will my Sea Ray float a little if swamped, flips over, etc.

A

alinmaui

New Member
Jul 2, 2007
19
I am a new owner of a 1988 Sea Ray Seville, 21' Cuddy Cab with a v-6, 175 hp and an alpha leg. I live in Paradise, Maui, and plan to use the boat for deep sea trolling as well as near shore (5-15 miles from land) bottom fishing. My main concern is if the boat should flip, get swamped, or take on water and fill up, and the boat still has all the original factory floatation and assuming that that floatition is still dry, will there be enough boat left floating on the surface to hold on to until rescue arrives, or will the hull just go to the bottom. I would like to hear from some members who have had real experience with this situation. Or maybe a sinking at the dock for what ever reason or hurricane damage and the boat either floated a little or just plain went to the bottom. You can also post your stories of your close calls od sinking or rescues.

Does anyone know how much foam was installed by the factory or what the CG requirement was at the time?

Does anyone know how much foam or floatation will be needed to keep the hull afloat?

I would like to know because a hull is easier to spot than a person in a life jacket should an emergency happen.

Thank you for any of your answers or advice on this subject.

May we all have safe boating trips and always be prepared for any and all emergencies.

"A small boat is just a small boat in a large ocean that the conditions can change in a matter of hours. As we know the weather people is not always right"

I have been boating in the Maui waters for the past 18 years and know my abilities, but do not know those of my new ,but old, boat yet.

It is good that I stumbled across this site. Maybe you could get Sea Ray to make a link to it to make it easier to find. So far I have gotton a lot of useful information from the site as well as a lot of entertaining reading.
 
Well, I can't comment on how your boat will hold up, but I would take other precautions. If you have the concerns that you mentioned, do you, or have you considered carrying an EPIRB, VHF or other communication device, flares, etc?
 
How about a bright orange liferaft? so you dont have to cling to the bottom of an overturned boat. I rescued 4 people last year in the sound in pretty calm waters and it wasnt a easy ordeal hanging onto their overturned boat.
 
Dancin Dave said:
How about a bright orange liferaft? so you dont have to cling to the bottom of an overturned boat. I rescued 4 people last year in the sound in pretty calm waters and it wasnt a easy ordeal hanging onto their overturned boat.
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How about only taking yoru boat into waters it can handle? no seas bigger than 1 to 2 feet.. and "deep sea" is not recomended for a boat that size.. when you out that far and you can only see water going up and down in front of you and no land you are out too far...
 
Frankly I'd contact Searay about that particular model and year to see if it was manufactured (or required to be at that time) for flotation.


Obviously no one can answer whether it actually will regardless of whether it's supposed to.
 
does it float or not

Maybe I asked the wrong type of questions. Since everyone is a Sea Ray owner and everyone seens very happy with their boat it may seem that I just asked the wrong Question. The people that may have had problems like this and lived thru it are probably no longer boating or have gone to another brand of boat. I believe that Sea Ray Boats are a very strong and well built boat and should take all type of sea conditions with in certain limits, but it is us humans that try overestimate our abilities and take the toys out when we should have stayed home or changed to plans to stay in calmer waters. I am sure these boat float to some extent when fill with water. All I want to know with out filling up my own wheather as a test of off shore by accident if it really will.

My prior boat to this was a 20' Boston Whaler Outrage with twin 88hp outboards for 14 years. The hull was made in 1979. Prior to that a 17' Boston Whaler Montauk with an 85hp outboard and a 15hp outboard for a kicker. I would did trust my life on either of these boats and in the 18 years they always brought me home, even when caught out in rough Seas.
The parent company owns both Boston Whaler and Sea Ray.
Thanks for listening.
Please feel free to post whatever comments to this tread,
Mahalo :smt001
 
You may be better off asking a qualified Surveyor or Salvager this question. With their experience and background you should get a much better answer about your specific model.
 
