Will the Coast Guard ever charge for service?

Two news items caught my attention this week. First was this USCG story about the search and towing of a disabled sailboat just south of Block Island last week. [the story is also covered here with a picture, and here with comments; searching Google News returns more of the same] From the USCG news page:

BOSTON - The Coast Guard rescued four people aboard a storm-ravaged sailboat Friday, about 7 miles south of Block Island, R.I. The crew of the 45-foot Moonshine left East Greenwich, R.I., Friday morning, bound for Puerto Rico, when they were caught in an offshore storm, which ripped their sails and disabled their propulsion. They activated their emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB)....

Gosh, where do I begin? One common thread through all the eight separate news reports I've seen is that this boat was "caught in a storm," or even "caught in an offshore storm". That is total bull, as the Nor'easter that slammed New England on December 19th was well predicted; no competent sailor would have been caught by surprise by that storm, nor was it somehow offshore. It dumped snow all over Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Every account of this rescue says the boat left their marina on Friday morning. At 0607 that morning, the NWS issued this weather forecast for the area:

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
607 AM EST FRI DEC 19 2008

NORTHWEST PROVIDENCE RI-SOUTHEAST PROVIDENCE RI-WESTERN KENT RI-EASTERN KENT RI-BRISTOL RI-WASHINGTON RI-NEWPORT RI-
607 AM EST FRI DEC 19 2008

...WINTER STORM WARNING WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 3 AM EST SATURDAY...

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHERN CONNECTICUT....NORTHERN RHODE ISLAND AND SOUTHERN RHODE ISLAND.

COASTAL WATERS FROM MONTAUK NY TO BLOCK ISLAND RI TO MARTHAS VINEYARD MA TO NANTUCKET MA SOUTHEAST TO 20 NM
607 AM EST FRI DEC 19 2008

...GALE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 7 AM EST SATURDAY...

These weather forecasts alone are enough to establish that these sailors were not caught in a storm - they began their voyage in only one of two ways. Either they departed despite the forecast, or they never listened to the weather at all. It's hard for me to argue which of those two options is the more despicable. In any case, due to a raging blizzard and gale winds, the USCG performed admirably and towed these fools from the deep-doo back to safe harbor (atta-boys to the crew at PJ and he helo pilot, you know who you are!). Meanwhile, the family of the of the sailboat's captain claim that the MAYDAY was merely a result of a seasick crew [see end of this story] and there was nothing wrong with the boat. Photos of the boat after the tow shows what looks like a nicely flaked mainsail wrapped over the boom, indicate to me that the vessel was probably capable of making way on her own power despite the shredded jibs.

Bonus question: did the Coast Guard really tow that boat for 7 hours with the foresails hoisted like that, just flapping in the breeze?

Now, on to the second story, which is this article in the NYT : Those Lost in Wilderness May Find Bill for a Rescue.

In response to the multitude of hikers, cross-country skiers and others who venture unprepared into the wilderness, become lost and have to call for help, the State of New Hampshire is billing people for rescues stemming from their own negligence, like not taking a map on a hike, wandering away from a group or going out in dangerous conditions....
Since 1999, 20 groups or people have been rescued and charged, and the state — which collects only what it costs in equipment and personnel for a rescue — has recouped $47,000. Officials said only two people who were rescued have not paid. Those billed who do not pay could face civil charges.

I find it interesting that many of the private comments left by readers of the sailor saga mention that they should be charged for the Coast Guard's response. Count me in for that idea! Can someone please explain the difference between a mapless hiker and a clueless sailor? Who can argue that the master of the MOONSHINE hasn't acted recklessly, even negligently? Why should this guy get a free pass, yet a hiker with no map gets charged?

The irony here is that most hikers don't have any ready access to an insurance policy that would cover the costs of rescue and probably end up paying the bill out of their own pockets -- unlike most boaters, who actually have at least one, if not TWO (counting hull insurance and membership towing) sources of funds to help offset the costs of getting help. So if the Coasties started to charge for situations like the one above, the boater could probably send the bill to his insurance company.

