I gotta ask, was I wrong?

[madhatter1]

Was headed north on ICW from Madeira Beach to Clearwater for the weekend yesterday. Not much boat traffic at all. There was a tow boat in front of us that got further away as we had to wait for some bridges. Got to a wide open section of waterway north of Belair bridge and I wanted to run since we went slow the rest of the way. Halfway caught up to tow boat who is running dead center of ICW.

Now I have overtaken before as well as been overtaken. Usually it’s a trawler or sail we overtake. I always drop off plane very close but back enough they do not get the wake. Then give a short toot of horn, they slow some, I bump up a little, and after we are far enough ahead we plane off again. I do the same for others including taking it out of gear to get them by quicker.

But Mr towboat seems to not hear my horn. No biggie, try a few more times. We are now alongside of him and he will not even look at us. Then he speeds up some. You know that he knows we are here and would like to pass. I am now at 1300-1400 RPM digging a hole. Long story short I just went ahead and took off. I should note that he did not seem to care I did that, just turned into the wake.

So does a stand on vessel get to not give way and set the speed for everyone behind them? This is in a very wide waterway with plenty of room for all. Was just trying not to throw wake on a tow.

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

First off. Short toot, I’m overtaking on your starboard. Two short toots, I’m overtaking on your port. Which one did you do? Second, there’s the radio. Me, I whistle up sailboats and radio powerboats to make sure he’s aware. Stand on was given the opportunity for a slow pass and passed on it-his call. Not replying is discourteous and, in this case, sounds unprofessional. If the pass was in wide open channel, why ask him to give way when you can stay away. On the other hand, you ever see wrecker drivers obeying the traffic laws?

[madhatter1]

Single short toot 3 times. Was on his starboard since he was in center of channel. Loud horn. He had to of heard it. Even if Channel was 3 times as wide I still would slow down as we never want to give towed boat wake from behind. Out in the Gulf if I see a tow I go WAY around them.

I don’t understand the mentality. It’s like a left lane loafer that speeds up if you just try and go around on the right lane. (I travel a lot and have that covered!&#128513

[Dan Mapes]

Was it a hip tow or a line tow? If you rock a tow they may come after you for damages.

We were heading South to Vero and came upon a hip tow sitting off to the side of Grand Harbor Marina. So we back down from 8 knots to under 4, and swing wide to the Eastern far side of the channel. We are barely making a ripple and they are abeam of us when another boat comes roaring in between us and rocks the crap out of all of us.
We pull into the Vero Beach City Marina and are fueling up. The tow pulls in as well and the S.O. observes him writing down our port of call. So I confront him and ask what he thinks he is doing. He says I can't go after the other boat so I am coming after you.
Swell.
So I called police because things were getting heated. The owner of the franchise shows up all pissy because he is missing out on something and lays into me like the heft of our boat did all this even though we were going slowly.

As it turned out the owner of the towed boat told everyone it wasn't me. The police said, looks like he has a witness. I said go ahead and come after me, I'll sue your ass.

They left us alone. I went back to the boat threw some crap around and eventually calmed down.

So, IMHO if you rock a tow, look out.

[oscarvan]

On the other hand, you ever see wrecker drivers obeying the traffic laws?

Don't get me started.

If you are a rollback in normal traffic with a dead car on the back you're just another freaking truck. There is nothing that says you can do 85mph with a crap ton of BLINDING amber strobes going. If you're a tow truck towing with a legal light bar on the tow, same thing. No need for strobes!

The same goes for plumbers, electricians, tree services and municipal trucks on an interstate doing 65 or utility trucks PARKED in a Home Depot lot.....turn the %^)#@ STROBES OFF.

If you're creating a potential hazard to traffic, by all means please use the strobes to alert people. That's what they are for. But only then. As a result of these morons amber strobes mean nothing anymore.....completely devalued. Maybe I should get some.....

And what the *$%^ is with the wide loads weaving in and out of traffic at 80 mph?

Why the hell is the law not enforced here?

Ok, sorry, I'm going to take a Xanex and breathe deeply now.

[Freeebird]

Ah, the good old hip tow.

Reminds me of the CEO of Sea Ray getting into a major pissing contest years ago with a houseboat owner who was being hip towed by a friend with a runabout in the main channel. Seems a doodad or two was lost, and they traded a little paint between the houseboat and attached runabout. The 500 Sundancer with 735HP 892’s idled at almost 10MPH (he used that excuse a number of times) around the marina. I actually ran that boat a few times, and if you didn’t walk it, it threw a pretty good wake.

Seems attorneys got involved, but I think it came to a draw. They made money, but nobody else did. CEO did make a wake, but houseboat guy wasn’t displaying a day shape indicating a tow. This was WAY before commercial towing came to be.

If someone prefers a slow motion drag race, I’ll give them one, but I think I would keep my distance from a commercial towing scenario. One would certainly expect them to monitor and respond to a hail on 16 though.

Can we talk about sailbotes now?

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

Ah, the good old hip tow. Reminds me of the CEO of Sea Ray getting into a major pissing contest years ago with a houseboat owner who was being hip towed by a friend with a runabout in the main channel. Seems a doodad or two was lost, and they traded a little paint between the houseboat and attached runabout. The 500 Sundancer with 735HP 892’s idled at almost 10MPH (he used that excuse a number of times) around the marina. I actually ran that boat a few times, and if you didn’t walk it, it threw a pretty good wake. Seems attorneys got involved, but I think it came to a draw. They made money, but nobody else did. CEO did make a wake, but houseboat guy wasn’t displaying a day shape indicating a tow. This was WAY before commercial towing came to be. If someone prefers a slow motion drag race, I’ll give them one, but I think I would keep my distance from a commercial towing scenario. One would certainly expect them to monitor and respond to a hail on 16 though. Can we talk about sailbotes now?

Gotta say, passed four or five sailboats on the way down here (HHI) and every one of them gave way on my whistle. Most unusual.

[Pascal]

I always hail on 16 advising the slower boat I will do a slow pass on their port/stbd side. If no reply after two attempt I use the horn too. The hail on 16 also serves as a CYA. If the other guy doesn’t slow I do one last call saying it would be easier if they slowed

This way everybody hears it and they can say you blasted out of nowhere

[oscarvan]

This way everybody hears it and they can say you blasted out of nowhere

IF anyone is listening, and IF you can find them if the legal crap hits the fan. Which brings up an interesting point.... I assume there are aviation style voice recorders on the bridges of large ships which record conversation on the bridge as well as radio traffic.....

Wouldn't be hard to mount a $50 dash cam or two on the bridge of ones yacht to record what happened out there and in there.....

Sad it's come to that but since eye witness reports are notoriously unreliable and the guilty will often remember things differently for convenience we need all the protection we can get.

[rsmith]

No matter how careful you are sooner or later some crybaby will start screaming at you. Giving a wide berth doesn’t help either. It goes from a short quick over and done to a long protracted rolling on beams ends.