Island Packet SP Cruiser ditched at sea

This is not a new video, but I find it interesting since this is the same basic boat I have, but mine is the trawler version without the sail rig.

The captain claimed the engine quit when the boat heeled 50 degrees, and they could not get it restarted.
I'm wondering if this situation could have been avoided with a better fuel system setup. These boats do NOT come from the factory with dual Racor type filters that can be changed quickly without killing the engine. I suspect the one Racor got stopped up due to the wave action and killed the engine, but that's just speculation.

My other question is why didn't they raise a bit of sail to reduce roll and get pointed into the waves, or possibly throw out a sea anchor and attempt to change the filter and restart. Or maybe just heave to and wait it out?

Also, the captain says at about the 14 minute point that he tried to launch the dingy but couldn't. Why would you want to be in the dingy in that weather-- or were they just trying to get it ready in case the boat sank maybe?

I am not an experienced bluewater guy, and maybe it was just too rough, but the boat in the Coast Guard video doesn't seem to be listing, sinking, etc.

What, if anything, did the captain do wrong on this trip? Weather forecast seems a little suspect in my opinion, but again I really don't know all the facts. I am not criticizing these guys, but just trying to figure out how to never get caught in this situation on my boat.

Another video, mobile friendly, but not as much info.

I'm baffled. That boat should have been able to sail through that weather without too much problem with a reefed mainsail. It appears a sail was never raised during the entire trip.

I can understand getting air in the fuel system when heeling hard, but with some planning one can keep fuel levels up on the leeward tank to minimize the risk of this.

Good the keep the coast guard informed of the situation, but IMO he called a Mayday way too early. Especially when alternative propulsion is available.

That's why I wanted some experienced blue water sailers to chime in. I was thinking what you were AusCan about them ditching too early, and the more I have read on other sailing sites that seems to be the consensus.

More questions:

The fuel tank was only 1/2 full, so maybe that's why it sucked air. Why only 1/2 full already?

The biggest question sailors from that area of NC asked is WHY try to go around that cape when a bad storm is in the area? They said the ICW route was actually 70 miles shorter.

The captain did say at one point the boat heeled completely over and his 300 LB body fell on the pilothouse windows, but they never did leak. So that's some good news about my windows I guess.

I watched the whole video. There are lots of questions that need to be answered here. Based on what I can see in the video the only conclusion that I can draw is that these guys are total clowns. I know that the Hatteras area can have sudden unpredicted weather but these idiots left Norfolk just a little while before this weather hit them. Then they are getting a little uncomfortable and turn around to enter Ocracoke Inlet when they are experiencing 12 ft ground swells with heavy chop swell also. Any idiot knows that Ocracoke Inlet is impassable in those conditions. Essentially all inlets from Cape Henry around to Beaufort NC are impassable in large swells. Then the engine quits. Well they are in a sailboat with a very nice rig. They call for helicopter evac! What a sad excuse for a delivery captain this moron is! A simple understanding of weather combined with good skills would have told this idiot to take the ICW south until the weather was better. But the most disgusting thing is his taste in Sea Chantys after losing a fine vessel due to incompetence and being a pussy.

The more I listen to that idiot the more I want to smack him around. The USCG rescue team risks their lives to pick a couple of chicken **** idiots out of the ocean. He is a "captain" on Banana Wind Yacht Charters......they offer clothing optional cruises!!! http://lnvtblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/new-circuit-labels-for-breaker-panel.html I can't imagine........

AusCan said:

I'm baffled. That boat should have been able to sail through that weather without too much problem with a reefed mainsail. It appears a sail was never raised during the entire trip.

I can understand getting air in the fuel system when heeling hard, but with some planning one can keep fuel levels up on the leeward tank to minimize the risk of this. Good the keep the coast guard informed of the situation, but IMO he called a Mayday way too early. Especially when alternative propulsion is available.

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Just from the clues they give you in the video and the state of the boat in the FLIR pics. . . . It would appear to be the old scenario of the boat being a lot tougher than the crew.

Doesn't say what the experience of the crew is, but they're sea sick, it's dark, the seas are threatening and they've lost main power. They're in panic mode trying to do anything to get off the boat including launching the skiff, which would be suicide given the seas. Doesn't look like any attempt was made to hoist any sail. Would love to see the Coast Guard inquiry!!

And what's with the cheesy video complete with lame metal music to dramatize the incident?

