Tragedy Averted

T

tc410

Well-Known Member
Oct 9, 2006
2,044
Boat Info
2005 550DB
Engines
MAN CRM-900
This past Friday morning, the captain of a 65' Marquis needed to move the boat over to the fuel dock for a pump out. The owners were on the way up to spend the weekend on the boat. Being single handed, he asked one of the young dock hands at our marina to go along to help with lines. This is literally a 200 yard voyage. Straight shot in, straight shot out. Off they went. As they approached the gas dock, the helper from the marina was handing off a dock line to the gas dock attendant when he felt the boat lurch backwards. Unbeknownst to the deck hand, the 26 year old captain went into some sort of seizure while at the controls. As he fell to the floor, he took the controls into full throttle reverse. What ensued next was utter mayhem. People were screaming and running and the boat was out of control backing down hard in a big arc from the gas dock out towards the harbor then back in to where it crashed into two docks and a multi-million dollar boat house. The young deck hand managed to work his way up to the bridge and get it into neutral just as it was about to tear through the boat house garage door. From a close distance, I saw most of it and my wife saw all of it. No one was injured and I'm still not sure how. There are always kayakers and stand up paddle boards in the marina area of the harbor that time of day due to calmness and lack of moving craft. No one was around that morning and no one was pulling into the gas dock behind them.

Here are a few pics. First is where the boat came to rest in front of the boat house. The others show the damage:

53d28084bb012_image.jpg
photo10.jpg
photo5.jpg
photo6.jpg
photo8.jpg
 
Last edited:
Oh my....what a story. Amazing that nobody was injured. Any word on the captain that had the seizure?
 
He was released from the hospital a few hours later.... He is fine and the dock hand from our marina got the rest of that day off to go home and catch his breath....
 
Property can be replaced. People can't.

Good thing no one was hurt.

Hopefully the insurance company picks up the tab.
 
Of course thank god nobody was hurt. After all said and done that's a BAD day for the Marquis owner! Man that hurts to look at!
 
magstang1 said:
Property can be replaced. People can't. Good thing no one was hurt....................
Click to expand...
I agree, it's all metal, plastic and glass. All of those are replaceable. People's life and limb, can't. Glad everyone is OK.
 
Boat Guy said:
I'm glad nobody was hurt.

Are you saying this was a licensed captain at the helm? If so, I feel for him as I'm sure this is going to be a real problem with his career choice.
Click to expand...

Indeed, at 26 though, he at least has an opportunity to find a different career. I am a little amazed that he was only 26, As an owner I would have to have an immense amount of trust to let a kid captain my boat like that. Maybe the poster meant he was a 26 year captain. Its a gorgeous boat though, its going to take a little more than a bit of money to fix, these 65 Marquis run in the $1.5M-$2M range.
 
I have a friend with that same boat (a white version) and it is beautiful. It doesn't handle the ocean as well as one would think unless it has optional gyro stabilizers installed. It rolls quite a bit. I need to send him this link and photos!
 
I'm curious whose insurance will cover a situation like this... the marina? the boat owner? the captain if he was not employed by the marina?
 
Propeller nuts on incorrectly.... And they used a pipe wrench to tighten them.
 
Dsybok said:
Indeed, at 26 though, he at least has an opportunity to find a different career. I am a little amazed that he was only 26, As an owner I would have to have an immense amount of trust to let a kid captain my boat like that. Maybe the poster meant he was a 26 year captain....
Click to expand...

No, I meant what I said... He was 26 years old. Very nice kid and great around the boat. I had talked to him a few times before the accident. Whether or not he was the owners son-in-law, nephew, relative or whatever, I'm not sure. He was known in the marina as the captain and he was introduced as the captain when I met him.

http://www.petoskeynews.com/charlev...cle_d4c566d2-1414-11e4-8bc4-001a4bcf6878.html

The photos I took don't capture all the damage. Both port and starboard topsides had major dock rash, the port prop was as bad or worse than the starboard one I posted, the entire swim platform was bent down about 10 degrees and as Scott mentioned, I'm sure there's a significant amount of internal and unseen structural damage to the transon, stringers and so on.
 
Last edited:
That's incredible. Glad there were no casualties, it could have been a lot worse.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Todd
 
Wow....this is very scary to even look at. Glad everyone is ok. On a similar note I guess, I had always wondered (because this is how my twisted mind works) since I have been towed in by Sea Tow a couple of times, what if something like this happened to the Sea Tow guy as he is towing me. Do I just jump off and hope for the best. I don't think I would be able to reach down and cut the tow rope so this always concerned me. Like I said, these stupid things run through my mind all the time.
 
ttmott said:
Propeller nuts on incorrectly.... And they used a pipe wrench to tighten them.
Click to expand...

Not sure if you are joking, kidding around or ? but the nuts are on correctly. Large nut, more thread engagement takes the lion share of the forces associated with holding the prop on and the thinner nut jams the larger nut in place so it won't come off.

Of course, if you were joking, please disregard this post and I apologize for not reading the joke correctly. :grin:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,248
Messages
1,429,267
Members
61,128
Latest member
greenworld
Back
Top