Boat sinks after hitting tug rope

[BruceK]

The only suggestion I`ve seen of the presence a tug and or barge with connecting or trailing lines in the vicinity of the vessel is on TF.

 

[HenryD]

Many tugs in the Chesapeake use a hawser that is made up with blue floating synthetic line. The hawsers are 3-5" in diameter. Many years ago, a sport fish out of Ocean City, MD ran over a floating line which wrapped around his running gear, and when it tightened, it pulled the shafts together, crushing the hull between the motors. The boat sank in only a few minutes.

 

[angus99]

If I see a tugboat I automatically assume there's a barge or something else somewhere nearby, and prepare to alter my course to not be anywhere near the tug's path.

Crossing from Newport to Bermuda one pitch black night in a 76-ft sailboat, we saw a tow’s lights on the horizon on constant bearing. This was before AIS and our radar was inoperative but the distance appeared to be closing and the tow wasn’t responding to our hails. Finally someone answered (who sounded drunk), confirmed that they were indeed towing a barge and that their course was clearly going to cross ours. There was no visible light on the barge—it was utterly invisible—but the tow told us there were xxx meters of cable behind him. We roused our crew and jibed off to run parallel, but opposite, to the tow’s course. When he finally put a spotlight on the barge it was monstrously large—an enormous rusting hulk that looked like something out of Star Wars and trailing far behind the tow. In retrospect, the captain on our boat waited too long to avoid that crossing (despite my increasing anxiety). Without radar or the ability to raise the tow, he should have assumed there was a barge and acted accordingly. Not exactly a hair’s-breath escape, but I had nightmares afterward about running between that tow and barge.

 

[BrisHamish]

The boat in question, Liberty, was a 1990 Kong and Halvorsen 57 aft cab, with twin CAT 3406 engines. A lovely boat. It used to live at Bobbin Head on the Hawkesbury in Sydney when I first knew it. Chris (the owner) is a TF member and has regularly posted here. He did heaps of upgrades to that boat, including a n innovative vinyl wrap when the blue hull paint started to show age. Am very pleased Chris and crew are all safe. H.

 

[BruceK]

The boat in question, Liberty, was a 1990 Kong and Halvorsen 57 aft cab, with twin CAT 3406 engines. A lovely boat. It used to live at Bobbin Head on the Hawkesbury in Sydney when I first knew it. Chris (the owner) is a TF member and has regularly posted here... very pleased Chris and crew are all safe. H.

That is sad news, commiserations to Chris. We almost met him at an RMYC(Newport,Broken Bay)exhibition day,saw him anchored off the Club,phoned as arranged, multiple times, no answer, he`d left his phone somewhere.
Like ships passing in the night, except we won`t be passing Liberty anymore.

 

[Insequent]

Thanks for that info Hamish. Events appeared to unfold very quickly, but glad they had a liferaft and were able to alert authorities in Noumea of their plight. To be rescued quickly was a big relief I'm sure. Sad to lose 'Liberty' though.

 

[78puget-trawler]

Tow wire. Chain bridle connects barge to wire.

This!

On big tugs years ago, large in fact huge diameter rope was used to tow on the oceans. These days most tugs you see towing barges behind them are using steel wire with as noted above chain bridle legs that the wire is connected to, usually with a length of chain between the wire and the bridle legs. This "surge" chain will be various lengths depending on the route taken. Ocean towing will have longer surge chain than inland tows. A half a shot is common for inside where a full shot, perhaps more for outside.

As you can imagine dragging all that chain aboard the aft deck of the tug when shortening up to go alongside or to break tow can be time consuming and dangerous.

Going between a tug and tow is obviously stupid and dangerous, but if they went near center of the distance between tug and tow, it could be done safely (NOT RECOMMENDED!) due to the amount of catenary in the tow wire.

 

[78puget-trawler]

There are times when a line is towed behind the barge if a transfer from one tug to another is called for at some point.. This line has a buoy ball attached so that another tug boat can pick it up and attach to the barge and transfer the barge from one tug to the other. These lines are not usually long enough that a passing boat can run over them, unless they wanted to get rediculously close to the back of the towed barge when passing. Probably not the case here. Just a boat running over some floating, heavy, discarded rope.

The purpose of the line with float on the end, we call it the "goofball", is so that if the main towline is parted in bad weather which happens sometimes, the tug can go behind the barge, snag the goofball and attach it to the tow winch or bitts, then run ahead of the barge peeling the wire off the side deck of the barge that is held there by welded clips, then on the front of the barge on the spray shield, you will see the emergency towline fastened the same way ready to pull off.

