What's the story with this!?
10-13-2008, 02:30 PM
#22
Registered
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 126
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
10-13-2008, 02:37 PM
#23
Registered
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Utah
Posts: 298
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Another thing to mention about Powell is since it was once only a river trees will sometimes uproot and just float around.
There are a couple spots that are fairly narrow, 100 ft, with walls going straight up on both sides. It just happens to be where tour boats and house boats go through, man it gets ROUGH in there.
10-13-2008, 02:42 PM
#24
Registered
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 126
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Oh, I hear you on how rough places like that can get since there is no shoreline to absorb the waves at all....but again, 50-55 and the boat goes to shreads? The story doesn't add up, or Baja's are built more poorly then I thought.
10-13-2008, 03:11 PM
#25
Charter Member #34
Charter Member
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Beautiful North Carolina
Posts: 7,151
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
This happened last year at the Marine Max employee party.
The girl / salesperson driving was killed and there was a passenger that I cannot remember if they lived or died.
It was on a lake out west with a very narrow channel in extremely deep water with heavy ferry traffic. I hear the wakes off of the ferry boats are huge.
They stuffed the boat real bad, it broke up and sank like a rock. There are many wittnesses on the ferry that saw if all happen.
I think the boat set at the bottom about a week and when they almost got it to the surface there was an equipment problem and the boat when back down a second time.
I'll try and find the link to the post here on OSO back when this happened but it was over a year ago now.
The girl / salesperson driving was killed and there was a passenger that I cannot remember if they lived or died.
It was on a lake out west with a very narrow channel in extremely deep water with heavy ferry traffic. I hear the wakes off of the ferry boats are huge.
They stuffed the boat real bad, it broke up and sank like a rock. There are many wittnesses on the ferry that saw if all happen.
I think the boat set at the bottom about a week and when they almost got it to the surface there was an equipment problem and the boat when back down a second time.
I'll try and find the link to the post here on OSO back when this happened but it was over a year ago now.
10-13-2008, 03:50 PM
#26
Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: West edge of the Pacific
Posts: 610
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
When go fast boats go down hard the weight is in the stern and a little air gets trapped in the bow. So they go down stern first when they hit bottom and especially if it's a rocky bottom the drives get tore up bad.
Platinum Member
10-14-2008, 04:07 AM
#30
Registered
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Paducah
Posts: 1,780
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Eventually, Butler and his crew got the boat lifted about 100 to 150 feet off the bottom before the D ring pulled out of the Baja's transom. Butler believes the force of water pushing on the flat transom as the boat was being lifted upward was simply too much for the fitting to bear.
"We sent the ROV back down, and located the boat again," Butler said. The boat had settled stern-first, giving the ROV ample access to the bow eye again. "This time, we zip-tied two carabiners together to double the strength and figured out the angle and the best way to attach them," Butler said. "We got the boat all the way to the surface and attached our flotation bags to the swim step, which was through-bolted to the transom with backing plates."
With success nearly at hand, the stricken vessel's swim step suddenly tore away from the transom. The boat plummeted 400 ft. to the bottom again, nearly taking the rescue vessel with it. "The line I was using was one-half-inch diameter Spectra braided line, which has 32,000 pounds of breaking strength," Butler said. "As the boat was going down, one of the loops on the Spectra caught on a cleat on my boat. The added weight was enough to throw everything - all of our gear and all of our weight - to one side of the boat."
One of the three men on board the rescue boat fell overboard, and the entire port side dipped beneath the water briefly before the hoist line loop slipped off of the cleat. "We had a couple hairy seconds where my boat started taking on water," Butler said. "All three of us on board at the time thought 'Uh, oh, we're going to have two salvages here.'"
The following day, they relocated the wreck, recovered their still-attached hoist line and brought the 30-foot Baja to the surface.
"We sent the ROV back down, and located the boat again," Butler said. The boat had settled stern-first, giving the ROV ample access to the bow eye again. "This time, we zip-tied two carabiners together to double the strength and figured out the angle and the best way to attach them," Butler said. "We got the boat all the way to the surface and attached our flotation bags to the swim step, which was through-bolted to the transom with backing plates."
With success nearly at hand, the stricken vessel's swim step suddenly tore away from the transom. The boat plummeted 400 ft. to the bottom again, nearly taking the rescue vessel with it. "The line I was using was one-half-inch diameter Spectra braided line, which has 32,000 pounds of breaking strength," Butler said. "As the boat was going down, one of the loops on the Spectra caught on a cleat on my boat. The added weight was enough to throw everything - all of our gear and all of our weight - to one side of the boat."
One of the three men on board the rescue boat fell overboard, and the entire port side dipped beneath the water briefly before the hoist line loop slipped off of the cleat. "We had a couple hairy seconds where my boat started taking on water," Butler said. "All three of us on board at the time thought 'Uh, oh, we're going to have two salvages here.'"
The following day, they relocated the wreck, recovered their still-attached hoist line and brought the 30-foot Baja to the surface.
