Disaster Strikes

Kudos to the state of FL and Duval county for their never ending pursuit of excellence

We were out on the Inner Coastal Waterway/St. Johns River cruising along at about 25-30 MPH when we struck an unmarked underground rock pile. Maybe 4-6 inches under water.

Of course my first though was "Holy $hit, we are going to sink!" Engine still running, I tried to put into gear to see if it would do anything. Of course, strut, shaft, prop, rudder toast.

I was very surprised to find that we were not taking on any water! I think being on a plane saved the boat, but it may be totaled anyway. I tell you what, I am sold on Correct Craft and their craftsmanship.

Not fifteen minutes later, a 2007 Four Winns came across the same area (as we are trying to warn them) and they sunk in 5 minutes. By this time we had drifted to the shore. The other family was, obviously, freaked out. To make matters worse, when the sheriff arrived, we found out there was a paraplegic on that boat.

As for us, like I said we drifted to shore. While we are talking to the sheriff and the passers by on the road, the boat became beached and is totally stuck on shore in the middle of no where. Now I have to wait for high tide tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 to try to get off the beach and out into open water for Sea Tow to come get us. If I am unable to do that, they will charge us $150/ft of line if they have to swim it in to us (about 100 yards) and then they charge $250/hour of towing (not far about 45 min). Yeah, do the math that is about $45,000. ( I can not believe this to be true, but that is what they told me on the phone) Insurance should cover it because it is a salvage situation, but we will see when I talk to the adjuster tomorrow. My only hope is that I can get this thing off the beach and out to open water an maybe then a jet skier or another boat could tow me in.

I am open to ideas. Anyone been beached before?

Eric/Doc-
Based on your experience, does this type of damage usually total out a boat? I love my boat, but at this point, I think I would rather total it.

Any advise on any of these issues would help.

A very sad,

Adam

You said you were talking to people on the road . How close to the road is the boat ? If it is close enough , try a crane to pick it up by the lifting eyes and set it right on your traler . Cranes in our area are less than 200.00 an hour .

Have it loaded with no hassel in no time cheaper .

Sorry to hear this bad news Adam. Happy to hear that all are ok.

You may want to get to the boat while still at low tide and put an anchor out to keep it from moving in. If you are bow in, you can run a line out the stern with a small anchor or block to hold it in place.

azeus17 wrote: Kudos to the state of FL and Duval county for their never ending pursuit of excellence We were out on the Inner Coastal Waterway/St. Johns River cruising along at about 25-30 MPH when we struck an unmarked underground rock pile. Maybe 4-6 inches under water.

Sorry to hear about your bad news Adam.
Luckily the shallow places on our lake are all marked by buoys. The instances responsible for the lake do good work here.

(to improve my English... what does "kudos" mean? I can imagine what you want to say with it, but like to know the real meaning, thanks)

Kristof

Kudos is usually a way to congratulate someone on a good job. Obviously, I was being a little sarcastic.

azeus17 wrote: Kudos is usually a way to congratulate someone on a good job. Obviously, I was being a little sarcastic.

Aha, I did get that feeling about your post... Well good to know you didn't loose your sarcasm over it
Thanks for the info. And good luck on the salvaging of your boat! Keep us informed...

Kristof

Adam, sorry about your turn of luck...best wishes sent! I know in the 10,000 islands area, that sandbars move on a whim...even daily sometimes?!!?

rleinen79 wrote: Wow...scary situation. I assume nobody was hurt? Glad to hear the CC made it through enough to float you guys to safety. IIRC, something similar to that happened to Nautique2001 at the first New England reunion.

Adam,

I'm sorry to hear about your accident. Rob mentioned my unfortunate accident at the New England Reunion in New Hampshire. I ran up on a rocky shallow section of the lake that was marked by a small black marker, which I never saw until it was too late. My speed was about 28 MPH, but came to an immediate stop upon impact. The sound of the impact is one I'll never forget!!! Besides my injuries, the boat was in much better shape than anyone imagined. The hull had some minor scratches, prop was wiped out, shaft slightly bend, tracking fins twisted and rudder was completely fine. The front tracking fin took the major hit, but I believe it caused the stern to raise up during the impact. The damage was just under $4,000 from what I recall. There were no holes or cracks in the hull. I believe any other boat would have split open and taken on water. These boats are VERY STRONG and seem to repair nicely. Looking at my boat today, you'd never know anything ever happened. The most important thing was there were no major injuries!!!!

