Jupiter Inlet Boat Sinking

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yachtbrokerguy said:
Soon after getting my captains license in 1973 I ran a 55' steel crew boat with a pair of Detroit Diesel 12V 71 engines in and out of that same inlet for two summers. I was taking crew to a dredge off the beach for beach re-nourishment, four trips a day, so 8 trips through Jupiter Inlet each day.
The Atlantic Coast pilot then stated that it was not a navigable inlet and there was a big sign post on the ICW warning not to use the inlet. I knew where the shoals were and where the waves would build, but if there was any kind of a big swell I would go south to the Lake Worth (Palm Beach) Inlet. That added a lot of time to the trip but I always has passengers and never wanted to take a chance. The dredge guys would complain about the extra time but none ever had to swim to the beach.
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And that sign is still there although if I remember right they took out the part about "Non-Navigable" and it simply says "Dangerous". Before I got the trawler I had a 24' Pursuit CC. Many times I would cruise down the alley to the inlet and just turn around and go play on the ICW for the day. Just not that dedicated. Sometimes I reminded myself that I would have to come back in even if going out seemed OK. More than once I came back to the inlet and didn't like what I saw or felt. Did as you did, go down to Lake Worth and come back up on the ICW. Jupiter Inlet sucks a significant portion of the time and ALL the time with an east wind and ebb tide. Will say that with the trawler it is a different game but still feel like I am rolling dice at times.

After looking at the video again...there were some waves and what looks like an ebb tide but that inlet can be far worse than that.
 
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Wow...

Batteries still charging here so:
Good thing I know from 17 years on boards to take things with a grain of salt...lol...

I came here to give facts/details that I "know" and not BS about details I don't know...
There's a reason they (FAA) never call airplane crashes Accidents...
It's because they are ALL "a series of events that end in Tragedy", whether it be operator error, conditions and or malfunction...

It is my opinion not only as a witness but the only person that has HD video (that I have watched many times) that this even wasn't an accident (even thought FWC called it that when I talked with him at the Inlet)...

I can't and won't Blame the Man that lost his boat because it was "a series of events that ended in Tragedy"...
No one thing caused this and it for SURE wouldn't have happened if the Wave Frequency (wave length) vs Boat Length weren't as they were at the moment this Event happened (why I said Lady Luck wasn't on his side at that moment)...
The original TWELVE minute Flight/video shows many things (like how the waves and boat were acting over minutes rather than seconds)...

Thanks to those who appreciate me coming here to share what I "Know" (so far) and it's fine with me if no-one Subs on my channel... I just wanted to let people know how they can be sure to see the video when it gets put up (takes HOURS for me to edit minutes of video) and I simply don't have the time for that (or anymore of this) right now IE read Welcome Mat to see that I'm the Care Taker of my Mother (not there that she has dementia and it's been 24/7 for 22-MONTHS) so far, so you can believe me or not I don't Care :nonono:

Have a nice weekend folks, a man Racing his Bike hundreds of miles away just now mailed me Data from his last run (1/4-mile = 7.59 @ 169mph) so I can Tune his bike for him :)
 
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Drone / Kawasaki ZRX1200R Turbo Guy:

"...he was off-throttle before he got pushed into the wave."

So let me see if I have this right:

You are on shore, flying your drone around the inlet. A center console appears some distance off shore. For "minutes" you filmed this boat running along with enough clarity to know "how the waves and boat were acting."

Let's say he was only going 15 'mph'. And let's say that you have 3 minutes of the additional footage covering that period of time. So you video'd him running for at least 3/4 of a mile before the crash. That is, honestly, excellent drone-flying.

Anyway he's going along, and you're on shore. Wind is "20+ mph" so there's noise...waves on the rocks, wind noise, people around, seagulls squawking, whatever. You're looking at the screen and keeping him in view. And at the moment he suddenly nose dives, you specifically remember that he "was off-throttle".

Dude, you have an amazing combination of manual dexterity, visual concentration, and long-term auditory memory.

I admit I'm curious: you shot this video, then learning of this thread on Trawler Forum, you registered. You spent many hours editing, in order to bring us "real" information. You said he's a 'Very Nice Guy''. And yet as I read your last post are you saying that in your opinion this WASNT an accident?
Since you have 12 minutes of footage, some of it presumably before the crash, what leads you to say that?
 
CD; not sure where you are going with this. Jupiter inlet is not that wide to not hear an inboard power setting, especially if not a lot of boats around. Are you thinking this is some kind of conspiracy to get more vid views? Who cares if drone guy calls this a non-accident? I suspect he didn't mean to say the sinking was done on purpose. He was trying to give some sort of aviation investigation slant to this

I learned boating at Jupiter inlet, I lived in a house about 500 yards away from the ocean and inlet. After college, most of my small boat inlet transits were done at Boynton inlet, even worse of an inlet, mostly in inboards. After looking at the vid, given the double whammy of a very low bow for whatever reason, and the short distance between crests, (and still reducing), I don't think I would have done better. i would have sunk the boat, if I was driving it. Now, on the other hand, having that low bow (free water?) is not something I would have started that transit with. Lake Worth inlet is a bit of a haul, but he would still have had the boat.
 
