Tragedy on Lake St. Clair

I went to the lake stclaire site. I found the discussion very interesting. Unfortuntely it appears only a few of the posters will really learn anything from it. One fellow stated that he saw nothing wrong with running 40+mph in the pitch black, no radar, isenglass up. I can only assume that he relies heavily on his chartplotter while doing this. I wonder how long before he makes the news. What happened to common sense?
 
That is my opinion also, Why run fast in the dark at all? When we're running in the dark it's about 10mph and we're using full radar and using site and hearing....My Godwhat are people thinking? I have no clue......I'm sure alchol was a factor, notice the article didn't say if they tested the captain.
Again every boater should have a navigation class before they are allowed to drive a boat of any size.....
 
My neighbor was aboard that boat. Those waters were anything but unfamiliar. The investigators are not suggesting alcohol was a factor. The boat didn't suffer damage consistant with 40 mph+ speeds - that was simply part of a later discussion about driving at night.

There is no debate that the barge was abandoned in an inappropriate location by a defunct dredging company.

It had never been lit before, but there is a debate on whether an operator had placed "street contruction traffic flashers" on it the day before, and whether those lights made it all visible from any distance at night.

Very sad.
 
You can not be too careful around dredges. The lines run for up to a mile just beneath the surface of the water, marked only by colored floats with small lights. The barges are lighted (if legal) but still confusing to people not used to seeing them. Our harbor is dredged about every year and you have to know your way around equipment day or night to avoid tearing the running gear off the bottom of your boat.
 
I bet that boat hit the dredge pipeline which was submersed underwater and lit like crap. If it hit the barge itself as implied in the news blurb, the front of the bow would be CRUSHED like the hull part under the bow. Look at the picture and you decide if you think it slammed into a 138' barge or not...

Maybe this captain wasn't drunk and just made an assumption that nothing would be under water 100' from the barge. I don't know this for sure, but radar might not be able to pickup the underwater pipeline either...
 
Those pictures are misleading. There are two barges out there. The one with the crane seen in the pictures is further in, just east of the MacRay channel.

The one they hit is a scow, it's further out and just to the west of the channel and it has no pipeline. (I'd have hit it long ago) Boaters approaching MacRay's east channel will come very close to both the scow and the crane barge.

The scow shows scrapes from the boat.

In the guessing category: It's possible that the foredeck of the boat peeled up during impact and came back down.
 
My neighbor was aboard that boat. Those waters were anything but unfamiliar. The investigators are not suggesting alcohol was a factor. The boat didn't suffer damage consistant with 40 mph+ speeds - that was simply part of a later discussion about driving at night.

There is no debate that the barge was abandoned in an inappropriate location by a defunct dredging company.

It had never been lit before, but there is a debate on whether an operator had placed "street contruction traffic flashers" on it the day before, and whether those lights made it all visible from any distance at night.

Very sad.
I agaree very sad. I was referring to the other discussion when I mentioned the 40+mph speed. That fellow isn't learning from this accident. Not many details known at this point. But what do we know:
-in familiar waters
-isenglass up, shown clearly in the pics
-no radar
-barg had been parked there for months
-approx 11:00pm
-boat hits barg

I am not attempting to assign fault but who ultimately was in controll of this situation? Should it be looked at any different if the barg had drifted in a hr before he hit it.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,862
Members
60,932
Latest member
juliediane
Back
Top