Azimut 85 Agound, and Sunk In Marco Island

https://nbc-2.com/news/local/2021/02/10/85-foot-yacht-shmily-is-sinking-near-marco-island/

In the channel. Shoals moved. Apparently it ran aground at night, with seas pushing from the stern. Apparently the seas on the stern flooded the tender garage then filled the boat.

Sad

Its being called a total loss.

No doubt more to the story will unfold.

It's definitely one of those areas where you want to check the LNMs and consult with your towing company's local station. The marinas, if you are heading to/from one are often another good resource.

To me the interesting question is how running aground led to the sinking.

FWT said:

To me the interesting question is how running aground led to the sinking.

Click to expand...

Pooped; a condition every mariner should know.

ok ill ask. what is pooped?

I think it begs a question - Is there a boat size that can't be easily towed off a sandbar?

Jim

magna 6882 said:

ok ill ask. what is pooped?

Click to expand...

When a wave comes up over the transom and deposits water into the boat. Depending on the design of the boat, amount of water and other factors this may just be messy (think small, well drained sailboat cockpit) or it may be catastrophic.

magna 6882 said:

ok ill ask. what is pooped?

Click to expand...

Swamped. The first post; "the seas on the stern flooded the tender garage then filled the boat."

Greetings,
Mr. m. "Also there is a verb poop, of ships, "to be overwhelmed by a wave from behind," often with catastrophic consequences"


From: https://www.etymonline.com/word/pooped


...and "tender garage":

JLD said:

I think it begs a question - Is there a boat size that can't be easily towed off a sandbar?

Jim

Click to expand...

In short no.... but the practical limit barring really bad grounding for most assistance towers is probably in the 40-50 foot range. Even many of those will require a second or larger boat after the first shows up (probably making it salvage over membership ungrounding). Even then a lot depends on additional circumstances...not just length.


Depends on how hard aground, if there are significant tides, underwater gear/keel on the vessel, what towing vessel(s) are available, how heavy is the vessel, can the vessel be significantly lightened, type of bottom composition, skills of salvage crew, weather/other circumstances case the boat to sink r break up, is it necessary for environment/legal issues, will it cause more damage unless removed differently, insurance delays.... probably lots more if I thought about it and maybe other salvage experienced can chime in.


Even large ships get towed off.... but then look at the Golden Ray in Brunswick, Ga.

You’ll love the tender garage, the salesperson exhorted!

Whoops.

A boat does not have to be totally covered by water to be sunk. This is a total loss because the engines and much of the electronics are submerged. Not to mention all the soft goods in the cabin.

pete

Insurance claim and then buy a 90'.

This is the third large boat in about a year where the claim was the tender garage was flooded. I don't buy it. Me thinks it's a captain in unfamiliar waters.

Used to be a lot of truck drivers that "swerved to avoid a deer." Not one fell asleep at the wheel.

I was in a yard this December and looked at an Azimut about this size. It had a 1’x3’ hole below the waterline as if it had hit a log or deadhead. The laminate seemed very skimpy for that large a boat, maybe 1/2” - 5/8” thick. It would not take much to crack if it hit something hard at speed.

I transited in and out of that channel 9/10 April 2020 and indeed over the very area where that yacht is grounded because I still have the my tracks and can read the day marker numbers in the video. I carried 5.5 feet of draft. I remained center-right in the channel on the way in, as recommended by the then current Active Captain guidance, at noon with my polarized sunglasses on in sunny weather and exited at 0630 following my inbound track. Inbound was at the stand of the tide at high tide of +3 feet and outbound was +1.4 feet ebbing. I had no issues. The video appears to show this vessel well left in the channel, but that's just appearance, hard to tell positively. I had never been through that channel before.

FWT said:

To me the interesting question is how running aground led to the sinking.

Click to expand...

I know how it happened to our company boat. The captain ran it over a sand bar at speed. The boat made it over the sand bar and back into deeper water. The props and shafts and rudders, didn't.

But, a lot of water came through the holes they left.

Group9 said:

I know how it happened to our company boat. The captain ran it over a sand bar at speed. The boat made it over the sand bar and back into deeper water. The props and shafts and rudders, didn't.

But, a lot of water came through the holes they left.

