Who thought this was a good idea?

JDCAVE · Nov 16, 2015

"Members of a dive club were rescued after their boat capsized off the coast of Victoria early Sunday afternoon."

Victoria dive club members rescued afer boat capsizes

Most of the southern regions were under Gale Warnings. Not sure about Juan de Fuca but the conditions at the time strongly pointed to NOT going out. The combination of winds and strong tidal currents makes Race Rocks a particularly nasty place. This is a screen capture of the conditions at the time of the accident (1:45 pm): W25-30. Also poor 2 hours before the accident.

ImageUploadedByTrawler Forum1447697118.987555.jpg

Jim
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Conrad · Nov 16, 2015

There seems to be a run on boneheaded actions in the region lately isn't there? What with folks running tidal passes well outside slack water etc. plus this incident. (I'm excluding the Tofino tragedy from this as I don't know what really happened there.)

JDCAVE · Nov 16, 2015

At least these guys were there at slack tide.

Jim
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MurrayM · Nov 16, 2015

The scuba divers were in a 14’ open aluminium boat with up to 10' waves.

There were 9 of them!??!

The mix in their tanks must be off; as in not enough oxygen was getting to their brains

MurrayM · Nov 16, 2015

I'd suggest they put this on their skiff before venturing out in such snotty conditions...at least they would have a chance of getting to shore swamped: Kapten Boat Collars - Home

DCBD · Nov 16, 2015

MurrayM said:
There were 9 of them!??!

The mix in their tanks must be off; as in not enough oxygen was getting to their brains

Word is the boat was actually 24'.

sunchaser · Nov 16, 2015

Hum mm, a 14 foot boat to boot.

gaston · Nov 16, 2015

Darwin

JDCAVE · Nov 16, 2015

gaston said:
Darwin

They're not eligible for the Darwin Award unless they died.

I see the Times Colonist indicates it was a 24' boat. 14' seems awful small for 9 people.

Jim
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oscar · Nov 16, 2015

One wonders.....

OFB · Nov 16, 2015

The forecast referenced was for the south section of the straight , south of Nanaimo , not relevant to the area this accident happened. I did not see any warning for the area off Metchosin over the past weekend.

That area by race rocks is fairly well protected from prevailing winds and Pedder Bay is a very safe harbor for running out to race rocks even if to just take a look at current conditions.

Yup something went wrong for sure, but, the original posted info is not correct.

I would have had no worries going for a boat ride out of Pedder bay to Race Rocks through most of last weekend in my 12 foot Livingston, properly protected with my mustang PFD. YMMV.

Non of us live in a perfect world. just sayin.

Hawgwash · Nov 16, 2015

OFB said:
The forecast referenced was for the south section of the straight , south of Nanaimo , not relevant to the area this accident happened. I did not see any warning for the area off Metchosin over the past weekend.

That area by race rocks is fairly well protected from prevailing winds and Pedder Bay is a very safe harbor for running out to race rocks even if to just take a look at current conditions.

Yup something went wrong for sure, but, the original posted info is not correct.

I would have had no worries going for a boat ride out of Pedder bay to Race Rocks through most of last weekend in my 12 foot Livingston, properly protected with my mustang PFD. YMMV.

Non of us live in a perfect world. just sayin.

Thank you, OFB.
Your comments are right on the money.
The question was Who thought this was a good idea?
Obviously 9 people did at the time.

Could have been as simple as too many people on one side of the boat at the same time; no counter weight on the other side; a bit of a wave...over she goes.

JDCAVE · Nov 16, 2015

OFB said:
The forecast referenced was for the south section of the straight , south of Nanaimo , not relevant to the area this accident happened. I did not see any warning for the area off Metchosin over the past weekend.

That area by race rocks is fairly well protected from prevailing winds and Pedder Bay is a very safe harbor for running out to race rocks even if to just take a look at current conditions.

Yup something went wrong for sure, but, the original posted info is not correct.

I would have had no worries going for a boat ride out of Pedder bay to Race Rocks through most of last weekend in my 12 foot Livingston, properly protected with my mustang PFD. YMMV.

Non of us live in a perfect world. just sayin.

