When to slow or keep going?

Warren----that is a terrible story I had not heard before! I believe very few boaters who cause damage from their wakes ever go caught and are held to pay the price. Too bad someone with a nearby boat didn't make chase after the errant boat. But no one knew the outcome at that moment. I'm sure in hindsight several wished they had a video camera or had chased after the jerk.

upper----the guy was a brand new boater and was stupid. I'm sure he figured since he didn't hit any boats, he did nothing wrong!

Bruce----well said!
 
Another "killing" -- Warren///
Fisherman dies after boat capsizes in Delta
By Niesha Lofing - Bee Staff Writer
Published 6:44 am PDT Monday, July 30, 2007
Print | E-Mail | | Digg it | del.icio.us
A Sacramento man died after his boat capsized in the Sacramento River near Hood Franklin Road on Sunday.
Gerald Babcock, 62, was fishing with his son when a larger boat cruised by and swamped the smaller boat.
The cause of Babcock's death is unknown. An autopsy is expected to be performed today, said Sacramento County Deputy Coroner Kim Gillis.
Gillis said coroners are unsure whether the boat accident caused Babcock's death.
 
quote:
Originally posted by xyzabc

Another "killing" -- Warren///
Fisherman dies after boat capsizes in Delta
By Niesha Lofing - Bee Staff Writer
Published 6:44 am PDT Monday, July 30, 2007
Print | E-Mail | | Digg it | del.icio.us
A Sacramento man died after his boat capsized in the Sacramento River near Hood Franklin Road on Sunday.
Gerald Babcock, 62, was fishing with his son when a larger boat cruised by and swamped the smaller boat.
The cause of Babcock's death is unknown. An autopsy is expected to be performed today, said Sacramento County Deputy Coroner Kim Gillis.
Gillis said coroners are unsure whether the boat accident caused Babcock's death.

Click to expand...

That's just awful. I guess there is a chance Babcock may have suffered a heart attack. I don't know if charges will get filed on the skipper of the larger boat, but the Babcock family may have good cause for a civil suit.
 
These are newspaper articles and stories to many of us, but my next door neighbor drowned back in Oklahoma and I watched his widow and kids struggle to make it. I was only about 6 years old, but you don't have to be an adult to understand misery.

Or to put it another way, I will try to paraphrase this...In AA, there is a saying something like, If you are bothering to ask as to whether you are drinking too much, then you are. If we have to ask ourselves whether or not to slow down, we should.

That said, the deepwater channel does not have a speed limit and I am not sure even it is "high speed". I called the CG about this subject last year. The Deep Water Channel is open and if someone is fishing on the side, they may get to see a Russian Ship up close and personal. If I am running down the center of it, I don't slow down if a boat is tied
up next to shore. I may move over to get further from them, but I don't usually slow down. And I feel reasonably sure the larger vessels don't either.
 
I've been on the San Joaquin shipping channel on some very calm days. The water can be like glass, looking for all the world like no one had traveled it for hours (and probably didn't). A wake will travel a long, long way on days like this and I can see the wake from my little 26 footer travel out from the middle of the channel all the way to the bank. It won't have much of a punch when it hits the levee, though.

Most of the time, there is enough wave action on the channel that sizable wakes dissipate and vanish quickly, never getting that far past the channel markers.

The big tankers and container ships I encounter on the channel produce little to no wake. I'll sometimes get some minor wakes off of the barge rigs. The wakes from these vessels are nothing compared to the wakes I've bounced over from large cruisers and ballasted wake board boats in the sloughs.
 
Watch out for those tug/barge rigs. They push a lot of water! I've seen the water go out from a beach a good 30 ft. Then it comes back in 50 ft! Swamped the whole area. Not a high wake, just a lot of water being moved.
 
Be very careful and don't tie your stern to a pier or other fixed object in the deep water channel.

The CG listed several deaths in the Gulf of Mexico because the boats were stern tied and the
wake from a large ship swamped them.

I also agree with another premise...our Tolly throws a huge wake at 5 knots. The ONLY way I
can eliminate all wake is to take the transmissions out of gear. I idle at about 650 rpm and that is 5-6 knots.
 
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