Howdy everybody! I found this video on youtube, if you get caught in a similar situation, what would you do to get out of the trouble?
https://youtu.be/Ej8byDHhbSs
https://youtu.be/Ej8byDHhbSs
What did he do wrong?
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eyschulman
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Agree but if I found myself in that place I would have not gone bow straight into waves maybe 45 degrees and a little faster. If that was not working there appears to be enough wave interval to spin boat around and get out off there with enough speed to ride the back of a wave. What you don't want in a little open boat like that is a wave to mount your stern which was the final death blow to this boat.
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kev_rm
Senior Member
boat was listing too after engine stopped... I think the answer to the OP question is "Operated his boat in the surf zone".
psneeld
Guru
Not a great scenario to be in to begin with.
I would say he spent too long in the danger zone, but not being able to see just how wide it was...tough to really say.
Going through surf without a surf capable boat is possible, but all too often, that is what happens.
I would say he spent too long in the danger zone, but not being able to see just how wide it was...tough to really say.
Going through surf without a surf capable boat is possible, but all too often, that is what happens.
MurrayM
Guru
He left the outboard partially raised after getting off the beach, so when he gunned it to speed out of the danger zone between breakers it just forced the stern down. Good lesson in the importance of sticking to basics in hairy situations.
First, just making the attempt was a mistake. Second, failure to realize he was over his head and find a way to bail, to take a different direction or reverse course. Can't know the options without the whole picture. Third, I can see the engine tilt as part of an issue, but speed it also an issue. He was going to slow and totally relinquishing control to the waves, riding them slowly and all the way to the top and back to the bottom. So he made a mistake attempting it and he lacked the skill and experience to pull it off once in the situation.
MurrayM
Guru
We have done quite a bit of surf landings and exiting through surf while sea kayaking exposed sections on BC's coast. It's not a mistake to try it if you know what to do. Lots of beaches in Oregon have powerboats exiting and landing through surf all the time.
cardude01
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But he's screwing up the lineup for the surfers. Bad enough surfers have to jack with SUP people out there-- now we have to contend with an actual boat out there with a spinning prop.
psneeld
Guru
He may have had the outboard raised because of the shallow water when the waves went by...breaking on an offshore bar.
If it was that shallow, I might have kept it raised it also.
Gunning it will force the transom down a tad.....but compared to the surf...and possibly bottoming out...it would be nothing I would worry about.
Gunning it once in the wave shot him up to the point of falling stern first and drowning the engine....too much power versus the slight angle of trim.
Plus the trim keeps the bow up a tad higher to get through the waves versus punching through all of them.
If it was that shallow, I might have kept it raised it also.
Gunning it will force the transom down a tad.....but compared to the surf...and possibly bottoming out...it would be nothing I would worry about.
Gunning it once in the wave shot him up to the point of falling stern first and drowning the engine....too much power versus the slight angle of trim.
Plus the trim keeps the bow up a tad higher to get through the waves versus punching through all of them.
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Hard to see how much power he has, but if that is a significant amount of hp, the trim angle is critical to getting the boat speed up. Clearly, he didn't have enough boat speed, due to his trim angle driving the stern down into the white water, slowing his forward progress and leading to swamping the boat.
BruceK
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Our lifesavers/lifeguards patrol and perform rescues on surf beaches using inflatables with outboards all the time, inevitably in poor conditions, and seem to make it work. Buoyancy probably helps a lot.
Smart move to swim away from the thing before it got dumped on top of him.
Smart move to swim away from the thing before it got dumped on top of him.
psneeld
Guru
He wasn't trying to get on plane so again I disagree trim in this situation had any real effect. I still don't think the trim was all that much, just enough to keep the bow up out of the smaller waves.
On the wave that did him in, he shouldn't have used so much power to pop him that high out of the wave...letting more break on the fore deck might have been enough to do the trick.
I had to punch through breaking inlets quite often when running an assistance towboat and knowing when to take the hit versus power through was a thin line..
BUT.....there is a lot I don't know for sure about this mishap, so all in all..... all I am doing is guessing with an experienced eye.
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psneeld
Guru
And I didn't see one breaker past the first one or two and way smaller than the first video.
Without knowing how many lines of breakers,nowhere the biggest were, what the bottom contour was like...it is all a guess to the best tactic.
Without knowing how many lines of breakers,nowhere the biggest were, what the bottom contour was like...it is all a guess to the best tactic.
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Seems to me, as others have said, bad time to go out into breaking waves anyway, from a beach situation. But having decided to go, his basic mistake was not trimming the motor leg down as soon as possible and just powering out as soon as possible. He should have/could have, got away with it if he knew the proper actions to take and not take.
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I think the incorrect trim of the motor is everything about why this was a disaster. I'm positive from the wave size that right from when we see him in the video he had adequate depth to get that motor down, the danger of the prop gouging a bit of very soft sand, (at that depth), being way less than the adverse effect of the up-tilted trim, (which I suspect he just forgot to lower, he was concentrating so much on the waves), ), that prevented him from powering up properly and getting the hell out of there...once he took a s**tload of water over the depressed stern, resulting from downwards thrust and going too slow over the waves, he was doomed.
MurrayM
Guru
Speed isn't the only factor...here's how we did it (sometimes in bigger waves) in our kayaks.
Hairiest one of all was doing a seal launch (sliding down a steep gravel beach) into the high point of dumping surf before it receded, then paddling as fast as possible to beat the next dumping wave. Seat soiling stuff...
Hairiest one of all was doing a seal launch (sliding down a steep gravel beach) into the high point of dumping surf before it receded, then paddling as fast as possible to beat the next dumping wave. Seat soiling stuff...
Andy G
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He almost ran over that surfer! [emoji35][/QUOTE]
Agreed, I think he may have had a reception committee waiting on shore to have a quiet little discussion. I doubt whether he would have received much sympathy.
