Problem near Port Townsend?

[GFC]

I received some pictures and information on what transpired. Suffice to say the very nice wood vessel began taking on water following a launch. Yes, the skipper decided to beach it. Since it was close to shore a tow truck was brought in. The tow truck affixed a cable to the anchor chain and started pulling. The stem was disengaged from the rest of the hull and water poured in.

Were they trying to pull the boat up onto the beach using the cable afixed to the anchor?

I wonder if insurance policies can find a way out of paying a claim caused by owner stupidity.

 

[O C Diver]

I received some pictures and information on what transpired. Suffice to say the very nice wood vessel began taking on water following a launch. Yes, the skipper decided to beach it. Since it was close to shore a tow truck was brought in. The tow truck affixed a cable to the anchor chain and started pulling. The stem was disengaged from the rest of the hull and water poured in.

I must be missing something. The stem looks intact. Did you mean stern?

Ted

 

[twistedtree]

I must be missing something. The stem looks intact. Did you mean stern?

Ted

Agreed. I would have guessed that was an FRP boat, too.

 

[Frosty]

Another photo from the article I linked above (however this photo wasn't in the article yesterday when I linked it). Apparently this was earlier when they were attempting to pump/tow.

https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/couple-dog-rescued-from-sinking-boat-in-port-townsend-bay/

 

[hollywood8118]

I was told that the gas 2" dewatering pump was not keeping the water from rising, sounds like more than a dry seamed woody. And who would pull off the travel lift if the boat was taking on that much water?
I will try to get down there tomorrow and take a look.


HOLLYWOOD

 

[lwarden]

This looks like an FRP boat to me. Lot's of speculation in this thread so I'll join in on the party. Either way, it's a shame to see it happen, pretty boat.

 

[psneeld]

I was told that the gas 2" dewatering pump was not keeping the water from rising, sounds like more than a dry seamed woody. And who would pull off the travel lift if the boat was taking on that much water?
I will try to get down there tomorrow and take a look.


HOLLYWOOD

Agree....

We used to fill woodies bilges to near the waterline the night before the launch, and still leave a 12-24 hour watch on them after launch. Pre-wetted, they took on a lot of water, but nothing a bilge pump or two couldn't handle usually.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Looks like that huge ForFjord anchor turned out to not be a safety feature.

Re the FG wood boat question many think my Willard Is wood too.

The front of the FB has the same “three flats” design as the GB’s. May be related to GB.

 

[Northern Spy]

If two separate local news articles state the hull is wood, and a reference to another stating is was relaunched and swelling it's planks, and it is at the west coast mecca for wooden boat reapair, why would you continue to think it is fiberglass hull?

 

[sunchaser]

If two separate local news articles state the hull is wood, and a reference to another stating is was relaunched and swelling it's planks, and it is at the west coast mecca for wooden boat reapair, why would you continue to think it is fiberglass hull?

TIs the Internet Spy. My information and pictures are from first hand reliable observer well known to many of us.

Hollywood can fill in a few blanks I'm sure.

 

[Delfin]

They did get her floated again, thank goodness. Pulled out at Boat Haven and no visible damage which is amazing given she was on her side on the beach for three days. No water draining from anyplace as she sits on the slings, and all through hulls and exhaust were bunged by the salvage crew. The planking looks tight to me, so I suspect a through hull failure of some kind. The owner was there but I didn't want to be nosy and ask what happened. Damage to the stem doesn't look as bad as it appeared from shore. This damage was caused by the decision to try to pull her from deeper water onto the beach by attaching a tow truck cable to the anchor chain. Why they didn't tie a loop through the forward hawse holes is a mystery to me, but the attempt to drag her closer to shore ceased once the stem started to pull away from the hull, and she soent the next two days with water a foot deep on one side of the pilot house, saloon almost completely underwater, and the ER most certainly so. Must have been a very thorough refit, as they had not yet painted the name back on the transom. If a mod can rotate the pictures, I'd be obliged.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Still think’in it’s a FG related GB boat. I see GB in the FB and she looks a lot like that GB boat Marty was so ga ga over. It was directly related as I recall. Oh it came to me .. the boat was called the Alaskan.

 

[Frosty]

Based on everything we've read, plus the location, it would seem to be wood.

My thought was also Grand Banks Alaskan, and I don't believe they ever made those in fiberglass (more's the pity).

 

[Delfin]

Still think’in it’s a FG related GB boat. I see GB in the FB and she looks a lot like that GB boat Marty was so ga ga over. It was directly related as I recall. Oh it came to me .. the boat was called the Alaskan.

Could be Eric. In the which case she is a FG boat sheathed in wood. Novel.

 

[lwarden]

Boat does appear to be an American Marine GB Alaskan Flybridge. Although the FB looks different from others, perhaps it was added later or modified.

And if it's an Alaskan, it's wood....
Constructed of 1″ 1/4 carvel planked Phillipine mahogany with Yacal frames

 

[Delfin]

Remarkably little damage, considering.

 

[wkearney99]

They got it back out again? That's good news.

 

[slowgoesit]

So, given the pics, do all you folks who swear it's FRG still believe it's not a wood hulled boat?

 

[Nomad Willy]

I don’t remember anybody swearing.

I didn’t. However I did think it was FG.
Yes .. beautiful boat that I’m sure will be properly fixed soon.

 

[Airstream345]

Delfin, We anchored near you last week in Reid Harbor but didn’t get a chance to say hi. If you’re still in the yard come by and say hey tomorrow. We’re near the boat in question hoping to splash tomorrow afternoon. Boat is named Fortitude.

I can second Delfin’s observations. It’s wood. Looks tight and fit for duty. Really curious about what happened. A few regulars in the yard speculated today after she came in but who knows for sure.