Click to expand...

Holy Cow!

I think the fact "the garage filled" is a bit of an irrelevant aside. Had there been no garage, there would have been a lazarette or something there. The point is that water was coming into the stern and was going to weight the boat down. It's really a battle between bilge pumps vs. the water covering the engines. With what most boats that size and type have, the bilge pumps don't stand a chance.

As psneeld said, removal from the sand bar is no easy task. Everything is working against tow and salvage companies.

We passed the scene shortly after dawn the next morning. It was very foggy, winds were lite. We were doing less than three knots because if the visibility. The boat was still there. We passed close off the bow and saw 6 1/2 feet at the spot. We noticed that the boat seemed a bit down by the stern, so I wonder if they tore up struts and perhaps rudders. It looked like they may have been off channel when they hit, which is not surprising considering how foggy it had been all night. Sad--looked like a nice boat.

Lollygag1 said:

Insurance claim and then buy a 90'.

Click to expand...

Operator error - undue care and attention - claim denied.

I play in areas like this all the time drawing 7.5ft
Banks constantly moving, maritime safety cant keep up with re positioning the marks. Marks on latest charts no longer there, sandbanks or deep channels in their place
its a daytime, rising tide , sun over head, slow and steady place to play
Following the latest charts will have us aground, I had to find a new route through this lot yesterday

BandB said:

I think the fact "the garage filled" is a bit of an irrelevant aside. Had there been no garage, there would have been a lazarette or something there. .

Click to expand...

Agree. More to the story. I looked up some pics of the garage. Its floor is flat to the swim platform. It would not fill. Seems like misinformation.

Simi 60 said:

Operator error - undue care and attention - claim denied.

Click to expand...

I just read my new policy in detail. There's nothing in there that says operator error or stupidity isn't covered. When my delivery captain did not pay proper attention and grounded me? Completely covered. This simply isn't accurate.

BD

BDofMSP said:

I just read my new policy in detail. There's nothing in there that says operator error or stupidity isn't covered. When my delivery captain did not pay proper attention and grounded me? Completely covered. This simply isn't accurate.

BD

Click to expand...

Wifey B: If operator error or stupidity wasn't covered, then they'd never have to pay.

BandB said:

Wifey B: If operator error or stupidity wasn't covered, then they'd never have to pay.

Click to expand...

And there are insurance companies that probably don't.
Edward Williams/Northern Reef?

I believe the wording I have seen before was along the lines of "Negligence of the master in the safe operation and navigation of a vessel"

BDofMSP said:

I just read my new policy in detail. There's nothing in there that says operator error or stupidity isn't covered.

Click to expand...

Your new policy is not all new policies and I doubt it would be in there in so "easily understood" language.
Insurance companies and their legal departments love weasel wording.

"The laminate seemed very skimpy for that large a boat, maybe 1/2” - 5/8” thick. It would not take much to crack if it hit something hard at speed."

This is the reason even a name brand new boat needs a survey before accepting delivery.

caltexflanc said:

It's definitely one of those areas where you want to check the LNMs and consult with your towing company's local station. The marinas, if you are heading to/from one are often another good resource.

Click to expand...

=============================================




agree
from the paper as well as the podcast seems that particular inlet is a problem.
Having to get in or out of an inlet like this with a "history" may require extra care by contacting the CG,towing companies,marinas etc.


from the news




MARCO ISLAND, Fla.–An 85 foot yacht is stuck and sinking off the coast of Isles of Capri, near Marco Island.
The yacht called Shmily is a total loss.
Local Beau Middlebrook said boats get stuck in the area all the time.
“Where the sandbars are today come back in two weeks they could be in different spots. Unless you are here everyday, you wouldn’t know that, you wouldn’t know the normal way to go,” Middlebrook said.
Now, he hopes changes will be made to keep these misfortunes from happening.
“The Coast Guard really has two choices which is move the markers or to dredge it.
Personally, I would like to see them dredge it, because our channel keeps getting narrower and narrower,” Middlebrook said.

Typical in the sense that the USCG doesn't have anything to do with dredging.....just placing or removing markers (as in declaring an inlet unusable/uncharted).

Is the vessel still there?
If the channel is moving that much they could switch to Red/White mid channel buoys.