Good luck with the repair work. Keep us posted on your progress. You'll be back out there before you know it.

Ken

Thanks for the support guys. I am going out now to re asses the situation. I should have some pics to post tonight.

Well, It was quite a day! I have a few pictures that I will try to put in chronological order as I tell the abbreviated story.

Day started with a few calls to the insurance company. We both agreed that the best way to proceed was to try to get the boat floating and back to the dock. I quickly realized that was not going to happen when I got there and saw this.



After another brief talk with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Officer, we decided the best way to handle this was to get something to lift it by th lifting rings and place it on the trailer. Made a few calls, insurance man being one to make sure they would cover, and 2.5 hours later, this showed up.



It is now 2:45 and they are just starting to unload this monster fork lift. They get it down off the truck and start driving to the boat and are promply put in this situation.



Yeah, its down to the axles. You may be wondering how the hell are they going to get that out? Just so happens, Billy (no not joking, it really was Billy (Nothing against any Billy's out there, but I mean, you just knew he was Billy even before he spoke) had planned for that and also brought the full size semi truck tow truck as well. ( Sorry no pic for this one, was raining like hell out and I was high and dry in the car) None the less it cam out with only one broken chain.

I ask Billy "What now? Got any ideas?" It turns out he did. He had already called for a mini-excavator to come out. "It has tracks and it is much lighter, so it won't get stuck." he tells me. I say great! 1.5 hours later it is on the scene. As it turns out, Billy was right! It worked great. (hard to see in this picture, but you get the point)



Working one end and then the other, the mini-excavator was able to free the boat from it sand jail and it was floating again. This is the point where I have to get wet and walk the boat around to the loading area. After we get it over the the loading area, we start attaching chains and tow straps to lift it with the green monster. (That is me in the red shirt)



We get everything set and after a couple minor adjustments, SHE IS AIRBORN!!!



In no time, we have it spun around and ready to put on the trailer.




All in all, the damage was not so bad. Prop mangled, drive shaft and strut surely bent, transmission??, tracking fins bent, rudder bent??, and some minor gel scrapes. And for $1400 she is back at home.






We will see what happens tomorrow when I take her into the shop.

Agreed. We were very fortunate that there were no injuries. That is what matters.

I forgot to mention above that Johnny Law did end up giving me a "Warning" for "Careless Driving" even though he admitted to me that this area has been a problem for years and it is not marked at all. But, that is OK, I can live with a warning. If someone had been hurt, you can bet your ass the city, county, state, whoever would have had a lawsuit on their hands.

The other guy that sank got a ticket for the same offense. I need to get a hold of that guy to hear his story.

Again, Thank God no one was hurt in either accident.

Pete-
I totally agree. I am having everything looked at while at the shop, right down to the petty stuff, like how dirty it is now because of the salvage operation. Tell me if I am wrong, but I believe the insurance company should be on the hook for making the boat look like it did before the accident, and it was not filthy like it is now, even after I wiped it down.

Adam I cannot believe the authorities gave you a warning. In my case after I ran aground apparently quite a few more boats did so over the next few days. Later that week the Waterways authority placed marker bouys on the submerged rocky outcrop. The insurance company had contacted them and was looking into compensation.
Ever since this happened there is now a sign at the entrance stating the dam is at low levels and aquaplaning of any type is done at your risk.
The best news is that nobody was injured and the damage is reasonable & definately repairable.

seeing its an 89, it should have the PCM-40, there should be enough in the estimate for them to pull and inspect the trans, because they did have a forward drum problem that would hairline crack, it will crack and may not show up until down the road, and by the looks of the prop it may be cracked and also insist on them installing a damper plate because it is also a weak link on a prop hit

BuffaloBFN wrote: 8122pbrainard wrote: Adam, What's the blue color on the hull scrape? Are you sure it was rocks and not a old boat you ran over!!! That blue seems to match the gel color of his freeboard(right term?). Check out the bow pic on page 7 of the pumpkin patch; that blue under the grey gel matches the blue stripe on the sides of my boat.

Greg, That was my first thought! Thinking the blue was a gel color under the hull's white but the scrape is on the bottom - a long ways from the blue on the freeboard. Don't know? Maybe when they sprayed the blue in the mold the boys in the shop just got sloppy!