 

[hollywood8118]

It will be interesting to see if it was something other than a dry seam problem.. Shaft log, through hull hose or something else. The fireboat was running a vacuum salvage pump that is supposed to pump 300 gpm and is powered by a 5.7 Chevy small block, had to be some pretty big leak or by the time they arrived a port or ER vent or other was below water. Still not sure what the thought to pull her with a tow truck was about, other than I do know the bottom is really steep and drops to around 90' a stones throw behind where the stern was sitting. Also not sure who made the decision to pull a dry wood boat out of the slings before making sure she would float.


It is always easy to armchair diagnose these incidents without all the facts. I did drive by the boat today but the owners had that deer in the headlights look so I thought i would save them the pain of talking about the boat.


HOLLYWOOD

 

[Delfin]

It will be interesting to see if it was something other than a dry seam problem.. Shaft log, through hull hose or something else. The fireboat was running a vacuum salvage pump that is supposed to pump 300 gpm and is powered by a 5.7 Chevy small block, had to be some pretty big leak or by the time they arrived a port or ER vent or other was below water. Still not sure what the thought to pull her with a tow truck was about, other than I do know the bottom is really steep and drops to around 90' a stones throw behind where the stern was sitting. Also not sure who made the decision to pull a dry wood boat out of the slings before making sure she would float.


It is always easy to armchair diagnose these incidents without all the facts. I did drive by the boat today but the owners had that deer in the headlights look so I thought i would save them the pain of talking about the boat.


HOLLYWOOD

I felt the same way about talking to the owners. Bit like asking Mrs. Lincoln how she liked the play.

I asked different people, including the guy pickling the engines after haul out whether they knew what caused the ingress of water, and everyone, including this guy immediately turned away without answering. Can't know for sure, but that would seem to indicate a direction from the yard that did the work not to respond to any such question, which in turn suggests some major eff up that carries liability - no hose clamps on a through hull comes to mind. Like you, hanging in the slings for a while and inspecting before running off should have caught most of the kind of problems that could sink a boat, but who knows.

 

[wkearney99]

...and everyone, including this guy immediately turned away without answering.

That seems about right. I wouldn't want to be the one shooting a mouth off and having that come back to bite during later depositions and lawsuits. I do hope the boat owners come through this without too much additional trouble, that's gotta be a terrible situation to be in.

 

[Moonfish]

And then, just a few days after all this happened 13 miles away in Port Townsend...

Our neighbors were out sailing in Admiralty Inlet yesterday and they ended up assisting a Tollycraft that had lost power and grounded off Marrowstone Island. He said another boat tried to help, and they too got in a bit of trouble. TowBoatUS finally rescued them.

It's been a strange few days in this area. We'll just attribute it all to 2020...

 

[thataway]

Just something to think about. I grew up on wooden boats, and we always, checked the bilge for ingress of water (expected thru the planks) before the railroad car went down far enough to the boat to power or be pulled off the cradle. We always spent the night aboard, checking and pumping as needed.

I carried that over to any boat I owned. When the boat first went in the water after yard work of any sort, I went below and checked the bilges, including all thru hull fittings, before the slings were lowered from the travel lift and the boat pulled free.

 

[rslifkin]

The marina I'm at has either the owner (if present) or a yard employee do a bilge check before moving any boat out of the slings. They'll only launch wood boats on a Friday afternoon (so only 1 per week), that way it can sit in the slings all weekend if it takes a while to seal up.

 

[ScottC]

The marina I'm at has either the owner (if present) or a yard employee do a bilge check before moving any boat out of the slings. They'll only launch wood boats on a Friday afternoon (so only 1 per week), that way it can sit in the slings all weekend if it takes a while to seal up.

Yep - my Dad's 1968 Pacemaker was one of those "Friday boats" at your marina, rslifkin. In fact I think it usually tied up their lift on Mondays too, as it never seemed to get in the water until about August - thus, it was very, very, very dry.

 

[Hawkshaw1]

I am new to "big" boats. It looks like a bilge alarm is about $100.00. That seems like a good addition but it would only buy some time.
Is a FRP considered superior to wood. It would have to be stronger, right?

 

[Nomad Willy]

Hawkshaw1 wrote;
“Is a FRP considered superior to wood. It would have to be stronger, right?”

It depends on what kind of strength. Salesmen of the then new FG boats usta upend them on a beach and take a shot at them with a rifle. No hole.
But FG lacks stiffness and most boats use copious amounts of wood in their hulls to keep the bottom from collapsing. All other solutions to the weak FG bottom were too expensive. And FG is heavy. Another reason to use wood. Use a different kind of wood for each part. Can’t do that w FG. So most FG boats are heavier than wood boats.

The wood/FG story re strength is much more complicated than that but the bottom line is that FG takes a bigger beating bumping into rocks near the beach or in the river but waves can break a FG boat in two whereas a wood boat on the same waves May survive.

So it’s a mix on strength but we use FG as it lasts longer in the marine environment. Wood boats require more maintenance. Pleasure boaters don’t like work. They prefer to play. And lastly I’d say FG boats are cheaper. Low prices are attractive to almost everybody.

 

[SeaStarDF50]

Iwarden, I agree. It's a wooden, American Marine Grand Alaskan. From 1966 to 1971, American Marine built 30 hulls of the 46ft Alaskan designed by Arthur DeFever for a DeFever-commissioned production line. Oriental Boat Company built 26 hulls of the DeFever-designed 54ft Alaskan between 1971 and 1974. Other lengths were built by American Marine from DeFever designs altered by AM's in-house designers in the early 1970s until a lawsuit barred their production of the Alaskan raised-pilot-house design and use of the "Alaskan" name. If it's 49ft as stated in the article, it was likely built by American Marine in the early 1970s. The Alaskans were built both with and without flybridges and some were later add-ons.