50 Hatt C destroyed

[geofish]

I read this on another site very bad.

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...ptain.com%29&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13620937210462

This may be from the PO

The boat was a 1981 50' Hatteras. We sold the boat to them last week. They were on the way to Venezuela. It is a tragic thing. The guys on the boat were very nice and all had experance. They had surveyed the boat and then went through the systems, they even went a bought all new safety equiptment before they left. They had a captain (from Miami we think) on board. They left North Myrtle Beach and were stopping in Charleston for the first leg as a shakedown and then were going to run at just above idle to head south.

 

[RT46]

The two photos of the large pieses of debris seem to suggest a significant collision.

is the redish-brown color on the foredeck section from a commercial vessel hull paint?

 

[jim rosenthal]

I think this was alluded to in another thread. The foredeck piece looks like the foredeck of a Hatteras convertible, the remaining hatch in particular. What else could hit you so hard out there, besides an ocean-going ship? Very sad.

 

[Jaxfishgyd]

Latest from Jacksonville...
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2013-02-24/story/5-pm-update-boater-idd-boat-crash-jacksonville

 

[Pascal]

If it was a new ferreti Bertram, well hitting a coconut could have done that but an old Hatt? Had to be by and solid

Sad... A good reminder to be careful!

 

[SeaEric]

Based upon the info in this thread - this is (was) the boat.

 

[Freeebird]

I read this on another site very bad.

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...ptain.com%29&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13620937210462

This may be from the PO

The boat was a 1981 50' Hatteras. We sold the boat to them last week. They were on the way to Venezuela. It is a tragic thing. The guys on the boat were very nice and all had experance. They had surveyed the boat and then went through the systems, they even went a bought all new safety equiptment before they left. They had a captain (from Miami we think) on board. They left North Myrtle Beach and were stopping in Charleston for the first leg as a shakedown and then were going to run at just above idle to head south.

Looks like your link to that info got lost in your edit, but here is the source along with addtional info and a photo of the boat prior to the incident.

http://www.thehulltruth.com/florida-georgia/488297-ship-eats-sport-fisher.html

 

[rsmith]

I think this was alluded to in another thread. The foredeck piece looks like the foredeck of a Hatteras convertible, the remaining hatch in particular. What else could hit you so hard out there, besides an ocean-going ship? Very sad.

C'mon doc give me credit for knowing something will ya? Seriously big ships at night are traveling faster than you think. Anyone thats swordfished off Fla. or even the Ne canyons will tell you that these big turkeys will sneak up on you very quickly. Many are manned with foreign crews that could care less about altering course to avoid a small boat. I swear sometimes I think they aim at you. In any event darkness at sea is no time to let your guard down.

 

[geofish]

C'mon doc give me credit for knowing something will ya? Seriously big ships at night are traveling faster than you think. Anyone thats swordfished off Fla. or even the Ne canyons will tell you that these big turkeys will sneak up on you very quickly. Many are manned with foreign crews that could care less about altering course to avoid a small boat. I swear sometimes I think they aim at you. In any event darkness at sea is no time to let your guard down.

I used to stand watch at night on swordfish long liners keeping an eye on the hiflyer with the cylumes and stobes, we never shut the engine off just idled and put the boat in gear once and a while to stay close to the end of the line. I remember many occasions when I called big ships to ask them to alter course and almost always they never answered, just kept coming. I am talking about 70-85 foot steel fishing boats that you can see on radar with lights on 24/7. These ships come fast and even though they display the correct nav lights they look small, sometimes you can mistake them for maybe being 2 different boats as the range lights and mast lights are so far apart. I feel bad for the crew of that 50' Hatt, it is a nightmare come true. I know it's a pain in the ass but if you are going to drift or travel at night I would recommend a bridge watch alarm and 2 people on watch at any given time during the dark hours. Just look at what is left of that stout boat! Whatever happend was quick and very violent.
I know it's illegal but I have an amber strobe light in my upper rigging that I turn on when anchored or drifting it gives me a bit of peace of mind.
I don't want to read any more stories like this.

Smooth Sailing All

 

[boatwright]

in the 90's when crusing on our sailboat there were many warnings about the submarines operating in the st. simons area. low.fast, not well lit.when on when on "mission"not willing to acknowlege their presence. even in daytime it's the wake not the boat you notice first

 

[captddis]

That boat was a few slips down from us in Myrtle Beach when Jack and I holed up for Irene.

