Scuba Shack's Boat Get Wet Sinks in Key Largo

[highflier]

Wow,

I can not see that much water getting into a hatch that is closed even without seals. Especially if the bildge pump is in good working order. But it does sound like the CG is getting to the cause. We also now know the size of the boat.

Thanks for posting the link Reefman.


Highflier
PS. in my last 32' I had 3 pumps. 2 in the engine compartment (wanted 2 incase 1 failed.) then a 3rd about midway up the hull. This one was really easy to inspect and change etc..... From the report it sounds like there was only 1 bildge on this vessel

 

[spoolin01]

Interesting update on the mechanics of sinking. Curious no mention is made of the primary weakness in the hull design - the transom door. It's amazing that any boat where there is a transom door cutout that opens up the hull down to only a foot or so above the waterline, would be considered seaworthy without a 100% watertight cockpit to compensate for the lack of freeboard. It's amazing such a boat would pass a marine survey. If you want a convenience like that, build the door a like a watertight bulkhead door.

 

[spoolin01]

Wow,

I can not see that much water getting into a hatch that is closed even without seals. Especially if the bildge pump is in good working order. But it does sound like the CG is getting to the cause. We also now know the size of the boat.

Thanks for posting the link Reefman.


Highflier
PS. in my last 32' I had 3 pumps. 2 in the engine compartment (wanted 2 incase 1 failed.) then a 3rd about midway up the hull. This one was really easy to inspect and change etc..... From the report it sounds like there was only 1 bildge on this vessel

With water coming up from underneath, the unsecured hatch can float free and open up a huge hole. If the cockpit isn't sealed all the way around and up the sides - like a tub - when the boat squats, portals into the bilge can be underwater. The kind of bilge pumps installed in small vessels aren't even close to capable of coping with a hull breach - if the breach is bigger than the 1/2" diameter pump outlet you can see that even several pumps just aren't going to keep up. The key here though - even if the boat design put the batteries in a place where the boat could partially swamp and still have operational pumps - is that once the boat squatted by just a few inches, the 18" gap at the waterline, due to the transom door, meant the boat was going down in just a few seconds more. Had the freeboard instead been 3-4 feet all around, not just 99% of the way, the boat would not have sunk at all so quickly. Everytime I look at a rough water boat with a transom door only a few inches above waterline, I wonder WTF are these people thinking?

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Pat & rowan Take care.



Glad to here amit is still fighting and would like to know his status as there is nothing when ya search him online.

Also glad fry has cleared up that they were not in cabin bow and hatch stuck them in. yet the engine cover did it was enough to make you know what happen in those last seconds. Terrible, just terrible, yet i know how fast things happen, twice with my wife involved and I would not be able to live with myself if it were fatal for her. physics of water is so underestimated when things are going along fine, as a scuba diver you feel so comfortable till you get in different current or surf surge, then that certain feeling hits you.

 

[LynnB]

in todays florida keys keynoter,



'Get Wet' capsizing not so clear-cut


reefman
key largo

Wow scarey and very sad. That could have been us.

 

[conchrandy]

spoolin just about nailed it. A sequence of events doomed the GW. Excellent analysis. Rumors going around KL about an intermittent bilge pump.

Even before this incident, the local USCG inspector wanted to include 6 packs. Might happen after this. Remember the GW failed an inspection. Rhetorically. should they been allowed to continue to take for hire passengers on any level?

This op was a KL anomaly. 90% of the dive shops in the Upper Keys run safe, first class SCUBA tours. We don't need shops like this impugning our reputation.

 

[ConchyJoe]

Curious no mention is made of the primary weakness in the hull design - the transom door.

I am going to respectfully disagree with this statement.

A dive boat with an open transom is as safe as the components employed to allow water washed on the deck through the open transom to also leave the deck back through the open transom as well as scuppers.

A key component is to have a deck with hatches that close properly, seal properly, and are secured properly so they do not open accidentally.

It seems from this latest report that the hatches were not secured properly, and let a significant amount of water into the bilge. This is what most likely will be major factor in this boat sinking.

Even if the deck hatches were not sealed properly, but were secured properly, we most likely would not be having this conversation.

To Pat Rhoads:

Please accept my sincere condolences. My Mother was the first NAUI certified SCUBA instructor, and has taught 1000's of people to dive over the years. I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt her #1 concern was for the safety of her students and certified divers. She never had any incidents with her students. But this was back in the day when there was a minimum of 40 hours of class work alone, and you walked away actually knowing what Subcutaneous Emphysema and Mediastinal Pneumothorax was. She burned safety into my brain too. A complete and thorough check of the dive boat was completed before we left to pick up passengers. And there were cases where even as little as a bilge pump, of which there were four, along with a manual whale gusher, or spare VHF radio did not work, and we did not dive that day.

I wish you the best going forward.

 

[boulderjohn]

A dive boat with an open transom is as safe as the components employed to allow water washed on the deck through the open transom to also leave the deck back through the open transom as well as scuppers.

A key component is to have a deck with hatches that close properly, seal properly, and are secured properly so they do not open accidentally.

Those who were involved with this thread from the start may remember that the early posts that were deleted were related to this topic and the concern that this had been a known problem for a while.

 

[conchrandy]

Newtons have an open transom and have addressed the attendant issues.

 

[Splitlip]

Those who were involved with this thread from the start may remember that the early posts that were deleted were related to this topic and the concern that this had been a known problem for a while.

Yeah. I found that very interesting when I read comments of the CG officer in the KeyNoter story.