Boat overturns in Cape Cod Canal

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Chrisjs said:
Yet another example of an inexperienced boater risking other people's lives.


Agree 100%. I do hope the little one makes a full recovery!

Thanks for posting.

Cheers.

H.
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Somebody needs to go to jail for willful reckless endangerment of minors.

Ted
 
Yikes I hate reading about stuff like this. Its amazing just how reckless some people can be on the water. I'm so glad nobody died.
 
We have a little bay beach we go to with the RIB so our dog can swim. As we are sitting there watching the boats go by, it was amazing how the boats with the most people seemed to be the ones the most poorly operated, one boat towing two kids and a boat load of people actually towed the kids through the bridge and for a few minutes I was getting the raft ready just in case as the current had the boat sideways from the current at the bridge.
 
Wifey B: I know we all feel sorry for the parents, but :censored::angry::angry: they caused it to happen. This wasn't some unpreventable accident for their child. This was irresponsible action and reckless disregard for human life, most critically, the life of their child. I know when they read words like this from others it will be painful and hate that they will suffer such pain but we must make the point so others don't do the same.

It is reckless endangerment and nothing in the world that will undue the tragic result of it. I have very mixed feelings on what should be done. Charge them? Send them to jail? They surely have learned a lesson or otherwise aren't teachable, but jail time only takes them away from others who need them. Yet, how else to we impress the point upon others? I think they should be banned from boating. Maybe have to take training, speak to groups. I don't know. I just know that children are such precious gifts and there's a lot more birthing done than there is true parenting. Things like this really :censored: me off. 12 people, 18 foot boat. What possesses someone to do something so stupid? So dangerous? I would think they were trying to give the kids a good time, but one may be dead and eight other children and three adults scarred terribly for life.

Oh, and Massachusetts doesn't even think adults need a boating license or to complete a course. Convinced yet? No, a course doesn't prevent stupidity but maybe five minutes on safe loads or conditions or something might occasionally save a life. Way too many lives lost at a sport we all love. I try to be compassionate but I'm so angry when reading something like this. I don't know the people involved, maybe the nicest people ever, maybe in terrible pain today. However, there's a responsibility that comes with having a child or taking the children of others.

:cry::cry::cry:
 
I think I know how this sort of thing happens. Bubba buys a 16- or 18-foot boat. Invites a relative or friend out for a ride. But a crowd of relatives and friends show up. Bubba can't say "no", and doesn't fully comprehend the risks.

I have some opinions on requiring boater safety education, but this is not the time or place to air them. I'm hoping we can avoid going down that rabbit-hole.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family of the hospitalized toddler. It doesn't sound good, but I'm hoping for the best.
 
Looks like a bowrider. Can't image squeezing 12 people onto a boat this size, even if 9 of them are kids! :banghead:

Guessing that the hospitalize child maybe is a near drowning? Only good thing about this incident is that the hospitalize child was wearing a life jacket. Hope he/she has a speedy recovery.

Fortunately, there were no fatalities.

Jim
 
JLD said:
Looks like a bowrider. Can't image squeezing 12 people onto a boat this size, even if 9 of them are kids! :banghead:

Guessing that the hospitalize child maybe is a near drowning? Only good thing about this incident is that the hospitalize child was wearing a life jacket. Hope he/she has a speedy recovery.

Fortunately, there were no fatalities.

Jim
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The hospitalized child was under the overturned hull and it had at least been long enough for a diver to come, get ready to dive and then dive. The question is did the child have an air pocket or was the child's head in water. The child was unconscious. The odds can't be good on the child but you just hope the child beats the odds in terms of survival and brain damage.
 
Obviously overloaded, inexperienced operator in a very dangerous stretch of water. Over my many years on Cape Cod waterways, I have found that the area where this occurred is hands down the most dangerous I've ever encountered. A combination of the Cape Cod Canal flowing into Buzzards Bay at 6-8 knots against a strong late afternoon SW wind can kick up 6+ feet waves with a very short period between each. Nasty stuff in small vessels. You must time your passing through the SW end of the canal very carefully. And of course never overload your boat.
 
CaptTom said:
I think I know how this sort of thing happens. Bubba buys a 16- or 18-foot boat. Invites a relative or friend out for a ride. But a crowd of relatives and friends show up. Bubba can't say "no", and doesn't fully comprehend the risks. ...
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We invited a friend's cousin and husband for a boat ride. They surprised us with showing up with two additional adults and four children! :facepalm: Fortunately, the boat is big enough with just enough PFDs on hand.
 
My kids get all kinds of embarassed when I insist on talking to their friends parents before they can go out on someone else's boat, but you can't be too careful and there are a lot of people that just don't know what their doing.
 
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Benthic2 said:
My kids get all kinds of embarassed when I insist on talking to their friends parents before they can go out on someone else's boat, but you can't be too careful and there are a lot of people that just don't know what their doing.
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There is nothing in the world worse than losing a child. Parents never recover. Many never can even function normally again. Far better to be cautious than to experience that.

You can't be too careful about knowing who you're entrusting your child to, from day care to other parents to baby sitters. There's enough unavoidable risk, but to expose a child to that which could be avoided is just something I wouldn't want to do. So many of the bad things that happen are because parents were not involved enough.

Mulder always said "Trust No One." Lousy way to live but when it comes to kids, becomes necessary. So many of the tragedies are with people who were trusted.
 
Yet when there is talk about basic minimum training and licensing of boat operators, everyone screams blood murder.
 
"Somebody needs to go to jail for willful reckless endangerment of minors."