DroneGuy,

I also had some initial comments about how, and why.

Your footage was very solid.

I also fly mine over the ocean as well. It is amazing the things that pop up when sitting in front of the computer to edit the raw footage that was not visible on the screen while flying it.

Stick around, and keep posting more vid's.
 
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CDreamer said:
Drone / Kawasaki ZRX1200R Turbo Guy:

"...he was off-throttle before he got pushed into the wave."

So let me see if I have this right:

You are on shore, flying your drone around the inlet. A center console appears some distance off shore. For "minutes" you filmed this boat running along with enough clarity to know "how the waves and boat were acting."

Let's say he was only going 15 'mph'. And let's say that you have 3 minutes of the additional footage covering that period of time. So you video'd him running for at least 3/4 of a mile before the crash. That is, honestly, excellent drone-flying.
Click to expand...

diver dave you are correct on aircraft analogy...
IMO this was an unfortunate chain of events = not accident...

Fletcher500 Thank you and I attached my favorite Boat Follow here for you :) Not sure but I think? you might be able to see the waves better in this HD video???

CDreamer (at risk of getting banned from here)...
You are Utterly Clueless with your Rambling,
(but Thank You, I thought my Flying was OK considering how Windy it was)...
This Sir. will be my last comment/reply to anything you might spew at me in the future...
1: I have powerful binoculars to watch for boats, NOT from ground/water level but from on top of the Jetty so I actually had to wait for him to get closer "before I took off to go out to him"...
2: I met the boat about 1/4 mile out so seeing/watching the waves over and over and over in HD on a 24" monitor = YES you can see what the wave action was/is doing...
3: (lastly) Since the wind was blowing "towards shore" YES myself and several other people "that witnessed this" from the Jetty (and some of us talked about it after I landed) all heard his motor/throttle actions maybe 200 yards offshore... And because the boat went down LESS THAN 200Ft from where I was standing, I can say with 100% confidence that he was Off-Throttle Twice before Surfing down into the swell...

Carry on folks, nothing else to see here :thumb:

PLEASE forgive me for it saying Sport Fish at the end, rather than Open Fish or Center Console...

 
When I was 11, I caught a 29 lb snook with 6 lb test line off those rocks shown :)
One day, I saw a snook in the mouth of a large hammerhead shark maybe 10' off the same rocks.
 
TheDroneGuy said:
CDreamer (at risk of getting banned from here)...
You are Utterly Clueless with your Rambling,
Click to expand...

And you are utterly clueless with your lack of knowledge of boat handling and what you saw and choose to build your case by what a nice family he has and other irrelevant side stories. You don't know what size or brand of boat nor the characteristics of such a boat, you totally ignore the way the bow was sitting deep in the water prior to the dive, and you don't know enough to judge what he should have been doing with the throttle.

Basically, your filming is fine. Your analysis rivals any analysis I might provide on a plane crash, seeing as I know nothing about piloting a plane. You defend an operator but you have no knowledge of operating a boat in such conditions or of anything else going on with the boat itself.

I don't know the specifics but I feel certain there was something else in play other than just the waves. There's a reason this boat flipped and sank and it's not just Lady Luck.
 
Boy you guys are tough on drone guy, he posted comments about a video we are all lucky enough to have seen because he was there at the time.. he gives HIS opinion ( he was there or pretty close)... and you guys grill him. If I was him I would tell you all F. U. delete my posts and make sure trawler forum never got any of my drone footage again.
Drone Guy, thanks for the video .. and your first hand observations.
HOLLYWOOD
 
hollywood8118 said:
Boy you guys are tough on drone guy, he posted comments about a video we are all lucky enough to have seen because he was there at the time.. he gives HIS opinion ( he was there or pretty close)... and you guys grill him. If I was him I would tell you all F. U. delete my posts and make sure trawler forum never got any of my drone footage again.
Drone Guy, thanks for the video .. and your first hand observations.
HOLLYWOOD
Click to expand...

He's the one who said CDreamer was clueless. If you like drones, he has nice videos, but he doesn't have any knowledge about operating a boat such as the one in the video. His observations are interesting but he doesn't have the knowledge to interpret what he observed and form conclusions. I could be watching him fly his drone and it crash, and because I know nothing about drones or flying them, I'd have no idea what caused it to crash. I couldn't tell if it was operator error or a malfunction of the drone or flying in conditions he shouldn't have tried. I'm sure he would be able to get to the root of the problem more than declaring it was Lady Luck. Whether his family is nice or not wouldn't shed any light on it. Drone Guy entered defensive before a single post was made by anyone here, defending himself against accusations that hadn't been made and the boat operator as well.
 
Not directed at anyone specifically....

So far, who here is qualified to start and finish a boating accident investigation?