I wonder what the hourly costs of running a 47' MLB are?

North Reef at Night

A few loyal readers have commented that they would like to see more video of my work out here at Block Island. Much of the footage I have isn't very dramatic, and frankly would bore most of the subscribers to RedRightReturning. But, they don't call me Captain Hollywood for nothing. I did find some video of a job I had last month. Before you watch this clip, let me set the stage so you'll understand what you are seeing.

The north end of Block Island tapers to a point, understandably named Sandy Point, and extending quite far out from there is the Block Island North Reef, which might have been more correctly name the Block Island Deadly, Narrow and Particularly Nasty Long Sand Bar. I guess North Reef fits better on the charts.

This sandbar is very narrow, and the west side is really almost an underwater cliff: it drops from ankle deep to twelve feet in less than a boat length. The east side is more like a traditional beach, with the depths gradually decreasing from ten feet deep about 200 yards to the east to the ankle deep bar itself. (This geography makes for some very strange seas, and even on this very calm night, you will notice some small breakers that look like they are coming towards my vessel, as if I was on the beach, when actually I'm in deeper water to the west the strand.) That long bar on the chart never really drys even at low tide. It lurks down there below the surface, waiting for the unwary boater or lazy navigator.

About 2100hrs one night, a sailboat calls Mayday and reports himself aground at the north end of Block Island. There was a bunch of thunderstorms rolling down Long Island Sound, but otherwise it was calm and clear. I was underway lickity-split, while the USCG directed all their rescue efforts to playing 20 questions with the mariner on the radio (they never did launch any physical assets to the area that I know of).

From the time I got underway to the time I arrived on scene was probably less than 10 minutes. When I had visual contact, I asked the boater if he had gone aground coming from the east or the west - the answer would make a difference to my approach and which direction I might pull him off. He thought he had come from the west, and as you will see, he was wrong. A boater who has run into an island at night is generally not your best source of reliable navigational information - but you gotta start somewhere...(look again at the chart, he was between the 9' and the 4' depths that straddle the reef just north of Sandy Point)

The video begins as I approach from the west (deeper and steeper side) of the reef, and I spin around in preparation to toss him a bridle. As you watch the video, you can actually see the reef just under my swim platform. In the backgound, the Block Island North Light blinks mockingly just behind the grounded boat.

I heard a few shells and stones rattling around in the jet, which is the boat's way of telling me it's time for Plan B. Fortunately, with the jet boat, running over hard shell and sand isn't the end of the world; it doesn't even really slow the job down.

I quickly zipped around to the other side of the reef. This eastern approach presents a few problems of its own. The depths on that side are very shallow, and when the current is running, it will set you towards the reef. As you can see, conditions were calm on this night, and I had no trouble backing up to his stern and practically handing him my bridle. The look on the faces of his family huddled in the cockpit tells a story about their experience.

As you will see, everything turns out fine, and we even beat those thunderstorms back to the harbor.

When Good Jobs Go Bad, Part 2

File Part 2 of this story under "I'd rather be lucky than good any day."

Here is a single frame of my video of the 3 boat raft-up adventure, just as I attempt to implement Modified Plan A. If you remember, this was the plan that sucked wind, and the guy's chain was just reeling out of the chain locker.

This little video clip begins just before the the towline gets sucked up into the port jet.





You can listen to me and the Harbormaster discuss the situation, and towards the end of the clip, my luck changes. Somehow, the anchor line that was fouled from the 4th boat magically get un-fouled, and I was able to tow the whole mess across the channel and grab a mooring. WHEW!

I pulled the 3 boats over to me, and then jumped in the water to access the damage. The guy's anchor was hanging about 8" below the grate of my port jet, still clipped in my snap hook! The chain had all run through the snap hook, and lifted the anchor right up to the bottom of my boat. (the launch boat with the fenders all around is the Harbormaster's boat)
The owners of the sailboats all showed up about this time, and they secured their boats on separate moorings.

