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Running Aground West coast vs East coast

8K views 38 replies 31 participants last post by  LinekinBayCD 
#1 ·
In another thread, Sawingknots said "there are 2 types of sailors,those that have on occasion "run aground" and those that lie...". I have not found that to be true. On the West coast, specifically in Southern California, we have deep water harbors and no rivers. Running aground down here is a major issue. The only person I know who ran aground hit the rocks on the breakwater and had major damage. He was in the fog and missed the opening.

The tidal range in Channel Islands harbor is about 8 feet at maximum. At low low tide, my slip is 10' deep. The main channel is 20' deep. Just outside the breakwater, the bottom drops down to 50' and more. I know that in the Chesapeake, the water is very shallow.

My question is how many of you have run aground? Where was it ? How much damage? What happend to cause the grounding?

Thanks for the info.
 
#2 ·
I thought the quote was something like "those that have, or those that are waiting to do so"

Reality is, one can run aground on either coast or where ever you may be depending upon your draft. There is one channel up in the san juans, that during a -2.9 tide we had around July 4 last year, puts the channel in at 2.1' in depth, it is 5' with at 0 tide. max is usually about 9' in that area, or 14' max depth at the most. I went in at about the earliest I thought I could last summer, got too much into the middle/east part of the channel at 1-2 knots, I bumped! Fortunetly I was not given toooo much sheet from the other 40 some odd members of the YC up there. They asked about my draft ie 6', they shrugged, then all thanked me for the email saying 0tide is 5' depth, if you come in at the low.....most of them would have grounded out their PB's! Of course I am also on the radio telling another sailboat with 8' draft waiting for the tie to get higher where not to go, as I bumped.......

Otherwise, I'm the same, lowest the marina is is around 8' with a -3.x tide, with a 12.x, I am in the 20+ range. Southern puget sound, ie olympia, they are a big bigger in tide shifts IIRC. I've also run aground in a big shoal south of the marina a couple of times, ground is soft, so nothing major......

Look up artbyjody if you want to read about grounding and some damage........the again, he lost and anchor rode last december during a gale....he is still fixing that repair right now with a hole in the boat!

marty
 
#3 · (Edited)
Here in Long Island sound we have almost everything. Deep water, shallow water, rocks, mud, sand, 6 knots current to 0 knots, no wind to monster wind and everything in between.

So yes I have done my share of underwater gellcoat-barcoding.
Most of the time, especially in channels you just get stuck in mud or sand.
Only once did we bugger the boat, that's what insurance is for.
If you don't pay attention to what you are doing you can run into a rock really easy. There are many of them and while most are well marked it is easy to get complacent and think you know where you are, and end up the wrong side of something and go boom.
 
#4 ·
I have sailed an Irwin 25 with 3' draft and an Endeavor 32 with 4' draft for several years in the Keys, and have touched bottom with both. Luckily, the three times when I have gottten into too shallow water and hit the bottom it has beeen on the bay side, and the bottom has been soft and sandy. The worst was the day after I had gotten the bottom painted on the Endeavour.....I got outside the channel leaving the yard and ended up burrowing into a sand bar. No realy damage other than expediting the ablation of the bottom paint and significant bruises to my ego. I always paid much more attention to depths on the ocean side of the Keys, because the bottom there is mostly jagged coral and a grounding would likely cause significant damage.
 
#5 · (Edited)
In the last 7-8 years of fairly frequent sailing trips on a progression of boats from 18-29 feet I have gotten my self grounded probably close to a score of times. The 18-foot Buccaneer, the 20-foot Hunter, and then more recently the Seafarer 24 (coming in at around 2 tons) were still all fairly easy to get ungrounded even singlehanding as is often the case with me.
The Seafarer 24 ...well... I got aground pretty well once where I was fortunate to have a experienced sailboat yacht delivery couple help me and my crew of 6-7 teenagers (another story) but we were camping on an island and the boat also became "encamped" on the adjacent grass flat let's just say...
Well anyways, the captain of that sailboat helped us to free our halyard (by jumping aboard and shimmying to the top of the mast and grabbing the halyard end that had migrated there with a bit of help). He then directed several of us to pull on the end of it from a about 40 feet to one side abeam of our boat while some pushed from the sides of the stern and one of us gunned the 9.9 Merc sailpower outboard....we were only about 20-25 feet from a channel by then but we were gassed getting her there by then until that couple came along....