 

[diver dave]

Is AIS a SOLAS requirement for unpowered barges?

 

[koliver]

Is AIS a SOLAS requirement for unpowered barges?

No AIS on UNpowered barges here in BC. On the towboat only, yes.

 

[Simi 60]

Report.



https://www.downunderrally.com/news...re-cruising-preparation-course-saved-my-life-

 

[BlindHog]

Lots of replies about towing....but in the gulf coast region, insurance many times has riders about going west of the mobile river due to the higher number of accidents from fouled props with lines. Many old tug lines find there way into the water and a lesser built sport fisher running at speed will lose its gear quickly. I’ve seen several struts/ shafts bend from running over a floating line. You just can’t see them quick enough sometimes.

 

[jimisbell]

Only experience I have with a 3" line was in a single. The line wrapped up, stopped the shaft and the engine broke the shaft then its motor mounts and when I went below the engine was laying on its side in the bilge happily thumping along. Looked like a wounded animal.

 

[Tugalert]

looking for some enlightenment here from the old salts as i'm a stickler for grammatical accuracy. Do tugs tow using a "rope" (a tow rope) or is the link between tug and barge technically called something else? I actually don't know....

A tug could push its tow, tow along side, or a stern on a Hawser. A Hawser can be either rope or steel cable. A Hawser can be as long as 1/4 mile A stern or more. The Hawser mesument under the water is called canatary. The tugs mast will show two white when pushing, alongside , or under 200 meters feet A stern . Not to smart running a boat between a tug and it's tow.

 

[jimisbell]

A tug could push its tow, tow along side, or a stern on a Hawser. A Hawser can be either rope or steel cable. A Hawser can be as long as 1/4 mile A stern or more. The Hawser mesument under the water is called canatary. The tugs mast will show two white when pushing, alongside , or under 200 meters feet A stern . Not to smart running a boat between a tug and it's tow.

To confuse things further, on a river, like the Mississippi, they are ALL called Tow boats. Even though they usually ARE pushing the load not towing it. They are NOT towing the load as they do in salt water. Here on Corpus christi Bay we see them, three in front towing an oil rig and three behind on lines, holding the load back. But on the ICW they are ALWAYS pushing the load so they will have more control in the narrow water. Well not ALWAYS. I once came upon an idiot towing a barge on a very long line in a crosswind. He was taking up the entire ICW. I ran aground trying to get away from his out of control rig.

 

[78puget-trawler]

"canatary"?? LOL

 

[BandB]

To confuse things further, on a river, like the Mississippi, they are ALL called Tow boats. Even though they usually ARE pushing the load not towing it.

Wifey B: As a teacher, calling it a tow boat when it's pushing just was always odd to me.

 

[Tugalert]

To confuse things further, on a river, like the Mississippi, they are ALL called Tow boats. Even though they usually ARE pushing the load not towing it. They are NOT towing the load as they do in salt water. Here on Corpus christi Bay we see them, three in front towing an oil rig and three behind on lines, holding the load back. But on the ICW they are ALWAYS pushing the load so they will have more control in the narrow water. Well not ALWAYS. I once came upon an idiot towing a barge on a very long line in a crosswind. He was taking up the entire ICW. I ran aground trying to get away from his out of control rig.

Is it better running a pleasure boat aground or a tow boat towing a oil barge running aground and causing a possible oil spill? What is the draft of your boat? What was the depth of the water just outside of the Gulf ICW channel? What is the charted channel width? How was the total length of the tow? When in a heavy wind in a narrow I have what we called " Crabbing " going down the channel almost sideways.

 

[rslifkin]

Is it better running a pleasure boat aground or a tow boat towing a oil barge running aground and causing a possible oil spill? What is the draft of your boat? What was the depth of the water just outside of the Gulf ICW channel? What is the charted channel width? How was the total length of the tow? When in a heavy wind in a narrow I have what we called " Crabbing " going down the channel almost sideways.

The correct answer is neither. If the rig can't navigate safely through a channel that's open to other boats, either wait for the wind to die down, set it up differently (such as pushing vs pulling) or pick a different route.

 

[Tugalert]

I have no idea,
can only state what I have seen more than a few times, a float being dragged behind a barge.