I learned a long time ago that a job isn't finished until the boat is ready for the next job, so once I had the 3 boats secured on moorings, I still had to get the line out of my jet. Fortunately, a good friend and colleague of ours has a mooring service boat with a 2 Ton A-Frame crane. I had Ben from Edwards Marine meet me over at the mooring boat.

We had to lift the back of the towboat up about 15" to get the jet access plate above the water line, which was easily accomplished with a bridle attached to the D rings welded to my transom.

Once up in the air, we had the tedious task of cutting and hacking countless wraps of Amsteel and 3/4" nylon from the jet drive shaft. The Amsteel we use for towline is really cool stuff, until you have to cut it. We used 3 brand new knives making about 10 slices. Here is a picture of Ben taking a turn with the knife. And here is the remains of what we cut out.














So, this adventure began as a routine job and turned to total monkey dung, but the guardian angel of tow captains was on duty, my luck turned faster than a roulette wheel, and I made it to dinner before the kitchen closed.

When Good Jobs Go Bad, Part 1

File this story under: "Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug."

It all began quite routinely, as a thunderstorm approached Block Island on Wednesday. As this cloud passed, it started to rain, and the wind shifted from E @ 6 to W @ 15.

The weather caused a three boat raft-up of sailboats to drag anchor. At first, the Harbormaster and I sort of thought that they would fetch up, but it quickly became apparent that the three un-attended boats were heading for an innocent fourth boat anchored downwind, and we had to take some action to prevent a collision.

Sometimes, when a boat is dragging anchor, she is bearing down on other vessels, and there is no time to get aboard and haul her ground tackle - but you can't tow her with anchor still on the bottom. In those cases, a good option is to just hook on to her anchor rode with a big snap shackle at the end of your towline. When you begin to pull forward, the snap shackle will run down the rode and pull the anchor off the bottom, and you can then slowly tow the boat that way. In one quick step, you will lift the dragging anchor off the bottom, and create a makeshift towline to at least get the vessel out of a crowded anchorage to buy yourself some time and room to set up a more traditional tow. This technique is universally known as Plan A.

The trio of sailboats were all hanging on a single hook from the boat in the middle. Her chain rode was hanging over the bow roller, and I could see a nylon snubber off the starboard cleat. The chain hook on the snubber was a few feet below the surface, so I modified Plan A just a tad and opted to clip onto the chain at the bow roller, above the snubber - hoping to just pull the raft upwind a few yards and avoid the impending collision.

What's that saying? "Never change horses in mid stream." What happened was that the anchor chain was not secured in the chain locker, nor over the gypsy of the windlass, so as soon as I tried to pull, I was just pulling chain out of a chain locker, rather than towing the 3 boat raft upwind. Modified Plan A sucks wind. Now I was really running out of time, and I had to hustle back there and get a line on tout de suite!

I rushed back to the bow of the middle boat and quickly reconnected the tow line below the snubber, just as the Harbormaster informed me that the three boats were about to get T-boned by the bow of another vessel. With the tow line hooked up, time to get those jets in gear and implement Original Plan A.

WHAM! SCREECH! I cringed at the sound of my towline getting sucked up into my port jet, and wrapping around the impeller shaft at 1200rpm.....man, I hate that sound, don't you? Fortunately, it's a twin screw, so I can still maneuver. Maybe I can still pull this job off without too much drama....behind me, it looks like we've just missed that 4th boat, and I'm clear to implement Plan A, version 2.0 minus 1.

Except, as I pull the rafted boats away, the Harbormaster informs me that the 4th boat's rode is now snagged around the rudder of one of the boats that I'm towing.