My current boat is an old Columbia 29 of over 4 tons and 4 foot draft and a couple months ago a kind local crabber helped me the last 20 feet back into the channel by towing my main halyard with his little crab boat and popping me over to the channel toward the end of high tide in about 20 minutes or so...I had been stuck for close to a day and a half...my efforts had only succeeded in pointing her back towards the channel by myself by pushing her bow during each high tide (4 am or so but cell phone alarms are amazing useful things)....I had been singlehanding at night and not paying enough attention with the spotlight in a long and narrow stretch of channel in Northern Sarasota bay...

I got stuck alot in the first three boats...but SW Florida's sands are very forgiving and they were all 2-foot draft or less boats and I guess it's tempting to try and get away from SW Florida's "ditches" with all the big powerboats and their wakes when one is in these smaller boats.
However, my Columbia is not a "smaller" boat anymore at close to 5 tons loaded with gear and I must get "my head out of the sand" and be more responsible...I will be doing my best to not get her stuck from now on...I have never called Seatow before that time and as I wasn't a member...the 700 dollars they quoted me was a shock...though kindness is certainly it's own reward...I still owe that Cortez crabman bigtime...and that sailing couple too....they saved the camping trip it could well be argued...
 
#6 · (Edited)
Even here in the 'deep' west coast there are plenty of opportunities to kiss the dirt.. or rock, however it goes.

We're fortunate to have excellent nav aids and for the most part hazards are well marked. Still, uncharted lumps can be found, either the easy way or the hard way.

Our worst case was seeking a decent shore tie spot in Princess Louisa ( the dock was 'full', but have the footage was taken up by tenders, small and large - typical). It was near dusk, high tide and we were poking along at idle 150 feet off the shore (charted as a clean drop-off) showing 20-30 feet of clearance under our six foot draft. Watching the sounder and not seeing less than 20 feet at any point we came to a jarring stop with a terrific bang. Shaken, this ruined an otherwise splendid day (our first visit to this wonder of a place)

We did find a spot, anchored by which time it was dark and all I could do was fret about it. The next morning the culprit was in clear view in the low tide. This had been covered by about 3 feet of water when we struck it from the opposite side the night before (you can see the high tide mark on the rock on shore). We saw at least two other largish nuggets nearby. Likely tumbled from the steep terrain at some point - not recently either...



Anyhow we did suffer some tabbing separation (repaired days later after hauling out in Nanaimo) and some keel fairing was required too, of course. No 'serious' damage beyond that.

Earlier that same season in Barkley Sound we anchored in a small cove and woke to find a rockpile partially blocking the entrance, also uncharted but fortunately missed by us that time.

Nearer Vancouver there are extensive sandbanks that seem to be magnets for boaters looking to take the 'clear path'.. in some areas the shoals extend 5 miles or more offshore. "Spanish Banks', "Sturgeon Banks", "Sandheads".... all appropriate names.

It's all about keeping your head out of the boat, properly using the charts and aids that are available and, once in a while, having to rely a bit of luck...
 
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#7 ·
Nearer Vancouver there are extensive sandbanks that seem to be magnets for boaters looking to take the 'clear path'.. in some areas the shoals extend 5 miles or more offshore. "Spanish Banks', "Sturgeon Banks", "Sandheads".... all appropriate names.
When I took my CYA navigation and basic cruising classes from the Jib Set who operated out of False Creek, the manuals read, "When you run aground on Spanish Banks ..." No "if" about it. I once noticed that I was sailing very close to someone standing chest high in the water; I altered course.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I ground mine quite regularly. But it's a swing keel and likes the beach. :)
No dinghy or wet shorts for me.

