Yacht Crashes, Hit Rocks - Coyote Point

Great job by the Coast Guard and other rescue personnel. A real tragedy was avoided.
 
why would it be a commercial v.? 26 isn't that much on a 50 footer.
 
They are in "good" company. Long ago, when I docked at C Point, Japan Air dumped a DC-8 just short of the runway at SFO. The plane set in the mud just north of the marina.
 
quote:
Originally posted by UpperDecker

What were they doing driving around at 4:00AM?

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I didn't know we had curfews with our boats!

Maybe he ran aground before high tide of 2AM and waited for the high water to try to float off. By 4AM they could have abandoned that effort and called for help.
 
Pascal,
26 people may not be much on a sunny and warm day when they can spread out on the cockpit and on the bow. At 2:00 at night on a night with temperature in the mid 30s I can see everyone piled up in the salon. I was recently on a Navigator 48 with about 16 people and we could hardly move. It would be interesting to know if the driver was on the bridge or inside.
 
depends on the boat i guess. we've had over 30 guests on our boat, while a few do indeed hang around at the bow, there is plenty of room in the saloon, on the aft deck (well protected by side curtains and wing doors) and on the flybridge which woudl be plenty warm with an enclosure.

and yes, we've returned home late into the night sometimes...

but i dont' see how they can have run the boat on the rocks! rocks dont' grow out of nowhere!
 
Looks to me like an autopilot problem, GPS hooked to the autopilot, picked the wrong waypoint, nobody watching the store. Dumb, but if you don't have charts, get them and use them, otherwise you are next.
 
I usually try to stay under 25 people on my boat. I figure a dozen on the fly bridge and a dozen down below is about it for everyone to have a comfortable seat. With a full enclosure it is plenty warm on the flybridge even this time of year. I only have PDF's on board for 30, plus a half dozen childrens vests so that defines the upper limit.

Given the time of year I would guess it was a Christmas party of some sort, maybe dinner somewhere on the Bay and they were returning home. So the 2:00am time isn't that surprising. We will often go to Jack London Square for dinner and then return back to SF, it is a great trip as you get a nice cruise in daylight on the way there and a great view of the City lights on the way home. My friends generally all have baby sitters to get back to so we are usually back by aroung 10:00. I really don't like staying out any later as even though I don't drink on these trips others do and by 2:00am someone would be likely to over indulge. In any event I hate to see any type of accident and glad everyone is OK. You really need to pay attention to where you are in that part of the Bay.

It was very sad looking at the picture of the vessel nearly high and dry. I tried to look up what kind of boat it was from the name but it either must not be documented or they had the name wrong in the article.

Kris
 
quote:
Originally posted by PascalG

but i dont' see how they can have run the boat on the rocks! rocks dont' grow out of nowhere!
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In SF Bay and Delta they do! Actually they are put there as riffraff to protect shoreline and/or define a channel with lots of skinny water nearby. It is possible that this jetty may have normally been underwater. If the skipper wasn't paying attention to charts, he may not have known it was there. This kind of accident isn't that uncommon, especially in the delta where we have over a thousand miles of levees as well as some wing dams.......
 
are you saying that jetties are built and not marked and not charted?

i doubt it...

as to levees and wing damns, arent' they charted?
 
Our jetty rocks are above water on most days. The only time they are underwater is an extremely high tide, like just before a hurricane.
But the inside has lighted day markers and the end of the jetties have big lights.
None of our levees outside of shipping lanes are marked. But they are so big, you have to be blind to run into them.
However, we have had some oilfield workboats and a few ships run aground on the outside of the levees, on the beach.
They seem to have went on the wrong side of the red lights occaisionally.
 
Charted, yes. Marked? Some are and some aren't. Few are lighted unless the channel takes commercial vessels. Coyote Point only has recreational vessel traffic. Most "channels" in that area are actually creeks which will frequently shoal unless protected by jetties such as in the picture.
 
looking at the chart, Coyote Point is pretty straightforward... 8 to 10 ft deep till the channel entrance which is marked and straightforward. Where the heck could they have hit anything?
 
That part of the Bay has an average depth of around 3 feet. Most of the channels are marked but at night you would definitely want to be paying attention to your charts. Nothing should be a surprise in that part of the Bay given the overall depth.

Kris
 
Even if the jetty was not marked, they should have been able to pick it up on radar. Radar is a great thing to use in conjunction with the charts. Especially at night. Yet many people for whatever reason do not use it. My guess is that the skipper wasn't either.
 
"The 52-foot "Giant Feet" sank after hitting a jetty near Coyote Point."

How do you "sink" when you're sitting on top of a rockpile?
 
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