Let's review: I've got one engine down. I've got a raft of 3 unmanned sailboats attached to my towboat in a manner that is probably not covered in the Hamilton Jet owner's manual, and I can't disconnect myself from the 3 sailboats because their anchor chain is now sucked up tight to my port intake. I'm not sure where the unmanned boat's anchor is except that it has to be somewhere between my jet intake and the bottom of the Pond (please, God, let it not be on the bottom!). And one of the 3 unmanned boats is now fouled over the anchor rode of yet a fourth boat. Did I mention that it's pouring rain and the winds are gusting around 20 kts. This job has pretty much turned to shit, don't you think?

....to be continued...

Stuff they don't teach in Risk Management Class

Pretend for a moment that you've been sent to pull a sailboat that is stranded on a very notorious rocky reef (I won't say where - it doesn't matter to the story here). Lets say the sailboat looks just like this one here.





....and lets say that you get your tow line all nicely hooked up, and you begin to pull......maybe you pull a little harder.....she's almost off.....







.....just a few more RPMs should do it.....















and then you hear a very bad sound...






If you click on the photo, you should see a larger version. This captain managed to get the job completed after a little more drama - he got his one of his wheels wrapped in a lobster pot. Just one of those days I guess....

Just a Few Tacos Shy...

...of a full combo platter. Thats an old saying to suggest that someone isn't playing with a full deck, or in this case, a few gallons shy of a full ocean crossing.

It seems our mariner here left Bermuda on Saturday, and headed up to New England, in part to set a record, and in part for some kind of charity.

Well, I'm trying to be as generous as I can, but I gotta wonder about the sanity of such a voyage. He told me the reason he was getting low on gas was the 40 kts of wind and 20' seas he encounted the night before; weather that wasn't predicted, I guess. I delivered 5 gallons of gas to him about 15 miles south of his destination of Newport, RI.

To bad he didn't have a membership...

Multi Tow Contest, current leader

Well, the piddly little triple tow picture I posted the other day has been put into perspective.

What a fool I was to even post such a meager accomplishment as that. Capt. Lee over at Poseidon Towing and Salvage has done a bunch of muliple tows. My favorite was this one: Thats 5 sail boats (one going backwards!) all behind one towboat.

Evidently, these were all derelicts from hurricane Wilma, all headed for the demo yard. How do you hip up to this mess?

Don't Try This at Home

Here is one that I bet most of you haven't tried. The story on this picture is that I was on my way up to Malibu (about 10 miles from MDR) to pick up a boat for a customer at the end of the season. He anchors his boat off the beach in front of his house. He couldn't be there, but I figured I could handle a 23' I/O by myself. This was a flat rate, scheduled tow. On my way up there, VA dispatch called and said they had a member disabled up near Malibu in a 16' SeaDoo Jetboat - could I tow that back to MDR? Sure, why not. I figure a tandem tow with two little boats is no big deal, and I can make tandem profits.

When I get up to the SeaDoo, the guy has put his boat on the lifeguard mooring, with another 10' SeaDoo jetboat tied behind the 16' Jetboat; and he has swum ashore to get his trailer. On the phone, he tells me the smaller boat got swamped while he tried to tow the larger one, and they both need to go to MDR. So, I gather up the 2 SeaDoo Jetboats, then head over to my original target, the 23' I/O.

With some careful maneuvering and favorable currents, I managed to get the entire mess all stretched out on two towlines. On the way home, I nervously looked back every few minutes to be sure all three little ducks were still following. About halfway to the harbor, I looked back and the smallest jetboat was gone! By now I was out of the lee and the chop was kicking up bigger than the photo. I turned around and found the AWOL boat about 1 mile back. Getting that hooked back up was a nightmere. Somehow, I got all 4 boats (3 casualites and 1 towboat) back to Marina Del Rey without futher ado.

So, a triple tow, all 3 unattended, and me with no deckhand.

More From the Strange & Weird Tow Archives

Well, the picture of me towing the ultra-light airplane generated some responses. So far, my favorite is this one. Not only did Richard Rodriguez from VAAA Friday Harbor tow an airplane, he was HIPPED UP to it!

