C&D Canal Collision

[poopdeckpappy]

Even terminally ill she's beautiful, I hope they can and/or will restore her

[gershel]

HerbDB is correct, but it seems no one understood what he said. Sailing is PROHIBITED on the C&D canal. If you are motoring, you are a power boat, NOT a sailboat, and you do NOT have right of way over vessels that are restricted in their ability to maneuver. This canal is deep almost to the shoreline. It is not difficult to stay clear of large commercial vessels, but you must stay vigilant & use common sense. The only time it would be acceptable to raise sail in the canal would be if you lost power, and you would need sail power to get out of the channel and to the shore.
Marc

[gershel]

BOASUN
A tug can be "restricted in its ability to maneuver" if it's towing astern, forward, or on the hip, and would have right of way over sail or power.
Marc

[labatt]

I don't have my Coast Pilot handy, but having just gone through the canal last week (two days prior to the incident) I can tell you that there is a maximum combined beam allowed for all commercial vessels transiting the canal. I think it's like 300 feet or so. Some of the turns are sharp and when the current is running they would be difficult to maneuver around. Once again, though, I have to reiterate that every tug captain we got near saw us on their radar far before we saw them. If we were inside the channel, they would call us on channel 13. It was foggy when we came through, but I'm sure the caps would approach nighttime similarly. Either the tug driver wasn't paying attention or the schooner didn't have channel 13 tuned in. I'm fairly certain the tug driver would have been paying attention - the canal isn't that long and it does turn sharply in places. I'm very interested to see what comes of the USCG investigation.

[camaraderie]

...and here's what appears to be the real story!

Safety training helps save family in schooner crash

[poopdeckpappy]

wow, scary stuff, I remember as a kid surfing under the lights off HB pier and getting pitched and held in the wash, totally out of air I started kicking for the surface, imagine my surprize when I felt sand instead of air, the oh f**k meter went off the scale

[labatt]

I'm still very interested to see what the Coast Guard investigation says, but it will probably be many months before we see anything released...

[captron400]

I've gone thru the C&D a dozen times in the past 6 years, twice at night. It's extremely well lit with quartz lights on both sides and may be almost as bright as a ball park in spots, but I'd still rather do it during the daylight if I have the choice. The bigger traffic prefers doing it during the off-hours when the canal is less crowded, and that is enough reason for me to do otherwise. I've had to pass by several large ships and tows, don't want to do it again. It's wide, but not that wide. Two of these bigger things can't pass each other and their entrance is controlled at both ends. I'm sort of surprised that the sailboat skipper didn't see what was in front of him, or maybe he didn't have that much room to get around it. Visibility or not, I've always stayed in the left 1/3 of the canal. The C&D is a very safe place to be, but you really have got to be careful.

Ron
Catalina 400 #74 "Good Vibrations"
Catalina 250 wk #688 "Running Free"

[Sabreman]

Captron, I believe that the key is the original statement that the accident occurred "about 1.5 miles west of the Chesapeake City Bridge". If that's the case, then they were in the Elk River which isn't lit. That said, the first time that I transited the Canal (in '77), we were in the lit part and at about 2100, I looked behind me and saw a red light REALLY high. It took a few moments to realize that it wasn't a radio tower, but a ship. If the running lights on the barge were high, it could have been difficult to discern them. Not an excuse, but perhaps an explanation.

[labatt]

Did anything further ever get released on this? Just curious if they've figured out what happened yet...