Nope. You are wrong. Those were for Race Rocks. I accessed the 24 hour period this morning and it is since lost. While I was previously on the forecast page for "South of Nanaimo", these were the downloaded winds for Race Rocks. It's a quirk of the EC website that the titles "South of Nanaimo" remain even though you are on the page for the 24 hour summary for Race Rocks. As show below, if you first link to Sandheads and then use the map query to get to Race Rocks, it still shows you the Title: "South of Nanaimo" the 24 hour conditions are shown both ways.

ImageUploadedByTrawler Forum1447718670.072258.jpg

ImageUploadedByTrawler Forum1447718689.359806.jpg

Jim
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Hawgwash · Nov 16, 2015

UVic Scuba had a scheduled dive out there yesterday and this is where they go Race Rocks - UVic Scuba

The sea was a bit lumpy but far from gale force.

MurrayM · Nov 16, 2015

24' makes a bit more sense.

Pgitug · Nov 16, 2015

Weather is always an issue in the NW. Besides being in 52 degree water. That's why I moved to Florida from the NW. Lots of warning time for Hurricanes and 89 degree water.

Hawgwash · Nov 16, 2015

While we can't be complacent, we also shouldn't get hung up on the word "warning."

A warning is just that, a warning and it means a condition is happening or is expected to happen within the next 12 hours and anyone who boats on our coast knows, or at least should know, that as little as a couple miles can bring a huge difference in wind and sea conditions.

Race Rocks on Sunday, at the time of the capsizing, had winds 25, gusting to 31 with swells up to 8 feet which put conditions in the small craft warning category. Not a gale.

Yes, there was a gale warning up for southern Georgia Strait but winds had not reached gale force and were not predicted to do so until overnight and into Monday morning. There was no such warning at Race Rocks. The boat capsized less than an hour before slack on the tail end of a 4k ebb. Conditions, while not ideal, were not treacherous and as OFB pointed out, it is not a long run to shelter if it kicked up.

They were not the only small craft out there on Sunday afternoon and this was not a tour group from Fargo who didn't know the difference between a snorkel and a schnitzel; they were experienced, had among them a PADI Master Instructor and dove this area regularly.

They would have been monitoring the conditions and forecasts for at least 24 hours so, I cannot accept the judgement put to me that conditions exceeded the capabilities of the crew and/or the vessel. I dumped a boat tied to a slip on a completely windless day.

I'm surprised we haven't been told the dive captain hit a garbage can with his tricycle in 1987.

Al · Nov 17, 2015

Small Craft Warning

PKZ036-171400-
CLARENCE STRAIT-
400 PM AKST MON NOV 16 2015

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY THROUGH TONIGHT...

.TONIGHT...NW WIND 30 KT BECOMING W 15 KT LATE. SEAS 6 FT
SUBSIDING TO 4 FT LATE. RAIN EARLY IN THE EVENING.
.TUE...W WIND 15 KT. SEAS 3 FT.
.TUE NIGHT...SE WIND INCREASING TO 20 KT LATE. SEAS 4 FT.
RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS.
.WED...SE WIND 20 KT. SEAS 4 FT.
.WED NIGHT...SE WIND 10 KT. SEAS 2 FT OR LESS.
.THU...NW WIND 15 KT. SEAS 3 FT.
.FRI...SE WIND 25 KT. SEAS 5 FT.
.SAT...SE WIND 25 KT. SEAS 5 FT.

$$

Hawgwash · Nov 17, 2015

Al; said:
.TUE NIGHT...SE WIND INCREASING TO 20 KT LATE. SEAS 4 FT.
RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS.

Hey, you can put on some twinklies and do a carol cruise tomorrow night.
Pigtug can't do that in Florida.

MurrayM · Nov 17, 2015

Al & I usually have pretty much the same weather...snowed about 6" this morning then was gusting to 35 knots this afternoon

Hawgwash · Nov 17, 2015

Long before it became a new idea to someone, ourselves and another boat did Princess Louisa for New Years. They were both 30 knot boats but we did a big piece of it in snowflakes like doilies, rafted together at, oh, I don't know, maybe 10 or 12 knots. One of the coziest, prettiest runs I ever did.
You just can't beat 4 seasons.

Who thought this was a good idea?

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