The closest I have come to unintentional grounding so far is at night during the Xmas cruise I bumped the rudder on a submerged log. I knew where it was but not where I was. I didn't drop the keel because we were motoring it didn't occur to me that the rudder drafts quite a bit...I only usually worry about the keel.
 
#11 ·
You have obviously never been to Two Harbors (Catalina). Harbor Reef (where the water can be as shallow as 18") on the southwest side of Bird Rock reaches out and grabs a few yachts every weekend. While marked, many of the weekend warriors have so little knowledge/experience that they don't recognize a hazard mark. Moreover, many boats are arriving late in the day with the sun relatively low in the western sky and a nice glare off the water making it difficult to see the impending shallows. (We used to do a pool as to the number of boats that would ground between 1800 Friday and 1800 Saturday. One one occasion we had 6!)

Similarly, the shoals around the entrances to Santa Barbara, Channel Islands and the Ventura yacht harbors routinely grab boats as they attempt the traverse. The only "advantage" that the west coast has is the greater range of the tide--assuming one goes aground near mid- or low tide. If one grounds at or near high water, and cannot get off, one can be seriously screwed as the yacht lays over on one side or another and wave action--and wakes--pound the yacht on the bottom.

Grounding is not inconsequential on either (any) coast.
 
#31 · (Edited by Moderator)
You have obviously never been to Two Harbors (Catalina). Harbor Reef (where the water can be as shallow as 18") on the southwest side of Bird Rock reaches out and grabs a few yachts every weekend. While marked, many of the weekend warriors have so little knowledge/experience that they don't recognize a hazard mark. Moreover, many boats are arriving late in the day with the sun relatively low in the western sky and a nice glare off the water making it difficult to see the impending shallows. (We used to do a pool as to the number of boats that would ground between 1800 Friday and 1800 Saturday. One one occasion we had 6!)
Actually, I am familiar with that reef. In my younger days in a powerboat (24' Searay) we crossed over the reef. We were heading to that shallow spot and my wife spotted it breaking the surface. Bank then, the harbor master would track reef crossings and list the number on a board the the foot of the pier. We were credited with a crossing.
 
#12 ·
Chesapeake and ICW sailors joke about this...

... but only where the bottom is mud and there are no waves.

Offshore sandbars (Cape Hatteras) and tricky entrances are dead serious. Hard sand in waves is just as deadly as rocks, given a little time.
 
#13 ·
Here in Tampa Bay, for most of the west coast of Florida, especially the Keys, it is "those who have and those who will." The good news is that the bottom is mostly relatively soft sand, so running aground is usually not a big deal. Indeed, it is the fact that the bottom is mostly soft sand (which drifts and moves and forms sandbars in unexpected places) that makes an eventual grounding almost inevitable.
 
#14 ·
We usually have our groundings while gunkholing in the mud and sand of the Southeast US and when "feeling" about for a secluded anchorage over mud or sand. We behave differently when we are on the coast of Maine or among the coral heads and ledges in the Bahamas. In the places where grounding could mean damage we are much more conservative. Take care and joy, Aythya crew
 
#15 ·
During more than 50 years of boating on Chesapeake Bay I've only been aground once, which was for about 10 seconds in the Havre de Grace channel while trying to keep out of the way of an oncoming tug pushing a barge. I eased about 10 feet out of the channel and hit the mud, softly. I quickly sheeted out the sails, fired up the A4, put it in reverse and as the barge wake lifted the boat I was able to power off.

My real challenge will be in October when I head south down the ICW. I've been told that if I don't run aground there I'm either very lucky, or lying about the trip.

