What were they thinking?

J

jimraab

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13279
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http://tbo.com/south-shore/boat-crashes-into-ruskin-restaurant-20150223/?page=1
 
Seems to me, right off the bat, that they were traveling way too fast. 4 300 hp engines, wow, what a setup.
 
Been to that restaurant several times and boated that entrance. Careful attention to the channel is needed even in clear weather. It is mostly shallow water far from land. The bay runs north and south but the restaurant is on the east side of the bay so he was not paying attention to his depth sounder his compass or his gps. Jut plain stupid to go that fast in fog.

Reports say no alcohol was involved, no brains either.
 
At the same time three cruise ships were standing off Tampa bay waiting for fog to clear
 
Guess nobody on board knew how to use the plotter or radar. Not to mention the speed they had to be traveling in a dense fog. How far from the shore line is that place Bruce?

This is beyond stupid.
 
But they had quad 300's! They were SOOOOOOO cool the laws of physics and practices of safe, prudent navigation didn't apply to them.
 
Moronic idiots.

Keep running hot when in fog. Just as much brains as idiots that scream around at night.
 
Quad 300s are common down here, even 350s

What were they thinking? They were not thinking!!

High speed in dense fog scares me, especially when I m crawling up a channel at 5 kts and see an echo on radar coming the other way at 20...
 
-->> Pascal

I doubt they were only "doing 20"...

I initially thought that maybe they were following a ( poorly planned ) plotter/GPS track. But after a moment of thought, I realized that the problem was that I gave it much more thought than they did.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Radioactive

-->> Pascal
I doubt they were only "doing 20"...

Click to expand...

I do not know the bay subography (not a word -I made it up) there, but there is no way that boat got up on the beach and into the bar at any speed less than 50+. Even if they were trimmed way out...those props would be hitting bottom far before dry sand. Amazing to me that they go so far up into the building.
 
Nah, they could get there at 30 or less I bet. Depends on how far the bar is from the water and the slope of the beach.

But either way, how you could not know you were approaching shore with the kind of nav equipment it appears that boat has is beyond me.

Unless of course none of it was working, nobody had a smart phone and there were no charts and compass on board. And even then they should have just slowly run aground, walked to shore and ordered a drink.
 
Report I heard was that the boat was doing between 40 and 50. Latest report is that the captain is being cited...and rightfully so. He's a charter captain too!!!...You would think he would have used what he didn't.
 
quote:
Originally posted by cmariner32

Report I heard was that the boat was doing between 40 and 50. Latest report is that the captain is being cited...and rightfully so. He's a charter captain too!!!...You would think he would have used what he didn't.

Click to expand...


Just about anyone with a few hundred bucks can buy an OUPV nowadays.
 
Sometimes when you really, really gotta pee, there's no time for fenders, or mooring lines, or. . ..
 
""It's a life lesson. Slow it down, proceed with caution big time. It's a wake-up call for all of us," says Ruskin charter fishing captain Oliver O'Riordan with Fishing Charters Tampa."

If you still needed that kind of lesson, perhaps you have no business out on the water. Especially if you're getting paid to take people out on the water.
 
It is at least 100' from water to the restaurant. The below the water line the bottom drops slowly. The entire area is shallow with a twisting channel such as it is running parallel to the beach to the marins behind the restaurant.. Going fast in that area in clear weather makes no sense doing it in fog is beyond stupid.

While typing this visibility is again dropping in St. Pete, down to 1/2 mi or less, and some guy in a 50' or more yacht is exiting Vinoy basin into the soup.
 
An hour later that yacht has not returned but the fog is down to zero visibility.
 
Problem is that in FL people are not used to fog but if you take it slow, with both radar and GPS it s no big deal. Up north people don't stop boating because of fog. Everytime I ve been to New England I ve had to run in 100' and there plenty of boats out there

Incl some running way too fast!
 
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