perhaps it swamped and the family was dumped into the water; without life jackets or some other kind of flotation, even strong swimmers might not have had much of a chance that far from shore in 6' waves.

The most recent reports are that searchers have found 1 body, not yet positively identified as a member of this family.

Very sad all around.

A sad story all around.
 
trflgrl said:
"Debris field" in this case was gear and belongings such as kayaks, tarp, water bottles, tennis shoes, and life jackets (supposedly 6 of the 7 typically on board), etc., not pieces of the sailboat. Perhaps it swamped and the family was dumped into the water; without life jackets or some other kind of flotation, even strong swimmers might not have had much of a chance that far from shore in 6' waves.

The most recent reports are that searchers have found 1 body, not yet positively identified as a member of this family.

Very sad all around.

A sad story all around.
Click to expand...
Looks like water temps leave a chance for extended survival but without a PFD or something it's not looking good.
 
i agree seems very silly and definately could have been avoided. but most of these accidents stem from poor decisions by the boat captains. 90% of my pleasure boating is in the bay, however 90% of the fishing that i do is in the ocean. im actually fishing a shark tournament this saturday. with that being said, there is massive amounts of prep work, homework that goes into a day offshore. watching weather and sea conditions is a small part of it. driving your boat in the ocean is different as well, especially if you are running through some snotty inlets where you may have to ride the back of a wave in through a set of buoys (which happens all too often). my advice is to speak to guys that fish in your area, or even try chartering a fishing trip that way you can see first hand how the captain handles the boat in different scenarios. develop your skills before you head out with the family. if your vessel is underpowered, the ocean will let you know it is.
 
I read that the recovered body was wearing a PFD.

As I had stated in a previous thread; "There's no such things as accidents, only incidents". So many things you all have listed could have prevented this incident.

My thoughts and prayers.
 
It's a terrible story but nothing really adds up. 6 foot waves were probably 3-4 footers. We all have a tendancy to make them bigger. We didn't have horrible weather with high winds. Things are being found and the CG said they thought they saw a flare for a few seconds. Much debris has been found. Body was wearing a PFD. They lived on the boat for the past year. Water temps in the mid 80's.
 
Very strange to me. First why was he 35+ miles off shore going south to Ft.Myers. That to me is the most interesting thing. Like Bucit said, the weather wasn't that bad on the west coast. Second, he called his brother to let me know about his troubles a couple days before they were reported missing..... Should of called the coast guard if you were in trouble. Sad, preventable tragedy.
 
Did you see the pics of the boat? It barely floated, let alone was seaworthy - they could have easily lost the rudder and then did not know what to do (tow a drogue, hove to on a sea anchor, etc)......If they got caught in winds due to the storm, the old sails were probably ripped to shreds before they could reef- this thing had an outboard aux (if it worked at all) in any kind of seas the prop would come out of the water and overheat the motor or just not be effective.....this boat probably ended up broached and was easily knocked down - it all probably happened very fast. Reminder for all of us......be prepared (both training and equipment) for anything that may happen "out there"
 
I was cruising back from Bimini to Ft. Myers that day and we were in the Gulf from The Florida Keys to Ft. Myers between 11:00 am until 4:30 pm. Winds and seas were very calm for most of the trip except when we reached Ft. Myers the winds picked up dramatically with one of our typical afternoon rain events except this time it carried heavy winds. I changed coarse and stayed along the coast as the winds were coming off the shore. I'm sure the seas were raging 35 miles out as they got bad at only a few miles out.

I agree it's very strange they were 35 miles out. The coast line is fairly straight for the route they were taken. I agree they were ill prepared but they did have the most basic safety item and that is life vests. Water temps are in the 80's down here this time of year and with a life vest, I believe if they had put the life vests on, they could have easily survived until help arrived. I can only assume the boat when down very very fast with a major failure and caught them off guard. That's the tradegy of it. Not respecting the power of the seas and how it can turn on you in seconds..... Still.... I can make sense of it and find it so upsetting these lives were lost. Being a parent, I can't even imagine something like that happening to my family. Ugghhh... Horrible........

I read an article about a fairline that ripped out the bottom of the boat going over a submerged piling. The owner said there was no time to do anything and before he knew it the boat was gone and he was in the water. He was on the ICW so a different situation , however, the timeframe in which the vessel went down is probably the common factor. One thing he felt really lost without in his situation was not having his wallet.

So reading this article of the vessel sinking has educated me. For any open water cruising, I always put the life raft in the cockpit, ditch bag with ebirb next to me and life jackets readily available on my seat. We now are getting in the habit to add water bottles in the ditch bag along with our wallets in addition to all the other typical items. Everyone, including myself get impatient to get out on the water but please take the time and go over safety things you need to do first before you untie the lines... Be safe......
 
cod said:
I was cruising back from Bimini to Ft. Myers that day and we were in the Gulf from The Florida Keys to Ft. Myers between 11:00 am until 4:30 pm. Winds and seas were very calm for most of the trip except when we reached Ft. Myers the winds picked up dramatically with one of our typical afternoon rain events except this time it carried heavy winds. I changed coarse and stayed along the coast as the winds were coming off the shore. I'm sure the seas were raging 35 miles out as they got bad at only a few miles out.

I agree it's very strange they were 35 miles out. The coast line is fairly straight for the route they were taken. I agree they were ill prepared but they did have the most basic safety item and that is life vests. Water temps are in the 80's down here this time of year and with a life vest, I believe if they had put the life vests on, they could have easily survived until help arrived. I can only assume the boat when down very very fast with a major failure and caught them off guard. That's the tradegy of it. Not respecting the power of the seas and how it can turn on you in seconds..... Still.... I can make sense of it and find it so upsetting these lives were lost. Being a parent, I can't even imagine something like that happening to my family. Ugghhh... Horrible........

I read an article about a fairline that ripped out the bottom of the boat going over a submerged piling. The owner said there was no time to do anything and before he knew it the boat was gone and he was in the water. He was on the ICW so a different situation , however, the timeframe in which the vessel went down is probably the common factor. One thing he felt really lost without in his situation was not having his wallet.

So reading this article of the vessel sinking has educated me. For any open water cruising, I always put the life raft in the cockpit, ditch bag with ebirb next to me and life jackets readily available on my seat. We now are getting in the habit to add water bottles in the ditch bag along with our wallets in addition to all the other typical items. Everyone, including myself get impatient to get out on the water but please take the time and go over safety things you need to do first before you untie the lines... Be safe......
Click to expand...

The possibilities for hitting submerged or floating obstacles is always there. Not having an EPIRB and VHF is inexcusable when sailing 35 miles off shore. There is more to this story...the father did an injustice to his family with his lack of preparedness.
 
Sad :( I've never seen an ocean going vessel, or lake going vessel for that matter without a Radio. That's $100 that could save your skin
 
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