re: have any of you ever sunk a boat? if so, how?

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OntarioTiger

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sinking out by the rigs sucks. years ago me and a buddy were in an older (wooden frame) 20' mako out at tiger shoals. an unexpected wave pulled the bow of the boat under a horizontal member of the rig. when the wave passed the front several feet of the bow suffered "catastrophic hull failure". we tried to get on step quickly to get the damaged portion out of the water but only made it about 50 yds before nosing down. this was in the days before cell phones. swam to the rig, climbed up, flagged down a chopper that flew us back to shore.

growing up we had a camp on the red river. In the winter when the water is high, there is heavy barge traffic. My dad tied up the boat with no slack in the rope and a barge swamped it one night. We get up the next morning to go hunting and the only thing still floating was the gas tank. We were able to pull it on land and bail the water out by hand. Surprisingly the motor started right up.

Yes, young and stupid...

In college, had a buddy who's family had a camp on Chef Island, we hunted Big and little Cedar bayous off Lake Pontchartrain.. We had a small run through the lake till we got to the cuts. I'm in a 14x48 flat with a 20 merc on the back with the 2 biggest guys in our group.. Lake was a little choppy, but not bad, came around the side the island, chop got worse... started taking on water, with no bilge pump... The little free board there was had just gotten smaller, then the boat went down... Thankfully when we started taking on water, we got closer to the island and sank the boat in about two feet of water...

I am amazed boat insurance is as affordable as it is.

So not a boat but almost sunk a honda foreman… way back in the day before I lived in LA I was working for a W&F in ONT and in the winter one of my jobs was to interview ice fishermen so I had a four wheeler and a snowmobile and off I would go to talk fishermen (think MRFSS but with data that was accurate and used correctly). One Jan day after a winter thaw I was on a lake w/ 16” of ice – lots u can drive a car on it. I am zipping around on the ice, its bare ice no snow slick as owl sh** from the thaw/ I saw some fishermen a few miles away so off I go .. im in my early 20s had 2 speeds on 4 wheeler stop and wide open… so I am zipping along 40 +mph and a hundered yds alhead I see water w/ no ice ice under it….. – pressure crack opened up the ice. Soooo no studs on the tires, ice is slick I cant stop …. Opening is 60’ wide maybe I can make it … Well I almost did made it 12’ from other side of ice, I was standing on seat of 4 wheeler throttle wide open when I jumped for it ..didnt quite make it arms caught on edge of ice, I had a floater suit on so went in up to neck it was a little chilly … 4 wheeler drifted to same side of ice I was on, floating upside down. Adrenalin kicked in I flipped it out of the water onto the ice, it started and ran – kinda sorta and I putted back to the lab I worked out of …. I jumped in shower for an hour to warm up, hung up gear to dry, put 4 wheeler in garage to dry out and went out the next day …. I was by myself and looking back it was scary as hell there is no way we send field staff out by themselves now

So not a boat but almost sunk a honda foreman… way back in the day before I lived in LA I was working for a W&F in ONT and in the winter one of my jobs was to interview ice fishermen so I had a four wheeler and a snowmobile and off I would go to talk fishermen (think MRFSS but with data that was accurate and used correctly). One Jan day after a winter thaw I was on a lake w/ 16” of ice – lots u can drive a car on it. I am zipping around on the ice, its bare ice no snow slick as owl sh** from the thaw/ I saw some fishermen a few miles away so off I go .. im in my early 20s had 2 speeds on 4 wheeler stop and wide open… so I am zipping along 40 +mph and a hundered yds alhead I see water w/ no ice ice under it….. – pressure crack opened up the ice. Soooo no studs on the tires, ice is slick I cant stop …. Opening is 60’ wide maybe I can make it … Well I almost did made it 12’ from other side of ice, I was standing on seat of 4 wheeler throttle wide open when I jumped for it ..didnt quite make it arms caught on edge of ice, I had a floater suit on so went in up to neck it was a little chilly … 4 wheeler drifted to same side of ice I was on, floating upside down. Adrenalin kicked in I flipped it out of the water onto the ice, it started and ran – kinda sorta and I putted back to the lab I worked out of …. I jumped in shower for an hour to warm up, hung up gear to dry, put 4 wheeler in garage to dry out and went out the next day …. I was by myself and looking back it was scary as hell there is no way we send field staff out by themselves now

Ok I found some time so I will write a few:

This one scared me a lot but it happened to my father and is why I do not fish alone. He went out of Venice in the one off mold of a 17 ft whaler - read no positive floatations here . He was setting up the anchor at some rigs on the west side of the river and left the boat in gear. The prop caught the anchor, boat swung around and stern into the waves. It was a low cut stern and the waves immediately came over the side and the boat flipped. He had enough time to grab a life jacket before it flipped. He sat on the boat for a few hrs until the 2 workers from the compressor rig for the field had lunch and decided to go check out if they could see the empire bridge from the top of the platform. They saw him, called crew boat, he got picked up and had a hot meal on the platform. Coast guard came a few hrs later to pick him up.

He came home in a jump suit with his clothes, a life jacket, binoculars with a floating strap and ironically a small dry bag that was empty. He put his wallet and keys in the dry bag but did not close it. The bag floated up empty but if he had sealed it he at least could have driven home.

Here's another:

I have done a lot of sailing and have only been truly scared a few times.

Once I'm in the Atlantic racing on an island in my one person boat. There's a good 25 knots of wind with gusts into the 30's coming out of the bay where the marina is to the North. There's 4-5 ft waves coming at me from there. There are also 25 ft rollers coming from the SW which is Antarctica. These waves are so big in the trough you can only see the wave and sky.

So we finish racing for the day and I'm headed in - long 8 hrs of racing so I'm tired. I am almost in and I just catch a bad wind driven wave and it swamps my boat. No big deal I'll just pump it out and be on my way.

Wrong - I was heading in and am now really close to shore - right in front of the GIANT breakwater of concrete blocks. I suddenly realize I am like a few minutes and like 10 more waves from death with the 25 ft rollers pushing me towards the rocks.

Suddenly this safety boat shows up with a bunch of drunk spaniards on it - no hablo ingles. They want to tow me into the harbor but the waves are still pushing both if us now into the rocks. They suddenly realize it too and start listening to me and drag my boat downwind and away from the rocks.

I finally pump it out, they take off, and I sail back in arriving at the dock like 3 hrs after the race finished.

My friends looked at me like where have you been? To be honest I was pretty freaked out by the whole ordeal.

Another -

Was teaching sailing on a flying scot to a bunch of kids. I see a summer pop up storm brewing on shore a good ways inland and decide I should head in.

I am like 100 yds from the entrance of the harbor when the temp drops 20 degrees and the wind just starts picking up. I yell at the kids to get down and sit right, dropped all the sails on the boat, and threw out the anchor.

When that first gust hit it knocked the boat over with just a bare mast. When it popped up halfway, I grabbed the kids and yelled to force them to sit on the seats in the stinging rain. We only filled the boat up with like a foot of water and someone came out and towed us in.

I was lucky since the boat was upright. A few other guys got caught with the sails up and turtles the boats. Most of them lost the entire mast in the mud, totally sank the boat, etc.

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There's 4-5 ft waves coming at me from there. There are also 25 ft rollers coming from the SW which is Antarctica.

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Holy shite you willingly sail in conditions like this?