OK, back it down a notch, who here has breaking inlet experience to be unchallenged in their assessment?

Hey lots of opinions and observations, not a lot of "facts"....sit back, have your say, but don't expect everyone or even anyone to agree with you.
 
psneeld said:
Not directed at anyone specifically....

So far, who here is qualified to start and finish a boating accident investigation?

OK, back it down a notch, who here has breaking inlet experience to be unchallenged in their assessment?

Hey lots of opinions and observations, not a lot of "facts"....sit back, have your say, but don't expect everyone or even anyone to agree with you.
Click to expand...

Copy that.
 
psneeld said:
Not directed at anyone specifically....

So far, who here is qualified to start and finish a boating accident investigation?

OK, back it down a notch, who here has breaking inlet experience to be unchallenged in their assessment?

Hey lots of opinions and observations, not a lot of "facts"....sit back, have your say, but don't expect everyone or even anyone to agree with you.
Click to expand...

agree; I'm on record to say I would have sunk the boat too, given all the conditions.
I don't know why the eyewitness is not allowed to give opinions, etc. We all have and are sitting a long ways away from scene and at least in theory, have much less to go on.
 
psneeld said:
Not directed at anyone specifically....

So far, who here is qualified to start and finish a boating accident investigation?

OK, back it down a notch, who here has breaking inlet experience to be unchallenged in their assessment?

Hey lots of opinions and observations, not a lot of "facts"....sit back, have your say, but don't expect everyone or even anyone to agree with you.
Click to expand...

None of us have the facts in this event. We have no idea what was happening before he hit the waves. We have no idea what the boat was carrying. We have no idea of the condition of the operator or of how well he managed the situation. Some of us have more breaking inlet experience than others but that doesn't get us to answers that an investigation might. Some of us have captained boats through that inlet, but not that boat in whatever condition it was in. We may even know some of the questions to ask but we don't have access to do so and it's not our job to do so.
 
I believe Drone guy was right on the money regarding the power setting. Looks like the operator was "on plane" (with the bow slightly up) at the very start of the video. Then at the precise moment that he reached the back side of the first big wave, he abruptly yanked the power back and the boat immediately does the ol' off-plane "mush". The bow was accelerating/pitching downward just from that action. The wave obviously made it worse. Easy to arm chair quarter back, but I suspect the boat would have made it if he had fire walled it and bashed over/through the short coupled waves in the inlet. Helluva ride, though.
 
Let's sit back, take a deep breath and relax.
We may never know the real reason nor what the operator was thinking.
Anything we may say would be 'Monday morning coaching.'
I suspect the final conclusion will be operator error complicated by the sea condition at the time of the incident.
 
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Something isn’t right here. Are used to run a 24 foot sea rain weekend her. I would always come in pretty fast on the inlets. Never had a problem but I was always super high. I think there something we don’t know about here.
 
hollywood8118 said:
Boy you guys are tough on drone guy, he posted comments about a video we are all lucky enough to have seen because he was there at the time.. he gives HIS opinion ( he was there or pretty close)... and you guys grill him. If I was him I would tell you all F. U. delete my posts and make sure trawler forum never got any of my drone footage again.
Drone Guy, thanks for the video .. and your first hand observations.
HOLLYWOOD
Click to expand...
I agree 100% with Hollywood. We all express our opinions and those opinions are based on our perceptions, on our experience, what we observe, etc.

Why should we expect Drone Guy to be any different or be hold to a higher standard regarding his opinions.

Drone Guy, thanks for posting what you have on TF. I, for one, appreciate that you took the time to enlighten us. If some members chose to ignore or be critical of what you said, that's fine. I get that done to my posts from time to time. It just shows that their opinion differs from yours. Don't take offense because someone on TF disagrees and please don't quit posting our videos.
 
This thread has everything that is good.....and everything that is bad, with internet forums.

There is a theory ( I forget the name of it..) that if any online discussion goes on long enough, it will eventually reference Hitler. We're at 6 pages so far....should we start a pool ?
 
poor boat handling
 
Drone Guy could have been treated better, I`m embarrassed by some responses.
Not sure where the part about water in the bow pre crossing came from, but it looks a factor.
Congrats to the rescue surfer, he saved the operator from abrasions on the rocks,and maybe more.
 
hollywood8118 said:
Boy you guys are tough on drone guy, he posted comments about a video we are all lucky enough to have seen because he was there at the time.. he gives HIS opinion ( he was there or pretty close)... and you guys grill him. If I was him I would tell you all F. U. delete my posts and make sure trawler forum never got any of my drone footage again.
Drone Guy, thanks for the video .. and your first hand observations.
HOLLYWOOD
Click to expand...



+1
 
On the news, the surfer kid was asked what he did afterwards... He replied "I went back surfing, the waves were good!"

Congrats to the rescue surfer, he saved the operator from abrasions on the rocks,and maybe more.[/QUOTE]
 
FWIW - I like the videos, too. Keep up that cool work!
 
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