prayers for all involved. A friend of mine use to go out at night a lot with gps. then he put in radar, he was driving in the channel and there was a hugh something that they didn't see by eye but radar. It was a hugh barge being pushed with no lights on the bow put one on top of the deck so heading straight on you can't see it but when passing on the side you could. that radar save him that night they keep it under 25. still to fast for me. also a ex racer had a 40ft skater out coming from woods hole in to buzzards bay to pocassit cape cod I was on a beach at a resort that night and could here him doing 90 to 100 for 5 miles saw his lights but if there were other boats out there thats sick and he was in the channel must of been using his gps to go back to channel front house he owns. this was late at night too.

I m sorry i should have named only you.My mistake!!
Read this post micheal ,oh wait i read nothing about speeds booze, and the skipper consuming alcohol!!!
I stick by my post do you even own a boat. Freaking amazing!!

Sorry to hear this. :(

It sure is "freaking amazing".

In 2006, the USCG reported 710 boating fatalities. 351 of those were related to alcohol. That's almost half. If you think it's OK to down a bunch of booze, and then blast around in your boat, then you need a reality check.

Michael

This thread was not started for you start *****ing about how we can be perfect people.30 yrs of safe boating for me and all boats ran well in the triple digits. The fact is three people lost there lives and you didnt give the familys time to mourn there loses!! You jump on you band wagon about drinking.We dont even now if this was the case.
Start a new thread and you and al gore can fix the world!!
For the record I dont drink and drive my boat.
You still havent answered my question how long and how many boats have you owned?

Good for you. But unfortunately, alcohol consumption is widespread in the boating community and broadly condoned often on this website.

Prayers are nice & wonderful but they're pretty much useless. They don't bring dead people back to life and they're not of much use to badly injured survivors or their family members. Open, honest discussion about these topics on the other hand may prevent someone from drinking or over-indulging and finding themselves in a situation where they'll need prayers.

Well said. Whether alcohol was involved or not, there's plenty to discuss here regarding night time operation. Running on plane never sounds like a good idea...even if you are familiar with an area. Too many bad things can happen.

A sad situation for all involved. :(

I think we're OK. I'm sure they have better things to do right now than read OSO.

Just to let you know, I won't be answering any rude, inappropriate questions like this, and including how much money I make, how big my house is, what my net worth is, etc.

Michael

I agree. Seeing a 120 ft. barge at night would be very difficult if all it had were running lights. Those lights at the far corners would be so far apart, it would be difficult to know what you were looking at. Also if the barge was black it would reflect very little light back from a spotlight.

My dad got sideswiped by barge in S.F. Bay that had no running lights and none visible on the tug pushing it (blocked by the barge). He's lucky to be alive. Fortunately, his boat didn't sink. He was using his spotlight, but since the barge was black, he didn't see it until the last second. He got radar shortly after that.

He narrowly avoided a blowboat that was anchored in the middle of the channel for the night with no lights.

Sometimes even radar isn't good enough. The Earth Race boat with radar hit a small fishing boat at night in South America.

I read about another fatality on OSO, where a small boat hit a tug's tow line that was towing a barge at night.

I was out at night recently, and based on the position and color of two running lights I realized I was suddenly on a head on collision course with another boat that abruptly changed direction. I took evasive action, and later discovered it was a military patrol boat chasing me off from the opening of Port Hueneme, a military facility. They didn't care during the day, but at night I guess they get a little testy.

Bad things can happen at night.

Michael

Bad news. RIP.