Scary
Guru
Several years ago a friend of my purchased a 38' Mediterranean in Long Beach. My friend had been dreaming of owning a 38 Med for several years, found this one for $38,000. The boat was powered with twin 3208 Cats and looked pretty clean. My friend had very little big boat experience but was an avid fisherman who fished often as much 70 miles offshore in a 24' center council outboard, mostly out of Half Moon Bay or Moss landing. He had a lot of time in rough conditions in a small boat. He paid cash and was able to insure the boat without a survey.
His plan was to bring the boat up to the Bay Area over the July weekend. When he told me of his plans I told him that I thought this was unrealistic and he better plan on coming up at 6 knots instead of the 24knts he was counting on. I also told him you can't pound a big boat like you can a light center council deep V.
My friend enlisted two fishing friends none of which had any large boat experience for the delivery.
When I saw my friend the following Monday, I asked him how it went, He said not well, I sunk my boat. I said where , he said in the Harbor in Santa Barbara.
It turns out they had left Santa Barbara at 5am expecting to round Point Conception in light conditions , not long into the trip things were rough enough that my friend and one of the others were too sick to run the boat and the remaining man at the helm had almost no experience in the ocean and no experience running a large boat.
My friend sick, trying to sleep in the salon was woken by his boat landing off a wave large enough to fill the salon with dust from the headliner. He jumps up and looks around he says we were in breaking twelve footers, at that point he says to the others, I don't know about you guy's, but I don't have the male parts for this, were turning around.
Back in the harbor in Santa Barbara he arranges for a professional delivery skipper, rents a car and drives home to the Bay area.
11 o'clock that night he gets a call from the harbormaster telling him he needs to get down to the harbor his boat has sunk.
My friend is crapping his pants as he only has verbal from his insurance and he's not sure he's covered.
The insurance comes through and they salvage the boat and put in on stands for it's first hull inspection since my friend has owned the boat. He didn't think he needed survey, he thought he was sharp enough to see any problems.
Well it turns out that the hull had split along side the keel, about a four foot crack that had been painted over with bottom paint. This boat had been fished hard and maybe someone knowingly hid the damage or misjudged the extent of it. A survey probably would have found the crack.
He was lucky, the insurance made good, and the three of them didn't have to swim. Once around the point the next dry spot is a long way up the coast. They probably would have drowned. No raft, no eprb.
His plan was to bring the boat up to the Bay Area over the July weekend. When he told me of his plans I told him that I thought this was unrealistic and he better plan on coming up at 6 knots instead of the 24knts he was counting on. I also told him you can't pound a big boat like you can a light center council deep V.
My friend enlisted two fishing friends none of which had any large boat experience for the delivery.
When I saw my friend the following Monday, I asked him how it went, He said not well, I sunk my boat. I said where , he said in the Harbor in Santa Barbara.
It turns out they had left Santa Barbara at 5am expecting to round Point Conception in light conditions , not long into the trip things were rough enough that my friend and one of the others were too sick to run the boat and the remaining man at the helm had almost no experience in the ocean and no experience running a large boat.
My friend sick, trying to sleep in the salon was woken by his boat landing off a wave large enough to fill the salon with dust from the headliner. He jumps up and looks around he says we were in breaking twelve footers, at that point he says to the others, I don't know about you guy's, but I don't have the male parts for this, were turning around.
Back in the harbor in Santa Barbara he arranges for a professional delivery skipper, rents a car and drives home to the Bay area.
11 o'clock that night he gets a call from the harbormaster telling him he needs to get down to the harbor his boat has sunk.
My friend is crapping his pants as he only has verbal from his insurance and he's not sure he's covered.
The insurance comes through and they salvage the boat and put in on stands for it's first hull inspection since my friend has owned the boat. He didn't think he needed survey, he thought he was sharp enough to see any problems.
Well it turns out that the hull had split along side the keel, about a four foot crack that had been painted over with bottom paint. This boat had been fished hard and maybe someone knowingly hid the damage or misjudged the extent of it. A survey probably would have found the crack.
He was lucky, the insurance made good, and the three of them didn't have to swim. Once around the point the next dry spot is a long way up the coast. They probably would have drowned. No raft, no eprb.