Stopping a run-away boat ... my attempt failed

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DaleH

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Did anyone else see this on the news? Right in front of me to the starboard and right in the area of an informal mooring area, 4 kids were dumped out of a boat @ high speed-to-WOT and the empty boat began circling in 200' circles. As I turned to assist, I saw another boat already going for the kids in the water, so I went for the errant boat, since I figured that it was likely that no one else knew how to 'try' and stop a runaway boat.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news...ay/vp-BB16lbDu

I have a small float tied to a 50' length of heavy floating poly line and ran to the inside of the errant boat's circle (for safety). Towing the float behind me, I then I gunned it, ran ahead of the boat (0:19 in the video) and dropped the line as soon as the boat crossed my wake ... and in my case it was not 10' off my stern :shock: ! I dropped the rope out of my hand, once I felt it pulled by the boat, but unfortunately it didn't catch the prop and on the next turn-around, the errant boat smashed into the glass houseboat.

Now that 19' tin workboat had a 90hp Suzi to a 4-blade prop at full speed and was bouncing all over the place - see video. But it was my hope that the floating line would snag the prop and hopefully stall out the engine. My line was cut. Now this trick does work on smaller motors, but maybe in this case it was just too much HP? I sure wish it had worked and that I had arrived seconds earlier to perhaps have prevented the kid in the water from being hit by his own boat, as he is in serious condition and had to be medflighted to a hospital.

Lesson Learned:
I regret not putting my wife down into the cuddy cabin for safety, as just having her stay low to the floor of the cockpit wasn't smart enough ... to me now in hindsight thinking. It all did happen really FAST though, as I keep that line w/ float in a cockpit side storage box right behind my helm, with the rope flaked (look it up, LOL!) and in ~5-seconds or less I had it ready to deploy.

Lessons to be Learned?
Yeah guys, I'm kicking myself around on this one ... as in what could I have done differently? Right also there on my helm was a floating life ring to a 50' hank of 3-strand nylon, or down in my cockpit 'bilge' there was a 100' length of heavy 'pot warp', which if you know that line that the lobstermen use - it is TOUGH as nails! But I think I would have needed a better buoy to tow that line however, to keep it well up on the surface.

I will say that if I saw the empty boat going for another kid in the water I'd have no reservations about ramming the boat from the inside of its turn, as AwlGrip can always be repaired/repainted ...

Houseboat.jpg
 
Hi Dale,

You did what you could to render aid in the way you knew how. It's difficlut to not 2nd guess those decisions made in an emergency situation like that.

At least in this case, you and the other boater were near enough to prevent any deaths. Things could have gone far worse for those kids.

Just another example of why a kill switch is important. (I know larger boats don't always have one, but something that size should)

I'm glad you and your wife are ok.
 
WOW, that is crazy, scary stuff right there!! I have been in a small boat that I was thrown from and runaway at full throttle. It's a scary event! We all really should be using kill switch tethers no matter how big our boats are.
 
Kudos to you, I think you did the best you could in the situation you were put in and it was the courageous thing to do. What looks like a welded plate aluminum boat, at 19 ft is nothing to scoff at to wrangle by any means and I think it's nothing short of a miracle that houseboat caught the thing the way it did - the only other better outcome would be if the boat had beached itself.

I was actually on the the sandbar across from Cranes on Saturday in my 16 ft Lund - had I been placed into that situation just a day later, i would not have acted as rationally or taken steps to try and stop the boat.

Looking at what you're thinking in hindsight, I'm convinced if you had gotten a few more chances with additional circles, you would have remembered the additional line you had and gone forward with another attempt with it.

Even posting here with an analysis and your thoughts give me a better perspective of the kind of equipment I might want on board and the actions I can take to help in a situation like this (out of control boat = line in the water to foul the prop).

While I know it's probably a rough spot from where you are feeling like you could have done more, but realize you stepped up when you were called on. While you didn't stop the boat, you were available to help the kids if that other boater didn't pick them up and not everyone can say they would react the same way if they were in your shoes.

Sent from my Nokia 7.2 using Tapatalk

 
Well, your attempt didnt exactly fail.

You took action and hit the money with your line, so thats more than most people would know to do.


The fact that your line wasnt up to it?

What if it were a 250? 300hp motor?

You can only prepare for so much.

You did good. You did way better than the people in the house boat.
 
that was an impressive snag you pulled off even if the rope was cut!

coming from a jetski world where ending up in the water is just part of it, i am a big proponent of tether kill switches. I ordered one last night to fit to my controls to replace a long bypassed and removed unit.

hopefully the kid will make a full recovery and it looks like the old houseboat will live to fight another day.
 
Kudfos to you for trying to stop it. Most peeps would just sit back & watch. Hope the injure kid comes back 100%
 
Now, let's just hope the houseboat owner's insurance company doesn't come after you, claiming that if you hadn't "interfered", the runaway wouldn't have hit the houseboat.
Maybe I'm reaching, but truth is stranger than fiction.

Roger
 
GTS225 said:
Now, let's just hope the houseboat owner's insurance company doesn't come after you, claiming that if you hadn't "interfered", the runaway wouldn't have hit the houseboat.

... let 'em come after me ... since it was his own kid F'ing around prior to the incident ... let 'em try.

RiverBottomOutdoors said:
You could have made the situation much worse with that move.
With all due respect ... you're nuts. You're most certainly entitled to an opinion, but if I agreed with you, then we'd both be wrong :roll: .

And sadly this is NOT the 1st time I've responded to a run-away boat situation and the last time, yes, my Father was successful in stopping the run-away boat using the same float/rope technique, where my brothers and I were the crew that deployed it and the run-away boat operator was also hit by the prop. And not only that, the artery in his leg was severed and he was bleeding out ... so my Mother stuck her hand inside his leg and clamped his leg artery closed. She and the victim were ferried from boat to dock to ambulance together and all the way to the hospital and her hand was only removed well after he was on the table in the emergency trauma operating room.
 
DaleH said:
... let 'em come after me ... since it was his own kid F'ing around prior to the incident ... let 'em try.

Well, now.....THAT should change things up a bit. I don't think you mentioned that in your initial post.
Gotta love a little irony.

Roger
 
You endangered your life and your wife's life for nothing...a boat and property...which could have put more lives at risk to help you. That's not nuts, it's stupid with a capital S. Hero's often make situations worse by playing cowboy. Luckily, your wife wasn't harmed by your brash decision making. A good captain is responsible for the safety of HIS CREW and HIS PASSENGERS first and foremost.
 
RiverBottomOutdoors said:
You endangered your life and your wife's life for nothing...a boat and property...which could have put more lives at risk to help you. That's not nuts, it's stupid with a capital S. Hero's often make situations worse by playing cowboy. Luckily, your wife wasn't harmed by your brash decision making. A good captain is responsible for the safety of HIS CREW and HIS PASSENGERS first and foremost.

You seem to have a rather high opinion of yourself. :roll:
 
Well, that redneck waterslide is still perfectly usable. Got to love that bucket and rope on the roof.

Seriously, that boat probably hit in the best possible spot.
 

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