Well i know this fact.. Boston Whaler GUARANTEES that you can not sink their boats. I have heard this from alot of people who dont even own a boston whaler and at the dealer.. i have not heard that about searay... I think it has to have some stryofoam inserts in the body of the boat in certain spots to keep it afloat.. and my seray has nothing like that.. (this is just my asumption)
 
USCG standards

The sales brochure on file in the sea ray site says that this model meats the USCG floation requirements for this model. I have not found that regulation and do not know how much floation was put in that boat. I also read in another tread at this site that a certain model sea ray was recalled because there was not enough floation in the boats shipped out. The company did fix the problem.

I know that noe of us would like to go down with the ship if an accident happened, but it would be nice if we could stay around the floating(sinking) hull and floatsum so we could be spotted easier for rescue.

On another note to someone that suggusted that I only take this boat out in 2-3 foot seas, I hope he was only kidding. It does not show very much faith in the boat that he owns or his seamanship.

I have more than 30 years experience on the ocean in all types of conditions and I only want to make sure I make it back safely from each trip, so far I have, knock on wood.

I have been in my 17' Whaler 10-15 miles South of Maui chasing after 100-150 Ahi and out there with many other boats in seas between 10-15 feet and winds up to 15-20 knots. My friends in a 30' Force,about 200 yards away at that point, radioed me and asked what I was doing that far out and I told him that I was just as crazy as him and that we were both bouncing around like corks. That as just another day of fishing in the Alinuihaha Channel. I need to have confidence in my equipment before going very far offshore, It not like being on a lake or a river, we all have our different kinds of dangers.
 
Re: USCG standards

alinmaui said:
The sales brochure on file in the sea ray site says that this model meats the USCG floation requirements for this model. I have not found that regulation and do not know how much floation was put in that boat. I also read in another tread at this site that a certain model sea ray was recalled because there was not enough floation in the boats shipped out. The company did fix the problem.

I know that noe of us would like to go down with the ship if an accident happened, but it would be nice if we could stay around the floating(sinking) hull and floatsum so we could be spotted easier for rescue.

On another note to someone that suggusted that I only take this boat out in 2-3 foot seas, I hope he was only kidding. It does not show very much faith in the boat that he owns or his seamanship.

I have more than 30 years experience on the ocean in all types of conditions and I only want to make sure I make it back safely from each trip, so far I have, knock on wood.

I have been in my 17' Whaler 10-15 miles South of Maui chasing after 100-150 Ahi and out there with many other boats in seas between 10-15 feet and winds up to 15-20 knots. My friends in a 30' Force,about 200 yards away at that point, radioed me and asked what I was doing that far out and I told him that I was just as crazy as him and that we were both bouncing around like corks. That as just another day of fishing in the Alinuihaha Channel. I need to have confidence in my equipment before going very far offshore, It not like being on a lake or a river, we all have our different kinds of dangers.
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10 to 15 foot seas in a 17 foot boat? comon if your telling the truth thats great.. im not calling you a lyer... but dam.. think about it.

and if your so confident in your boat why are you worrying about it sinking? you have all this experience and take a 17 foot boat in 10-15 foot seas. :huh:

not here to argue just seems like you have really good luck on the waters with all your xsperience :thumbsup:
 
sea trial in the sea ray

I took this sea ray out and drove it head on and also at a 45 degree angle into 2-4 foot lake chop, generated by a 15-20 mph wind coming down the coast. I pushed this boat between 20=25 mph into the chop and the bow got all pushed around and made me real uneasy with this boat at this speed. Keep in mind that this is a test drive. Slowing the boat to a sane speed of 8-10mph the boat handled the wind and sea condition. I just did not perform like my old boat, a 20' Outrage, Boston Whaler.

I you have not been in the open ocean in big waves you should try it sometime. The frequency or distance between the tops of the waves determines the steepness of the waves. 10-15 feet ocean swells spaced far apart are just large rollers. When you are down in the dottom of the wave you can't see anything around you, then you go to the next crest and you can see everywhere. Everyone knows that white caps start appearing after the winds reach a certain speed, I think thats 12-15 mph and the higher the winds get then the winds start to generate waves or what I call lake chop. If the lake chop and the ocean swells come in the same direction it is less dangerous.