 

[34Hatt]

in the 90's when crusing on our sailboat there were many warnings about the submarines operating in the st. simons area. low.fast, not well lit.when on when on "mission"not willing to acknowlege their presence. even in daytime it's the wake not the boat you notice first

Like this

 

[saltshaker]

What a tragedy. Like Dave said, that boat was a few slips from us at Doc Holiday's in N. Myrtle Beach. That boat was ripped to pieces maybe there was an explosion on board. I think the point of a submarine also makes a lot of sense. That is a heavy commercial traffic area. If they were having problems or no one was on watch, they could easily have been hit. I don't know much about the operations aboard large ships but I would have thought someone would be on watch and someone would be monitoring the electronics. A large ship may not have been able to avoid the hit but at least could have reported it and offered assistance. Seems odd that no one has reported anything which is why an explosion comes to mind.

 

[Passages]

What could possibly be on a 50 Hatt to cause that type of explosion? Dive gear - don't think so.

I can't think of any explaination other that a collision with a large vessel. A sub? Perhaps, I've had them pop up unexpectedly while cruising Long Island and Block Island Sound. The "Boomers" (ICBM launch platforms) are unbelievably large and fast. Once, we saw one in Block island sound and we wanted to get a bit closer for a better view.. I pushed my Wellcraft to over 30 knots and could not catch up to it.

But it wouldn't take a sub doing +30 to do that much damage. Perhaps in the dark, the delivery captain mis read the the lights of a barge under tow. A quarter mile can seperate the tug & tow. Cut behind the tug and get tangled in the cable and you will be fed straight into the jaws of a fully loaded barge.

The fact that only the captains body was found leads me to believe that this was a sudden collision. Getting caught in a cable will give you a bit of time to react and get the crew up from their bunks. I suspect the Captain had little warning and the crew never knew what hit them - they are probably still in the hull of the doomed Hatt.

Radar reflectors and AIS on the Hatt could have helped avoid this tragedy.

 

[Bob Bradley]

Radar reflectors and AIS on the Hatt could have helped avoid this tragedy.

Only if someone is at the helm of the commercial vessel.

There was an incident at the NE canyons (Hudson Canyon IIRC) about 10 years ago where a large comm vessel went tearing thru the tuna fleet in the middle of the night. A few boats trained their lights on the cabin house and no on was in sight. No response to radio either. Luckily no one was run down.

 

[saltshaker]

... Perhaps in the dark, the delivery captain mis read the the lights of a barge under tow. A quarter mile can seperate the tug & tow. Cut behind the tug and get tangled in the cable and you will be fed straight into the jaws of a fully loaded barge.

I was speaking to someone earlier about this and that was his thoughts. If you look closely at the pic of the remains of the flybridge, it looks like everything was sheared off. The console is gone, the seats are gone, the tower, electronics etc all gone. Look at the stantions for the helm seats. They are cut off just above the base. This explanation makes the most sense so far.

 

[thoward]

I was speaking to someone earlier about this and that was his thoughts. If you look closely at the pic of the remains of the flybridge, it looks like everything was sheared off. The console is gone, the seats are gone, the tower, electronics etc all gone. Look at the stantions for the helm seats. They are cut off just above the base. This explanation makes the most sense so far.

While I am sure some drift was involved, 22 miles out is pretty close to the stream. It does not make a lot of sense to be fighting the stream on a Southern delivery. There is a ton of commercial traffic out there but, in my experience, the barge traffic is closer in. I would imagine a bulbus bow would easily skewer any FRP boat.

 

[saltshaker]

Take a look at this pic. It's what's left of the bridge. Everything is sheared off a few inches above the deck. The flybridge apron is gone and very little of the sides are left. The only thing that survived this is that battery box and what looks like an 8D battery
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...sterious-boat-wreckage-off-florida-coast?lite

 

[Freeebird]

I was speaking to someone earlier about this and that was his thoughts. If you look closely at the pic of the remains of the flybridge, it looks like everything was sheared off. The console is gone, the seats are gone, the tower, electronics etc all gone. Look at the stantions for the helm seats. They are cut off just above the base. This explanation makes the most sense so far.

Seems to me it's almost too clean for that scenario. That and the amount of speed that would to be necessary to decapitate the boat to that extent. If it were an explosion, seems to me that would be easy enough to determine as there would have to be some burnt edges and/or debris.

 

[hromberg]

My bet is they had a 1 pound can of propane aboard for a torch or a grill, it leaked, and there was a spark.