You are asking a good question. Most tug and barge has a emergency line behind the last barge on a Hawser. The reason is if the tow breaks the runs around the stern of the last tow and pick up a floating pickup line. These are usually about 100 to 150 feet in length. This line is tied to emergency Hawser located on the barge deck. These emergency Hawser is about 400 to 600 feet in length. The tug will haul in the floating emergency pickup line on the tugs captsan then the barge emergency Hawser

 

[jimisbell]

Is it better running a pleasure boat aground or a tow boat towing a oil barge running aground and causing a possible oil spill? What is the draft of your boat? What was the depth of the water just outside of the Gulf ICW channel? What is the charted channel width? How was the total length of the tow? When in a heavy wind in a narrow I have what we called " Crabbing " going down the channel almost sideways.

He/she was an idiot not because he/she was inconveniencing me, but because he/she could just as easily have been pushing the single barge as EVERY BODY ELSE DOES for precise control. If he didnt have the equipment then he should not have taken the job. The ICW channel is barely 70 feet wide. in the Lydia Ann Channel is is hundreds of feet wide and he was using it all. I was in a sailboat with a 6 foot keel. Outside the channel, 5 feet deep, is NOT an option. His load was scraping the left side of the ICW and his craft was on the other side of the ICW. Both were in 5' water outside the channel. Lucky for him there were NO markers to snag his line.......maybe he had been that way before......hmmmmmmm. If he wanted to tow his load he should have left the ICW a mile earlier and gone into the gulf at Port Aransas. I the ICW is a shared facility.

 

[Tugalert]

The correct answer is neither. If the rig can't navigate safely through a channel that's open to other boats, either wait for the wind to die down, set it up differently (such as pushing vs pulling) or pick a different route.

Yea Right..... lololololol

 

[Lostsailor13]

The fool probably thought it was 2 boats steamin and no tow cable between em and though .maybe just throttle up and get past 2nd boat

 

[Xlshrimp]

Yes a trailing line connected to an emergency towline on the large barge is common, but many smaller barges do not carry this equipment.

 

[Insequent]

The fool probably thought it was 2 boats steamin and no tow cable between em and though .maybe just throttle up and get past 2nd boat

If you read the thread, such as post#41, a report on the incident, you might have made a better contribution here.

 

[HiDHo]

Vertical white lights, stay well clear.
Used to see this when we sailed crossing to and from the Bahamas at night. I think the tugs and barge course was to and from Puerto Rico from east coast USA ports.

 

[Frosty]

If only there were a light pattern for random pieces of rope floating or slightly submerged. (OTOH if they had the same for logs, BC would be annoyingly bright at night )

(That is a nice, clear illustration of what towing lights look like though.)

Random side note since the thread came back up and has turned to towing lights: When I studied the rules, it was through drawings and such similar to the above (tho not quite as nice). Okay, so far so good.

Later, I found some flash cards (now it'd be online of course), that were totally black and only showed some lights. Ooh, that was a whole new perspective. I mean, of course I had seen real boats at night, but not all of the unusual ones. I found those black flash cards to be really useful for "sharpening" my mind above and beyond what the "daytime" drawings had done. I'm sure there are quizzes and stuff online now (I will have to check as I can't say where those flash cards are anymore).

 

[psneeld]

If only there were a light pattern for random pieces of rope floating or slightly submerged. (OTOH if they had the same for logs, BC would be annoyingly bright at night )

(That is a nice, clear illustration of what towing lights look like though.)

Are you describing a semi submerged object being towed or just floating randomly rope/ objects?

There are lights for towing semi submerged objects.....an all around white light or diamond shape.

All kinds of vessels do drag MOB lines offshore so cutting close behind anyone is not a great idea.

 

[Frosty]

Are you describing a semi submerged object being towed or just floating randomly rope/ objects?

There are lights for towing semi submerged objects.....

No, I was referring to the incident that this thread is about.

Namely: A boat sunk after running over a "loose" and random piece of rope in the water. There were no vessels associated with it, no lights, no nothing. Similar to if you ran over an awash log or driftwood (it may even have been just submerged and not awash).

So this was not the "cigar" (as I always saw the drawing of the inconspicuous or semi-submerged object in the "rules").

The description of the incident is right from the boat owner (not a random reporter).

 

[psneeld]

Lots of stuff to hit out there...surprisingly few boats are truly disabled by much....as a busy assistance tower, I did get a few offshore tows for running over floating line , only one or two lines were towing hawser size though.