Seriously, if I lost a customer's boat on a delivery, I don't think I would make a video of it.

Quit candy coating it and tell us what you really think, Billyfeet.

One of these guys "attended" the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY. He is also supposedly Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve!

Have a friend in our marina who sold his sailboat to an experienced blue water sailor. He outfitted the boat properly and left for New Zealand, via South American route to the Marquesas', with his new wife.

Somewhere around Tahiti they got caught in a period of gale force weather and the boat lost a portion of it's rigging. After a couple of days, a fishing boat passed by and offered them assistance. They still had engine power and the weather had improved, but they were so physically and mentally beat down, they opted to abandon ship. They made no further attempt to save their boat, even though it was water tight, capable of making way and only a couple of days from land.

The human body and mind are relatively frail things and are not as durable as many would want to believe.

First of all there is a reason that 99% or more of the boaters run inside to Morehead City before going offshore. Only an idiot would try Oregon, Hatteras, or Ocracoke inlets in stormy seas. They are some of the worst inlets on the coast. Also to get in Hatteras Inlet you have to get around Diamond Shoals that extends about 12 miles out to sea. They probably got tangled up in those seas.

These guys appear to be just like weekend boaters who don't have a clue. I hope Scott with chime in on this as he was on a USCG rescue chopper.

Maybe it was an insurance thing?

I thought that insurance might be the reason until I saw where they were picked up and the time of year. If it was a sinking to collect a fat insurance settlement there are plenty of reefs in the Bahamas waiting to be blamed for tearing out the keel after an engine malfunction clearing a pass. I think it was just lack of understanding weather and the realities of offshore seamanship.

Don't know how close they were to the lookout shoals, could have been drifting toward them at a good clip. Sails might not have been available for whatever reason. Should not be out there unless capable of changing filters and repriming a Yanmar. And should not be anywhere near NC shoals unless you have a dang good read on the weather.

Don't know the whole story, but does look like a tough boat and soft crew. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, though. I wasn't there.

Without doing a bunch of research and interviews...hard to say anything at all...


The videos reveal some info..but not enough to make serious assumptions...


As tidbits filter in...a more clear picture will emerge.

I remember this when it happened. The men were seasick and scared. Apparently setting a bit of sail was out of their skill set even on a good day. Not a good choice of skippers by the owner who probably saw the captains resume and thought he was getting a great deal. I dont remember if the boat was recovered.
Very nice boat, though, except for the hot tub cockpit amidships.

That hot tub is bad ass. ?

psneeld said:

Without doing a bunch of research and interviews...hard to say anything at all...


The videos reveal some info..but not enough to make serious assumptions...


As tidbits filter in...a more clear picture will emerge.

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You are absolutely right. I definitely should not be making any assumptions since I'm a newbie.

Just goes to show how things can quickly domino on the inexperienced I guess.

And the moral of the story is......be a fair weather cruiser. Oh boy, what an Einstein moment!

Very puzzling deal. While I've never been in a situation like that I can appreciate the fear that would take over just about everything. Couple that will being ill and the urge to get off the boat no matter what would be overwhelming. Particularly as there were just two of them on board and they didn't have the benefit of having someone along who was more able to cope with a situation like this. I probably would have just wanted to go home, too.

What I find particularly puzzling about all this is the video itself. Why publicize something that clearly illustrates one's incompetence. The line on the radio--- "The engine's shot"--- is rather telling. The engine stopped, okay. But it's not shot. They obvioulsy didn't have the knowledge to get it restarted-- I would not be surprised if what it needed was to have it bled after a slug of air stopped it. I can understand the reluctance to get down in the engine room or space and bleed a fuel system and engine with the boat heaving around like that.

But to my way of thinking, it's the ability to do that that sets the competent skippers apart from the herd.

I'm not at all familiar with that part of the world so don't know what the water conditions are like or what dangers lie under the water in that area. But from the footage, the sea conditions looked a lot like what it looks like in Hawaii a fair amount of the time. Not pleasant but certainly boatable if you're up to it and have a boat that's suited for it. Which the Island Packet seemed to be from the IR footage taken during the rescue.

The tone of the video seems to be that these two guys felt like they cheated death and pulled off a miraculous survival in the face of overwhelming obstacles. We're heroes, the video seems to be saying.

They may be to people who know nothing about boats and boating. But they clearly had no clue as to the nature of their capabiitles and thus exceeded their limitations by a huge amount.