Gary
 
#17 ·
Some miles offshore near Pullen Island in the Beaufort Sea west of Tuk there lies a torus shaped gravel bar. Doing 8 knts in heavy fog when the sounder alarm went off. Immediately cut power and turned hard to starboard. 43 ft'r healed over ,stern rose on my wake and bumppf bumpph over the bank into the deeper center. Exploring with the bow in all directions find no way out of the coral . about 200 ft across.With heavy weather forecast a bit of a pickle .Got one pole out with both anchors and several canon balls slung from the end and three nervous scientists sitting way out took a flying leap at what might be the way out.When we stopped, the pike pole sounder showed the need of a ft and a half more water . Amazing what hard over again and again can do to wiggle across the shallows to deeper water.We made it off much to my relief. This was before GPS and compasses don't work so good in the Arctic.No tide to speak of but wind can cause current of 3 knots in any direction and blow 6 ft of depth up or down. Dat's my yarn.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Where to start? Worst/most embarrassing grounding. 5 miles from finishing a 2000 mile trip I decide to push out into the Neuse River despite the rough conditions. I am running closer to a shoal than normal due to direction of wind, waves and stupidity, bad decision on my part, fuel is all churned up, filter clogs, engine stalls, I dash forward and raise the jib, start to come about and boom. I drop the sail because it is pushing further on the shoal and each wave makes the boat lift and drop, not a pleasant sound. I check the bilge for any signs of water and find all is well. Call up Tow Boat. He gets me back to my slip but it has been blowing so hard most of the water has blown out and I have to be shoved/pulled into the slip.
Not my fault really. Heading down the ICW I hail a dredge and ask for directions on passing. The guy on deck starts waving me around so I follow his directions but as I am passing the barge starts shifting over and my choices are to hit the barge or hit the sand. They immediately brought the work boat over and pulled me off.
Most fun. Heading north on the ICW behind Ocean Isle Beach a little before dark and a hour or so before posted low. I was pushing so I could make the next days trip easier, two inlets and the Cape Fear and the tide plays into all of them. I nose into a side creek looking for a place to stay the night and I am aground. My crew and I decide it is a good time for a drink. We wait about 2.5 hrs as the boat slowly heels over. We just brace across the cockpit and enjoy our cocktail. Eventually we float off and find some deeper water and drop the hook. Dan S/V Marian Claire
 
#19 ·
We used to careen back in the 1970's & 80's by resting beam to shore at high tide on a sandy protected beach with a fairly steep slope and a tidal range greater than our draft. We would clean with the tide fall and paint before the rise; then, turn and repeat for the other side. This was labor intense, but saved a lot of boat yard costs. We always took care to protect our rudder and not to lean away from the shore. We also have always had full keel boats. Sometimes we would have a group of four or five boats careening at the same weekend. I don't think it's as commonly done now, though I know some tie to a bulkhead for this work at the big tides in Maine. I feel safer leaning on the sand than balancing upright. Take care and joy, Aythya crew
 
#20 · (Edited)
Since the early 70's I've rubbed the bottom on Spanish Bank in a 20' bilge keeler - just a "what was that" rub on the sand. Banged off a rock when I cut the end of the reef too short off Paisley island, bumped a rock off Eagle Harbour at drifting speed, hit hard - dead stop from full speed under power off Tiddleycove. Never "aground" though, always able to keep moving after. The only damage was a repair to the toe of the keel after the Tiddleycove hit. The only injury was to my shin on the same hit.

All of them were due to nothing more than bad judgement (stupidity) on my part. All were long before GPS as well.
 
#21 ·
My worst.

I hit a rock on the east side of Boat Passage (Winter Cove). I had not noticed the the current was pushing us as much as it was. The depth sounder read 4.9 feet. We hit, bounced up and then came down on the rock. We were lucky. There was some hull delamination. That was a valuable lesson. When Sailing Directions indicates that local knowledge is required, believe it.
 
#23 ·
Next time you are in Desolation take the dingy out to Sky Pilot Rock at low tide. Count the many different colours of bottom paint criscrossing it. If it were not for the100 meters deep all around it I would dive for the scrap metal that has accumulated since the missionary boat named it. It's a real money maker (I worked at Lund Marine). I could go on and on about shoring up with beach poles, vessels caught 8ft out of water on two points of terror firmer. How unsettle ling is that ?
 
