Dangerous Captain

[rwerner]

I live in the Keys and bought a Grady White from a friend of a fellow Captain. He's an older guy and very friendly, if not overly friendly.

He asked if he could borrow my new boat for a charter. He convinced me by saying he had taken the boat out more than I had, which he had as he captained the boat many times for the friend that sold me the boat.

He showed up 8 hours later with one lower unit ripped off and the other cracked open. He said he hit "something" in the middle of the canal. I talked to the instructor who was on board and she said he ran it aground leaving the channel, and then continued the trip without examining the damage until the one lower unit seized. She said the customers were terrified and he acted like nothing was wrong.

The owner of the shop he worked for said he was on board their boat only for his ticked as he has ruined many a prop on their catamaran and would never run their boat again.

He did not report this to the coast guard, and did not pay me for the damage either.
6 months later in another 6 pack boat, he untied the boat after a night dive before starting the motors and ran the boat on the reef sinking it with 6 passengers. He did not report this to the coast guard until the next day. Rumor has it he was caught by Marine Patrol trying to pull the boat into deep water with the shops other captain to avoid fines, but that is just a rumor.

After the sinking, I contacted the Coast Guard about the first incident, they were not interested.

He has now run the shops big boat into a channel marker doing $4000 damage to the engine.

3 serious wrecks in one year and he not only still has his captain's license, but is still employed at the shop.

I feel genuinly concerned that this guy is going to kill someone. He is a terribly inept captain. When he was on my boat, he did not know it had trim tabs, nor what they did.

The Coast Guard does not reply to my emails, and I always make sure they are professional and factual. Do I just let it go and wait until someone is hurt or killed?

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Will you identify the shop for us?

 

[Tortuga James]

If all this is true and you feel sure that it is, then file a report with your local CG MSO. If they do not advance the investigation, you have done your duty as required.

 

[SkipperJohn]

Sounds like a scene from Captain Ron.
What a nightmare. Why isn't this guy flipping burgers at MacDonald's instead of running a boat? I know literally hundreds of boaters, none of them with any sort of licenses and no one has is close to that level of ineptness. Lets hope he either gets better or looses his license before anyone or any gets hurt or he does any more damage.

 

[Sprokit]

I don't see how any shop could have employed him, given the number of insurance claims. Most insurers review past sins before renewals (particularly a business). The coast guard works off of documented evidence. You should have reported the incident on your boat to both your insurer and the coasties. What would have happened if the terrified customer had reported the incident to the coast guard themselves? Given the damage, I would next have contacted a good laywer. I hope that you had your boat well surveyed after the incident. As well as Gardy's are built (I own one), I would be seriously checking for transom damage (assuming that you are powered by OB's).

 

[rjack321]

I have to question some of your claims and hearsay...
Are you just sucking up the loses?? Ripping off the lower unit, cracking another one? I have a hard time beleiving you are fixing these yourself out of your own pocket or lying to your own insurance about how these things supposedly happened etc.

I would not expect the CG to reply to your emails, law enforcement usually won't respond with more than "thank you for your information" anyway.

I would write the MSO a certrified letter with pictures and documentation of your own losses. Everyone else's hypothetical losses are just that, speculative. Report the facts as you know them, anything more than that makes you look like a competitor with a grudge.

 

[DiveBee]

Seems to me that he ate the (financial/repair) loss, after making the mistake and letting the guy run his boat. I dont think anyone of LE agencies would be interested in this case. Out of all the other incidents, sinking that other boat and then dragging the wreck deep seems like major illegal activity (not reporting oil/fuel spill to EPA/CG, damaging the reef, creating illegal artificial reef w/out proper license, etc). If he actually got pulled over while doing that, he would be in court system getting sued by the authorities. Looks like you got lucky with just lower unit damage, your motors probably popped up (OB/IO) after impact and there should be no major structural hull damage otherwise. Do not let anyone run your damn boat ever again, no matter how friendly.