1 Killed, Four Hurt after Boat Capsizes in Hudson

He tried to turn the boat around?????? Uh, take a look at this:

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080730/NEWS01/807300377

I saw that picture, and was pretty aghast. Boats don't just run up out of the river and up onto land unless they are going pretty darn fast. Now I realize there is a 3 1/2 foot tide difference there, so maybe the pic was taken at low tide or something and maybe at high tide there is water covering the ground there, although the pics don't seem to show a water stain on the bushes from my eyes. Does anybody have any thoughts on how that boat ended up completely out of the water???

And, correct me if I'm wrong, that boat capsized very suddenly, which is how the people became trapped underneath, correct???
 
Yes.. They were traveling south on the west side of the river. The operator realized that they were grounding and then turned the wheel really hard and fast trying to turn. The momentum of the boat traveling forward and then making an abrupt turn caused the boat to roll.

They probably ended up really close to the land before they realizes they were grounding and heading right for land hence the abrupt turning attempt..

I don't think it is that hard to imagine.

What are you implying?
 
Tide Pete, think tide. Perhaps he swung the wheel quickly with a shot of throttle or at high throttle and the prop dug in and it flipped. Perhaps someone with local knowledge can supply a photo at high and low tide.
I know with the dink we will push into weeds once in a while to cut through the jetty on the south side of the Rondout creek entrance. Maybe they were also.
 
Pete, I'm pretty sure the area was under water when this happened otherwise the man would not have drowned.
 
Leigh

What concerns me about your assessment is that based on the way the boat wound up they must have turned the boats towards land since the bow was pointing roughly west. I image that's possible but I'm guessing my reactions would have been to turn away from land.

That said, it would still seem to indicate that excessive speed for the conditions, ie darkness, played a major role is this unfortunate but preventable occurrence.
 
I think your right Pete, they must have been going extremely fast. The link you posted states it was a 26ft 5,500 hundred lb boat with twin 260's. I can only compare that to my own, at 10,000lbs loaded/28ft/twin 225's...and my boat moves! Twin 260's would be a ton of power on that boat. It's just sad, sounds like they were just out having fun and were new to boating I guess & unfamiliar with the river & buoys. Shame to say, but I'll bet the owner of that boats problems have really just started.
 
Rommer, I guess when you are in an "OHHH SHHHIIITTT" Situation you just turn the boat before it hits land..

I think the reason for the abrupt turning of the boat was that they realized they were going to hit land not necessarily hitting the bottom in shallow water... but who knows.. none of us were there...

Pete, Marsij,
What do you consider very fast, 25-30 MPH cruise?

Even if they were traveling at this speed (which I do not consider fast)it is obvious that they were unfamiliar with the area... Now, I know some of you will say that that is all the reason to go slow, and yes you're correct BUT these were 25 year old kids having a great time enjoying the fruits of there labor. I know that is no excuse but it is reality..

I feel that lack of knowledge supersedes the speed of which they were traveling.. (which is an unknown at this point...)

From what I read the friends helped the owner fix up the boat all summer and this was there celebratory cruise... Very Sad.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sweetness

What do you consider very fast, 25-30 MPH cruise?

Click to expand...


At 11:00ish on a dark night I would consider that fast but that's just MHO.
 
Sweetness, I have hit 50 MPH in my boat a number of times. In my opinion, that is a white knuckle speed on the water...at least for me. Under normal circumstances, no I do not consider 25-30 mph fast. Actually just the opposite, I cruise at 25MPH when I'm not in any huge rush to get anywhere. However, at 11:30 at night, yes, I would very much consider that fast ESPECIALLY, if you are not familiar with the area you are boating in. The majority of my boating is done in the evening/night, I love it on the river at that time and I pretty much know the river like the back of my hand as many of us do but I still keep the speed lower than I would in daytime. Just me, maybe I am overly cautious. The paper said this boat had a top speed of 80 MPH, granted we do not know exactly what happened but chances are speed was a factor. Fast boat, young group, celebration, apparent lack of boating knowledge or experience, nighttime, poor visability...........
1 man dead, 3 people whose lives will never be the same.
 
Cruised by there today and took a look myself, they were moving pretty good to get that far in the marsh (that I can tell ya for sure ! ). story I heard was the poor guy in the cabin was trapped and they couldn't get the cabin door open due to damage while the tide was rising plus the boat sinking, but don't know for sure just what I heard.

Another sad and tragic story and my heart goes out to them, yet another side of me thinks how easily that could have been avoided with basic nav. skills to say the least , look at a chart, or plotter , know where the heck you are, or how about slowing the hell down at night!!. seems like some things will never change.

Would you run through tree lined woods on a dark night if you weren't sure where you were or would you walk slowly and carefully picking your way through ? If your going to argue the speed thing I guess we know your answere.

Don't make any difference how good you know the river, at dark you don't have much of a chance of not doing damage to your boat if you hit something at speed,fly around out there long enough at night and sooner or later you will hit somethig like a dead head log or some floating piece of junk. And I can gaurantee you speed makes all the difference between major and minor damage.

A slow down at sun down isn't needed to be said to thoes with sea-time at night or thoes with just a bit of plain old common sense,be safe out there all especially after dark. Jon
 
Everytime we get fireworks on the river at night I think about going. Then as soon as one of these deals happens, the SO balks and that's the end of that.
 
"What are you implying?"

I was implying that they drove the boat at high speed right up onto the shore, or at least the marshy mud flat. There have been countless pictures on BoaterEd of people doing just that across the country...

I don't have my River charts here at home - I'll take a look when I get to my boat today and see if my opinion changes. We all know that in many parts of the River it goes from 50 feet to 6 inches awfully fast, but that may or may not be true in that spot...

One clue might be the way all that grass was moved about in the vicinity of the boat - was that done by the rescuers or by the boat attempting to turn???

Regarding how the man died - I had heard that there were some sort of fumes that overcame some of the people after the crash. I was trying to figure out what fumes they were, since there wouldn't have been any CO because surely the engine wasn't running upside down. There was probably a lot of gasoline fumes since the vents, carburetors and tank fills likely were leaking, but would those vapors be enough to overcome somebody the same way CO would???
 
Pete, That is what I was thinking.. They were cruisng along, realized they were about to hit land and made an attmpt to abruptly turn the boat causing it to roll into the marsh...
 
A quote in the JNews from a dock owner or something hit the nail on the head, he called what the boaters saw was an "optical illusion". I know I have been by there many many times and I have done a double take because it really IS an optical illusion, it really does look like you can get through on the west sometimes, and the only reason I did not...is because I KNOW you can't. At night, especially with anything less than a full moon, going fast, not familiar with area, not looking for bouys, maybe talking with friends & not being extremely focused on the river because you think it is wide open water, it certainly can & did happen!
 
I used to boat up there when I got my first boat in 1991. There is definitely an optical illusion at that point at night and one night three friends and I on my 32 Carver w/flybridge all saw the same thing until we got right on top of it. We could have all sworn we were in channel and did a collective "whew' when we corrected course. It's a very hazardous spot and my memory tells me it is not marked at all except for the normal mid-river channel markers. Back then I had no money for all the running equipment I really should have had (radar, GPS, Spotlight, etc) as I could barely afford boating back then. Now I have every gadget know to man to hopefully make sure I don't make the same mistake again. Even till this day, I still have my "near" incidents and hopefully each time I learn from my mistakes. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of all involved.
 
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