#25 ·
If submerged logs count, then count me in the grounding camp. In Howe sound with 200 metres under my hulls. A little chop, some sun in my eyes, and a a bit of inattention. Two the the hulls, it is a trimaran, were firmly "beached" on a log. After dropping the sails, I was able to reverse off the log under power. No damage to the boat or even the bottom coat.
 
#26 ·
I've been sailing for 40+ years, and run aground a few times.. But I've run aground more in one afternoon sailing a catboat in Mystic than all the rest put together!.. Seriously, you guys need to get some more water over there!
 
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#27 ·
Sailing here in the Chesapeake, we ran aground several times with our first boat, a Seafarer 30, drawing 4'11" (makes 5 feet look sick!), which is really easy to do with shoaling so common, and no chartplotter on that boat. Two groundings, Selby Bay and Shaw bay area, were due to our inexperience at "reading the water" and how shoaling typically extends from the points of land in narrow creeks; two, around Knapps Narrows, were just due to the fact that the Narrows is not charted accurately, and we needed local knowledge... which we now have! We have unlimited towing from Towboat US, which I highly recommend for the Chesapeake. They are great and it is well worth it. Our soft muddy bottom means no damage, usually, except to your pride.
With our current boat, a Caliber 35 LRC, draft 4'6" and a great chartplotter, (and more experience!) we kissed the bottom once around Knapps Narrows, but immediately got off, no big deal.
We love exploring and gunkholing, which is going to involve some chance for grounding, sooner or later. Even in the Chesapeake, with a small tidal variation, it is best to time being in a shallow passage or entrance to a creek for around high tide... that 6 inches or so can make all the difference!
 
#28 ·
Our second day on Ubiquitous, motoring up Intracoastal, north of Beaufort, SC, we found a channel entrance, indicated on the chart to be indeed part of the ICW and supposedly 12' at low tide. You know that feeling when the diesel is humming along nicely and you look over to the shore, and...the land is not moving, you glance down at the GPS, and see 0/nmh and CRAP! Apparently dredged channels have a habit of drifting. So, while we waited for the tide to lift us, we plotted a new course that took us out to the mouth of the ocean and back in to a different leg to reconnect to the ICW. Took about 45 mins to regain buoyancy and hit the new course. Kind of nice to get that out of the way on only our second day as new sailors!
 
#29 ·
I bought my boat in the Chesapeake and brought it home to NJ through the C&D canal, then through the Cape May canal. I ran aground leaving Rock Hall on a shoal in the bay. I ran aground entering the Cohansey River, apparently you have to hug the channel marker. I ran HARD aground right behind the Cape May-Lewes ferry! Apparently the 12 foot charted depth doesn't account for the ferry props washing the bottom up into 3 feet of depth. I ran hard aground four or five times right along side the dredge in the Barnegat inlet channel. The dredge might be sitting in deep water, but how do you get around it? The saving grace in all of this is that my boat has a retractable keel, and I try to always sail with it all the way down.

Gary H. Lucas
 
#30 ·
Broad Creek off Pamlico River near Washington, NC. I have a "deep water slip". That means that with 4'10+" draft, I have roughly 8-12 inches under the keel in the fairway and first part of the creek. Fortunately, there is only wind tide to contend with, and bottom is typically sand or mud. Keel washes a hole in the slip, so usually when wind blows adversely, boat just settles down and floats in the hole. If the wind blows 20+ for a couple of days, water in the creek blows out and all boats just settle down in their slips (most often upright) and are steadied by their lines. Once I get into the river, there's deep water....that would be 9-10 ft. typically except for the shallow areas. There are a few holes pushing a good bit deeper. Soft grounding is not unusual at all, but usually of no consequence. Most boats that do touch usually manage to get themselves off. In 40 years, I've never had to be towed off when I touched bottom, but in my old age, I have started keeping a current SeaTow membership. After a while, you learn where you can go and where you can't. The amount/height of barnacles showing on the piling and wind predictions generally tell me whether or not I can go sailing on a particular day.
 
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