Boat Sinks out of Walnut Creek

His boot more than likely split. Seen that a few years back. That guy made it back but was bailing buckets out while running and they had a trailer in the water waiting for him.

I somewhat agree with you about the 14 to 16 foot boats but it didnt seem to matter to a 26 footer!!! There are just some things in life that have an inherent danger in them.My drive up to erie scares the hech any more than my fishing in erie in my 17 footer.In spite of comon sense and all the precautions in the world accident and bad things do happen.I do hope everyone is ok!!!

icenut(Bill)

This also reminds  me that I bought a 900 GPH pump for my boat last year but never installed it.
I need a large through the hull fitting and hose.
My 600 GPH pump works fine but I found a deal on the larger one and want to add it as a second pump.

Bravo Zulu to all who took part in the rescue. Clear information is the most important part. As for why the boat went down, the news article said that he had fiberglass repair done on the boat and the repair failed--badly. It seems that any boat of any size needs a way of keeping the water on the outside.

I believe you on the hour to respond. The news said that the Coast Guard and Lake Shore VFD arrived within ten minutes. Good job, but I don't think that is possible to cover six miles of water in 10 minutes. It's a big lake and anyone who goes out should figure on the possibility of fending for himself for a while.


http://www.wicu12.com/news/index.vnss?newsid=9863&type=News

Apparently its not safe for 26' boats either....

100,000$ boat, fiberglass repair, ...something wrong here.
When your boot goes , its an onwash of water.
He must of had a heck of a hole to sink that fast.

It is clearly obvious that, OVERALL, a large more stable boat is safer on big water like this anyway

Yep
Probably leaves more debris in the water to cling on to

true dat. back in the day there was a boat company(ranger maybe) that cut a boat in half and it was still floating, for as long as the commercial anyway on dead calm water if i remember right. if there was an unsinkable boat, it would be a magical boat and the company would spend a whole lot of advertising $$$ marketing it. just sayin'

FLOTATION
BASIC FLOTATION. Builders of inboards and inboard-outdrives are required to
comply with the Basic Flotation portion of the Coast Guard Flotation Standard. Basic
Flotation requires a fully loaded boat to float with some portion of the boat above the
surface of the water when it is swamped. This means that the boat must contain
sufficient flotation to support two-fifteenths (2/15) of the persons capacity and 25
percent of the dead weight. Basic Flotation is designed to give the survivors of a
boating accident in which the boat has swamped something on the hull to hang onto.
The advantages of Level Flotation versus Basic Flotation are obvious (see introductory
paragraphs to Level Flotation section).
Builders of boats that are subject to the Basic Flotation requirements should perform
Steps I and II in the “Calculations section on the following pages and substitute 25
percent of their boats’ rated maximum weight capacity for Step III in the appropriate
example. Also, since Basic Flotation requires only that some portion of the boat
remain above the surface of the water, the location for the required amount of flotation
material is unimportant.
NOTE:
BECAUSE OF THE INHERENT ADVANTAGES OFLEVEL FLOTATION, ALL
BULDERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO BUILD THEIR BOATS IN COMPLIANCE
WITH THE LEVEL FLOTATION STANDARD DESCRIBED ON THE
FOLLOWING PAGES. BUILDERS WHO CHOOSE BASIC FLOTATION IN
LIEU OF THE ADDED SAFETY FEATURE PROVIDED BY LEVEL
FLOTATION ARE URGED TO CONSIDER INSTALLING THE SURVIVAL
HANDLES DESCRIBED IN APPENDIX D.
LEVEL FLOTATION. Level Flotation will increase both your ability to survive and the
ability of rescue groups to locate you after and accident has occurred. Level Flotation
does just what its name sounds like. If a boat fills with water, Level Flotation will make
the boat float level. You and your passengers will actually be able to remain inside theboat even though it is full of water. There you will be warmer, feel safer, be less in
danger of drowning and will provide a larger target for rescue groups to locate. If the
seas are calm, you might be able to bail the water out of your boat and if the
powerhead of your motor wasn’t damaged by immersion in the water, you might be
able to return to shore under your own power.
The Level Flotation Standard applies to monohull outboard powered boats less than
20 feet in length except sailboats, canoes, kayaks, inflatables, submersibles, race
boats, surface effect vessels and amphibious vehicles. The principles of Level
Flotation, however, may be applied to many of these excepted boats at your option.
Level Flotation will not make your boat right itself if it overturns, but it reduces the
probability that your boat will capsize. If it does capsize, one or two people should be
able to right it. If you are unable to right the boat, you and your passengers can still
get out of the water and sit on the bottom of the overturned boat.
In order to make your boat float level when full of water, enough flotation material must
be installed in specific areas to:
1. Support the weight of your boat;
2. Support your weight and the weight of your passengers (your boat’s maximum
persons capacity); and
3. Support the weight of the motor and related equipment (if your boat is powered).
Each of these three quantities of flotation must be installed “symmetrically” and as
close to the gunwales as possible. We’ll tell you more about what we mean about
symmetrically later, but first let’s figure out how much flotation you’ll need, then we’ll
show you how and where to install it.
CALCULATIONS
On the following pages are four examples of how to calculate how much flotation
material is required in four different boats. Choose the example which most closely
resembles your boat and substitute your own figures for boat weight, deck weight,
maximum persons capacity, maximum weight capacity and maximum horsepower.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zD5wWMvwDAgJ:newboatbuilders.com/docs/flotation_2.ppt+USCG+required+flotation+boat+building&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a