Great picture Richard.

From the weird and strange tow archives

How many of you can claim you towed an airplane?

OK, this was a small ultralight, but still, it counts..Send me a photo of your weird tows, and I'll post them

File under "Challenging Tows"

Here is a picture of the USCGC DEPENDABLE towing the Nantucket Shoal Buoy, which was blown off station by storm NOEL...imagine the difficulty just getting the towline hooked up between a large steel buoy and a 210' Cutter? How fast can you tow a buoy? The crew of the DEPENDABLE did an excellent job of improvising in a situation that is probably not covered in the ops manual.

Nov. 7, 2007 - **PHOTO RELEASE** Coast Guard Cutter Dependable "rescues" stranded Nantucket Shoal buoy

Heavy Lifting

How much does that 10,000 pound keel weigh? Divers know that the answer begs another question: "submerged or dry?" Regardless of how much something weighs on dry land, once it is submerged, it is displacing water, and because water gets denser as it gets deeper, a displacement of water by any object, no matter how heavy, creates a force towards the surface.
Of course, metals, and all materials denser than water will still sink when submerged, but the interesting question for salvors is: how much force (or lift) will it take to get this material back to the surface? The answer may surprise you.


Say you have a wood sailboat on the bottom with a big hole in it. The boat's total dry weight is #20,000s (not displacement, but actual dry weight). Assume the boat has a #10,000 lead keel. So, you have to lift 10,000#s of lead and 10,000#s of Mahogany. How much lift do you need? We know the mahogany wants to come to the surface on its own, but how much lifting force can you expect the wood to add to the operation? Will the lead need #10,000s of lift?


If you know the specific gravity of a material, you can do some calculations to figure out how "heavy" that material is when submerged in FRESH water, which has a specific gravity of 1. A number of organizations publish a table, Factors for Converting Various Boat Materials from Dry to Submerged Weight, that makes figuring this out really easy. The one below is from ABYC, but may not be very readable. [click here for a readable version]

The raw calculations aren't all that complicated, but using this table and the "K Factor" is darn near foolproof. All you need to do is find the material on the table, and multiply the total dry weight of that material times the K Factor from the third column of the table to find the submerged weight. Be careful with the minus numbers of "buoyant" materials. Stuff that has a specific gravity less than water will have a negative K factor, meaning that your result will be a negative number, aka lift.

Apply this easy math to our sailboat problem. Honduras Mahogany has a K factor of minus (-0.78), so #10,000 of submerged mahogany will weigh 10,000 x (-0.78), which equals -7,800: minus 7,800, so the result is #7,800 of lift!

Now do the same for the lead keel: the K factor for lead is 0.91, so 10,000 x 0.91 = 9,100 pounds for the keel. Add the two submerged weights together: #9,100 of lead and a minus #7,800 of wood leaves only #1,300 of stuff to lift. If you add just #1,301 pound of lift to this boat, up she comes!

Obviously, the numbers aren't so easy in the real world. Boats aren't made of just two materials. They have cabinetry, wiring, pluming, machinery...but knowing how much lift you will need just to raise the hull material is really important; why waste time rigging #10,000 of lift when half that might do the job? My example sailboat doesn't exist, with half the weight of the boat in the keel, but the calculations are all the same.


A close look at the table reveals some very useful data. Fiberglass Laminate has a K factor! So does gasoline and Ferrocement. Suddenly, raising a #50,000 Ferrocement (K factor .58) sailboat with #9,000 of steel ballast (K factor .88) and 400 gallons of gasoline (K factor -0.37) in an aluminum tank might be possible with lift bags instead of a crane barge.

Feel free to print the table out and use it. The table is based on FRESH water. As salt water is a little denser than fresh, submerged objects in salt water will actually need just a tad less lifting force than they would in fresh. The difference is a pretty small number, and using the K factor in salt water will work just fine.