I wonder if they know this?

Anytime the forecast includes "storm" and "North Carolina", stay inside. Many times I've taken trips to the stream here and there was some storm system sorta brewing or sorta nearby, but the wind and sea forecast for my intended trip looked "ok". Ass handed to me each time.

Learned that around here "light and slight" only applies if it has been that way for a couple days and forecast to be that way a couple more. If something is brewing out there, the forecast can be soooo wrong. Stay in or stay close.

On one of the vids, one cap or the other stated something like "the storm was only forecast to be XXXX." Key words "storm" and "NC".

We were out last year in similar sized seas (10-12 foot, short interval and messy), but with no wind as a storm cycle had just moved through over the previous few days.

We overheated when my hot water tank shifted and kinked the outgoing coolant hose. The engine was down for a couple hours before I tracked down the problem. During this time we were rolling at 45 degrees, until we managed to anchor in 150 feet water.

My crew of one was totally incapacitated due to seasickness, and I wasn't feeling great either, after a big birthday party the previous night. . We didn't even consider notifying the the coast guard, never mind issuing a mayday.

Yes - we were sick and uncomfortable, and were having difficulty sorting out the problem, the contents of the cupboards were rolling around in the aisle, and my mother wasn't there, - but we were not in imminent danger.

They cheated death? - I think they cheated the coast guard & the tax payer.

cardude01 said:

You are absolutely right. I definitely should not be making any assumptions since I'm a newbie.

Just goes to show how things can quickly domino on the inexperienced I guess.

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Nothing wrong discussing mishaps...usually a good learning g tool.

Also nothing wrong with making a calculated guess and see where the "theoretical" problem/solution takes the discussion. It's how investigators try to fill in holes and piece together evidence.

It's just not fair to the people involved to make assumptions and assign blame without a large amount of facts, correctly pieced together.

Significant winter storm potential around March 6, but major questions remain - Capital Weather Gang - The Washington Post This information was available when the "Captains" made the GO/NO GO analysis.

Marin, that area is well known for fast build up of seas during storm conditions. It is known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic". This is the area where the Bounty went down last year. There are two shoals that extend far off shore----Diamond Shoals off Hatteras and Cape Lookout Shoals off the southern end of the outer banks. If you will look at the map you will see that Hatteras protrudes way out in the Atlantic. That's why it seems to take the brunt of many hurricanes. A new inlet can be cut at anytime.

This is where the Gulf Stream runs fairly close to shore, and meets the colder currents coming down from Canada. The Gulf Stream is moving in a northeasterly direction. When the wind is out of the North it plays havoc, and quickly.

I learned to boat in the offshore waters of NC. I have many scars and busted teeth as a result of it. Some of the inlets are shallow and horrific. Basically there are only 2 proven all weather inlets. They are Beaufort and Cape Fear Inlets. Masonboro is pretty good most of the time .

I don't know about boating on the Pacific, but in this area of the Atlantic seas can easily reach 20-30 ft and are very steep. Not like swells. Then they can have a nasty chop on top of that. Not for the novice. As Ski said, you can get your ass handed to you.

News weather....


Good, one tiny step in the accident analysis....one piece of the "decision making" puzzle.


Weather alone usually doesn't sink a boat or cause it to be abandoned...can be scary and damaging but not necessarily fatal.

So knowing all that, why go outside? Hubris? Or maybe since they were from the Baltimore area they didn't didn't do enough research about the area and just didn't know how bad it could get?

There I go, speculating again...

Don/Psneed, I read that the ICW route is actually 70 miles shorter than going outside. Is this true?

cardude01 said:

So knowing all that, why go outside? Hubris? Or maybe since they were from the Baltimore area they didn't didn't do enough research about the area and just didn't know how bad it could get?

There I go, speculating again...

Don/Psneed, I read that the ICW route is actually 70 miles shorter than going outside. Is this true?

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There are actually 3 major and a few minor routes to get south/north in that area...going through the sounds versus the ICW is great but still weather dependent for many boats.

The real inside route doesn't go as far east....70 miles sounds about right.

I cited the article on the weather as just one example of what was available to assist in making the GO/NO GO decision. A look at the frontal situation and isobars before clearing the Virginia Capes was in order. Reading a weather map is as important as reading the Coast Pilot. And weather didn't sink this boat, it was abandoned while seaworthy.