I know nothing about inland boating and can't imagime that it can't get that rough or that a safe harbor is that far away.

Anyway thanks for you opinion, but it is just you opinion.

Thank you everyonr for reading this tread. I am not going to comment again, have fun and safe boating. :smt001
 
having been in Hawaii I can see how this poster would encounter the conditions he has been in.

Your in a tiny island out in the middle of the pacific ocean, it was always rough when I was there, in the afternoon the wind really picks up as well.
 
alinmaui - As a 30 year veteran of this sort of thing, I think you ought to trust your instincts. A Sea Ray is not a Whaler. I've seen just about every brand and size of boat (including quite a few Sea Rays) sitting at the bottom of a marina because they filled with water and sunk. Can't say that I've ever seen a Whaler in that situation. Without knowing a thing about your particular boat, I believe it will indeed sink if you fill it with enough water. I guess the question really is just how much water will it take? Not sure how you're going to get a accurate answer to that one.
 
I would agree that "us" who boat on inland lakes can't compare or comment too well on off shore boating. If I had my choice between the 3-5' seas we often see on some of our inland lakes and 5-10' rolling seas offshore, I think I'd take the off-shore water. It's very different.

However, I think you're trying to get an answer that no one can give you. You'd need to talk to someone that has swamped that boat and in the conditions that match yours.

What many of us have said is really all we can suggest. I don't know when it was that pleasure boat manufactures had to start meeting certain flotation requirements, but I also don't think those flotation requirements don't guarantee a boat will float in a manner that will provide safety to anyone on board.

As I understand it, the requirment is such that if the boat was swamped, with a normal load the boat would float at the surface, such that it would appear that the deck will keep the boat at the surface.

If you add in an unlimited list of conditions that no one can predict, all bets are off. A Whaler which is a boat made for a specific purpose which is not what a Searay open bow recreational pleasure boat, I would expect would go further since the places it's designed to be would pose more risk thus a good quality boat made for those conditions would address.

I'd go back to my suggestion about contacting Searay who will be able to tell you how your boat was manufactured and what requirements it meets AND they should be able to explain what the requirements were and how different that are for newer models if they are any different. You appearently have a link to that info above (I didn't look at it) but talking to them might get you better answers.

BTW, there was once a couple who took a Crownline 225 BR (22.5 LOA bow rider) from FLA to the Bahamas. They documented their trip and while they did make it, it had to be one hellofa scary ride. But it can be done but a lot of it is on the Captain. :grin:
 
It'll sink. Just 3 weeks ago, a 185 Sea Ray was sitting in a cradle next to my boat. As I was up higher in my 270 removing my canvas, I noticed the 185 was coated with mud and knew it had sunk. Turns out that it was docked at the marina (on the Mississippi) when it was swamped and sunk by wave action. What was amazing was that it wasn't on the bottom very long and, boy what a mess.

Dennis
 
270SLX said:
It'll sink. Just 3 weeks ago, a 185 Sea Ray was sitting in a cradle next to my boat. As I was up higher in my 270 removing my canvas, I noticed the 185 was coated with mud and knew it had sunk. Turns out that it was docked at the marina (on the Mississippi) when it was swamped and sunk by wave action. What was amazing was that it wasn't on the bottom very long and, boy what a mess.

Dennis
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now when this happens yoru boat is considered a total loss right? it must cost a lot of money to get it back running right?
 
found my answers

I found some answers on the US Coast Guard Site. The boat or all small boat have floatation and are supposed to float the boat evenly when it has been flooded. I assume that this is a stock boat with no added personal equipment. (Sea Ray had some recalls for this issue, but none for my model.)

On the site they also had a boating accident numbers. Capizing was a little less than 10% of the reported accidents about 500 for last year and flooding/swamping was about 300 accidents last year.

It was also noted that Hawaii has the least amount of registered boaters amoung the 50 states.

Thank you everyone for you imput.
 
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