That'll buff out - Westport hits dock

This happened a day or so ago in my neck of the woods. 125 feet of lovely new boat vs. about 5 that were moored.


VIDEO & PHOTOS: Yacht slams dock, damages vessels at Port Angeles Boat Haven | Peninsula Daily News

That is one scary looking incident, hopefully no one got injured? I'm surprised the spring line held for as long as it did.

Janet
Apparently the thing was so new it had not been named yet, so JustBob started a thread which has been a bit of fun:

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/name-yacht-46967.html

Looks like the same boat from a earlier thread......http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/name-yacht-46967.html

Boy she went full throttle, didn't she?

It's interesting to look at the prop wash. It was going full blast until the boat hit the dock then all of a sudden it stopped, almost as if:


a. someone tripped, fell against the shifter and/or throttle
b. boat lurched forward knocking that person off his feet
c. boat continued forward hitting the dock and other boats
d. clumsy person finally got to his feet, pulled the shifter back to neutral.
e. prop wash stopped when boat was taken out of gear.


New boat, not yet named, someone's ass is gonna be reamed if they find out what happened.

As I watched the vid, there was a person on the flybridge that at first appeared to be at the helm. Shortly after the boat started to move, he moved to the port side of the fly bridge and was messing with something as the boat suddenly appeared to go to full throttle.

It is possible the person driving the boat was in the pilothouse and not on the bridge. It is also possible someone was at an aft cockpit helm station. However, it sure looks like the guy on the bridge was supposed to be driving the boat.

I don't think anyone was driving it per se. A mooring line ripped a cleat off the dock, so it was not a planned move.

It was almost certainly a failure of an electronic control system. It went full throttle and accelerated surprisingly quickly. The guys on the FB etc were unable to disengage throttle/gears before it hit the dock and other boats, but then were able to kill it. No doubt there was confusion for those onboard as to who was 'operating' it before they tired to disengage.

Wow that spring line stretched a looonnnngg way before it snapped!

Reminds me of the old country song, "He never hit the breaks and he was shifting gears"

pete

Any fuel hoses stretched and popped?

I read a report on a Sydney catamaran ferry running over a moored boat, coming to a halt with said boat stuck between its 2 hulls. Causes found were multiple, proximate cause seemed to be storing lines on steering gear impeding steering.
The action of the vessel was called "an uncommanded turn".

Well that's not good!

That’s why I like my old Lehman diesels. No computer to get in the way. They only do what I ask except go fast!

+1 on the Lehman’s

Electronic controls may have **** themselves. I’ll stick with Morse

Just a taste of what is in store from us from our future robot overlords!

All you jumping in and assuming the problem is electronic controls, really need to hold off on that assumption.

More footage here.

I find it disturbing that the guy taking the video is more concerned with filming and getting his raingear than he is about helping anyone who may have been hurt.

BandB said:

All you jumping in and assuming the problem is electronic controls, really need to hold off on that assumption.

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So, what is the alternate theory? A drunk sailor staggered and fell onto the gear shift and throttles?

Group9 said:

So, what is the alternate theory? A drunk sailor staggered and fell onto the gear shift and throttles?

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Someone moving around on the boat accidentally hit the controls either themselves or with something is a possibility.

I don't know what happened, but neither does anyone else speculating. If I do find out, it won't be something I can share unless it's disclosed publicly elsewhere.

BandB said:

Someone moving around on the boat accidentally hit the controls either themselves or with something is a possibility.



I don't know what happened, but neither does anyone else speculating. If I do find out, it won't be something I can share unless it's disclosed publicly elsewhere.

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It would seem to me that there will be an official investigation of the accident, either by the Sheriff’s dept or USCG. The results of that investigation would likely be public. However, the investigation done by the insurance company and builder would not be.

I was wondering who would have the guts to do that first restart. Unless the root cause was obvious, like the crate of oranges shifted or the like. Maybe a crew maintained a station in the ER.

diver dave said:

I was wondering who would have the guts to do that first restart. Unless the root cause was obvious, like the crate of oranges shifted or the like. Maybe a crew maintained a station in the ER.

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I'm sure everyone was on high alert and prepared and had checked out whatever the cause was.

My thought was that with an unexplained failure of an electronic control, no way would you risk a repeat. Thus, they figured out what had happened before moving it again and knew they would not have a repeat. Either that or they acted recklessly by engaging the system again so quickly before being able to fully check the system from one end to the other. I suppose it could have had a manual backup.

In any case, it’s all just speculation at this point. Nobody got hurt, so other than a good debrief, lessons learned and a few checks written, there is no truly bad outcome here.

Video from the guy who was docked next to them when it happened. He says it was an engine control problem, and also has some video of the Westport after they hauled it out.

Group9 said:

Video from the guy who was docked next to them when it happened. He says it was an engine control problem, and also has some video of the Westport after they hauled it out.

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Same as post #19

Group9 said:

Video from the guy who was docked next to them when it happened. He says it was an engine control problem, and also has some video of the Westport after they hauled it out.

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Yeah I posted Teal's video earlier. Nasty gashes in that mega yacht.

ben2go said:

Yeah I posted Teal's video earlier. Nasty gashes in that mega yacht.

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Sorry, I missed it!