Small Boat Tragedy

[Skippa]

Not all of the details are available but it may serve as heads up. With out more facts I am holding my opinions to myself for the time being.
Air temp was about 45 degrees, Water temp about 40 degrees. Looking at the weather history for the area indicates wind speeds around 10 MPH, Max wind speed at 17 and peak gusts at 23 MPH.
Type of sailboat is unknown,

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/art ... roup/News/

[algonquin]

A terrible tragedy !! The family will be in my prayers for quite sometime. I am sure there is a lesson here but will also hold my opinion as I don’t really know what lead to this terrible loss of life. The news report mentions capsize, do you know if the boat sank ? Brad

[GreenLake]

Air temp was about 45 degrees, Water temp about 40 degrees. Looking at the weather history for the area indicates wind speeds around 10 MPH, Max wind speed at 17 and peak gusts at 23 MPH.

From one of the news reports:

The air temperature at the time was 59 degrees, with southeast winds at 22 mph. However, water temperatures of area lakes are in the 40s or lower, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said.

Just warm enough, I guess, to make it easy to forget that the water is still cold.

[brucybaby]

How tragic. Lest any of us forget, it only takes a second for a gust to take us down in these unballasted centerboarders. With three little boys, it'd be pretty easy to loose 100% focus and not release the mainsheet in time when a gust hits. Heck, I almost lost it a couple weeks ago. Air temp in the 80's, water temp in the 40's. All I had to distract me was a bag of jalapeno potato chips. They're in my prayers!

[Skippa]

Obviously my first thoughts are for the children and the family. Details are hard to come by. My weather information was retrieved from Wunderground, (Weather Underground) for the area on the day of the accident. As much as I would like to know what model the boat was and what the actual conditions were like I dont believe that will become common knowledge.
The last report I was able to find mentioned the boat capsized and in another paragraph mentioned that wind and waves caused it to sink.
As much as We want to share our passion with others, I need to remind myself that hindsight points out what foresight should have!
Sail Safe !
Kevin

[GreenLake]

Where possible, I try to learn from reported accidents. Many of the situations aren't that remote from situations that I might find myself in, but for which I don't have direct experience, because (thankfully!!) I've managed to avoid them so far.

It's scary sometimes to find out how short the chain of circumstances and decisions could be that could land you in a really tough situation.

For that reason, I'm with you, Kevin, in wishing we would get more of the details, and that some of the reporting wasn't so contradictory.

[brucybaby]

You're absolutely right about that short chain GL. I've owned sailboats ranging from 8 - 20 feet and from personal experience, the shorter the boat, the shorter the chain. From what I've read about the accident, the owner, while an avid outdoors-man and familiar with small boats, had purchased his first sailboat, a 10 footer, just the week before and was excited to take the kids out in it during the unseasonable bout of warm weather.

All the lessons here are obvious, and yet, I must admit I've let enthusiasm win over common sense several times and have been lucky..... just lucky... and these poor people were just...not. It's so hard to not to judge, but not necessary, this poor man will be doing that for the remainder of his life. My heart goes out to them.

[kokko]

I have not been able to find out anything about the "small sailboat". I have benn sailing 20 years and would hesitate to go out in those conditions
There has been no mention that he had any real sailing experience which probably contributed to the capsize I ca not imagine an experienced sailor, familiar with sailing under those conditions, would put those children at such a risk.

[kokko]

It's also important to remember mob drills and righting a capsized boat

It is hard not to conclude that this guy, with more enthusiasm than sense or knowledge, needlessly caused the death of two small children.

And where the hell was Mom or a responsible adult to say NO!

[GreenLake]

Tragedies like that have a technical and a human side. That family has experienced a devastating loss, no less so that it arose out of the intention to have some wholesome fun. I can't even imagine how I would feel if that happened to me or someone in my family. I'm with Bruce here, there's no need to "pile on" or seem to be doing so - so let's be careful as we pick over the "technical" bones of the case that we don't end up being unnecessarily disrespectful of the people involved.

Nevertheless, while the accident is fresh, it's the best time to use it to remind ourselves of the risks in our sport and how to minimize them for us and those that depend on us.

I have a friend who built a wooden dinghy (many years ago) about 10ft long, which, I happen to know from somebody who's done it, can be safely sailed in winds up to perhaps 30kts. Now, when my friend was done putting together his dinghy, he put it in the water on a local lake with winds perhaps north of 15kts.

He promptly capsized it, and promptly repeated that maneuver on the next try. His buddy, an experienced sailor and boat builder, didn't think anything of the conditions and had encouraged him to go out. He was alone, young and perhaps the water was a bit warmer, so no harm done. But he now has a healthy respect of conditions.

Speaking about "drills". Perhaps we could have a separate thread.

[Skippa]

My final post on this subject. I emailed the reporter that is writing the stories on this case and he responded to me yesterday with the facts that he had, Today he has another column in the Bemidji Pioneer.
The wind was likely stronger than the the information I gathered from Wunderground.com for the area, Perhaps gusting to 30 MPH. The boat has now been recovered, It is a 1972 homebuilt 10 foot boat with a 14 foot mast. The boat is owned by an unnamed freind of the family. It did capsize and sink. Not sure how long it took to sink.
I believe it is fairly easy to draw conclusions as to what may have gone wrong.
The local sherrif has met with the prosocuter and it has been decided that no charges will be issued as it would serve no useful purpose.
Kevin

[kokko]

Let us all raise our glass to the memory of George O'Day, who built his boats with flotation tanks.

[GreenLake]

I wonder who was the first to do so?

Fiberglass is airtight, allowing flotation tanks to be part of the hull, but so is plywood. The Mirror Dinghy (designed 1962, 70,000!! built) is a 10ft plywood design, with integral flotation.

So it post dates the DS.

[kokko]

It may have preceeded George O'Day, but I am grateful to him for adopting the feature. Even though it meant pulling out many cubic feet of waterlogged polystyrene beaded foam blocks.

[GreenLake]

... Even though it meant pulling out many cubic feet of waterlogged polystyrene beaded foam blocks.

Well, now it works, doesn't it?