What is frightening is not how ignorant some folks are ,,more frightening is they can VOTE!
 
MacDuff said:
Obviously overloaded, inexperienced operator in a very dangerous stretch of water. Over my many years on Cape Cod waterways, I have found that the area where this occurred is hands down the most dangerous I've ever encountered. A combination of the Cape Cod Canal flowing into Buzzards Bay at 6-8 knots against a strong late afternoon SW wind can kick up 6+ feet waves with a very short period between each. Nasty stuff in small vessels. You must time your passing through the SW end of the canal very carefully. And of course never overload your boat.
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Where CCC meets Buzzards Bay is called the "washing machine" for a reason.
 
From the 2017 Four Winns website: Horizon 260, LOA 24' 4", capacity 13 people. MSRP $90,754.
 
I think the fact that he capsized is sufficient proof he was overloaded, regardless of what the capacity plate says.

In the interview with the diver who got the child he said his boat was swamped and he was knee deep in water.

You can blame it on boat design, skipper's skill, overloading....whatever you want, but that skipper should not have been in that place with that boat on that day.
 
I would never put 13 people in that boat. I'm not sure I want 13 people on my boat when under way.
 
Benthic2 said:
I think the fact that he capsized is sufficient proof he was overloaded, regardless of what the capacity plate says.
...but that skipper should not have been in that place with that boat on that day.
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So the capacity plate is wrong? I'm sure the manufacturer would appreciate your calculations.

The owner kept the boat at Stonebridge Marina in Onset. Onset is just off Hog Island Channel. The boat overturned at Stony Point Dike, a long jetty that parallels Hog Island Channel. Therefore the owner was probably familiar with how quickly local conditions can head south.

Sea conditions were 2-4 ft according to USCG. That's the avg. The area is known for steep frequent confusing whitecaps even on calm days. So he could have been hit with a 6-7 footers and swamped if his trim wasn't right. Could have tried to turn and broached. Sport fisherman or tug could have waked him. It is not a huge channel and there is no speed limit. No one knows what happened yet.

The diver, Mike Margulis from Wareham has a 21' Carolina Skiff. Not surprised it swamped. He followed the harbor master to the site. He wasn't just passing through.

Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.
 
If you have ever been through there with wind against tide, it's one of the most hair raising places I've ever been in a boat. A strong ebb coming out of the canal flushes down that channel, and the afternoon wind blasts up from buzzards bay. Short, steep, 6-9 footers are not uncommon right in that area. I went thorough in a 30' boat once and was burying the bow into every oncoming wave. Had it been an open boat, it would have swamped.

The trick, I later learned, is to turn out of the main channel immediately past Mashnee Island and cut over to the other channel to the SE. That gets you out of the heavy current flow.
 
porman said:
From the 2017 Four Winns website: Horizon 260, LOA 24' 4", capacity 13 people. MSRP $90,754.
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The plates on small US boats are calculated based on size and are absolute maximums in perfect conditions and also fail to fully take into consideration design factors such as open bow. I owned a 26' Cobalt bowrider, significantly larger than the boat they were in and it's tag showed 14 people. I never had more than 6 people aboard and on a typical lake Sunday I would never have considered more. The Manufacturer is not recommending that number, doesn't determine the number. The largest number of people the 260 can seat decently is 7 and that's with two in the bow. Now, the place you normally see more packed in is the bow and that leads to events like this. The boat is not designed to safely transport that many people and even further short of the ability in the typical seas where it was. Bowriders come with a risk of swamping in those conditions and the more people in the boat, especially more in the bow, the greater the risk.
 
If you are talking capacity plate, it often discusses persons or weight plus gear and if an outboard, the max weight usually includes it.

The passenger list was 3 adults and 9 children. Anyone know their weights and sizes?

Anyone know what actually swamped/overturned the boat?

Good loading, bad loading? Actual overloading? Poor seamanship? Freak combo of wave and wake?

Boating in tidal areas can be tricky as for short periods of the day, certain areas can be very choppy while for miles around can be beautiful boating.

Anyone look up the actual sea conditions for the area, not just where the incident took place and was reported by the media? Video makes it look a lot less than "bad conditions", but I know there could be a strip of much worse water.

Hope this is all available info to be choosing the jury already.
 
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psneeld said:
If you are talking capacity plate, it often discusses persons or weight plus gear and if an outboard, the max weight usually includes it.

The passenger list was 3 adults and 9 children. Anyone know their weights and sizes?

Anyone know what actually swamped/overturned the boat?

Good loading, bad loading? Actual overloading? Poor seamanship? Freak combo of wave and wake?

Boating in tidal areas can be tricky as for short periods of the day, certain areas can be very choppy while for miles around can be beautiful boating.

Anyone look up the actual sea conditions for the area, not just where the incident took place and was reported by the media? Video makes it look a lot less than "bad conditions", but I know there could be a strip of much worse water.

Hope this is all available info to be choosing the jury already.
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Only thing I know for sure and that's assuming the boat is the 260, is the seating layout and design of the boat and I do know I'd personally never carry 3 adults and 9 children of any size or age on that boat, not even on a lake, much less there. Not criminally convicting anyone here just expressing opinion of that boat's reasonable capacity as opposed to the plate. All the rest is tbd. People can feel free to disagree with my opinion on loading of the boat. If you are going to load 3 adults and 9 children, please tell me where you'll have them sit. All other information is to be determined. Obviously initial information is often incorrect as in this case, the size boat. 18' was certainly much worse than 24'.
 
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