 
 
 
 
FLOTATION 
 
 
 
 
FLOTATION 
Applies To: MONOHULL RECREATIONAL BOATS UNDER 20 FEET DOES NOT INCLUDE 
 CANOES   KAYAKS 
 INFLATABLES  MULTIHULLS 
 SUBMERSIBLES RACEBOATS 
 SURFACE EFFECT AMPHIBIOUS            VEHICLES VEHICLES 
 SAILBOATS

would be absolutely horrible. hopefully he had insurance and can replace what can be replaced.

hopefully he had insurance and can replace what can be replaced.

Hopefully the guy that fixed the fiberglass has insurance

So everybody knows....We saw same GIANT logs floatin around in 60 fow around walnut yeasterday. Easily big enuff to poke a hole in the biggest of boats.

ya gota be careful on how you post things around here- cause with a comment like that your bound to put someones panties in bunch....

ORIGINAL: 16506fish

ya gota be careful on how you post things around here- cause with a comment like that your bound to put someones panties in bunch....

 
Only way my panties would be in a bunch would be if I were on that 14'-16' boat in 4 to 5 foot rollers.  Yeah, it would be fine as long as they stayed rollers but if the wind picked up to anything over 15 or 20 mph or so, those rollers would turn to white caps and you would be in for one white knuckled ride. 
 
Nearshore within a mile or two (not much different than being on Pymy), I would have no problem being out on Erie in a 14-16' deep V.
 
Even if it wasn't a hull failure that brought down that boat, something as simple as a thru hull fitting failing could let an on rush of water in and if you can't get to the hole due to access issues, you are going down if you are far enough out in the lake.  Look at your boats and most of the thru hulls on mid to lower grade boats are plastic and not brass.  Especially in an older boat, UV deterioates them and they get brittle.  Some guys go around during spring tune ups of their boats and tighten everything down.  All it takes is a little over tightening on one of those brittle thru hulls to start a small crack that could lead to failure.  Lots of guys in the salt water replace factory plastic thru hulls with solid brass ones to take this out of the equation. 
 
Good idea to have a wooden peg set with you to temporarily fix a small to med. hole in the hull in case it ever happens or if you hit something.
 
Also, redundant 2000 gph bilge pumps with float switches and manual override switches, one in the bow and one in the stern, should be in your boat with a high water alarm with light and buzzer wired to your dash.  It may not save the boat if things get really bad but it may just give you enough time to make the may day call, give your position and possibly have another vessel get to you in time to get off the sinking vessel. 
 
Another good thing is to get your batteries as high as possible in your boat without being too much in the way.  Doesn't take too much water to short them out if they are laying in the bilge and then you are truly dead in the water. 
 
Glad to hear everyone got out of this one ok and doesn't sound like it is weather related.  Wouldn't want to be that fiberglass repair shop right now if that is truly what happened.