[minnow1193]

The guy at the wheel was a Captain until yesterday.

Boat that crashed into Ruskin restaurant driven by well-known charter captain | Tampa Bay Times

There was almost zero visibility on the bay there when this happened.

 

[hpeer]

One is lead to believe the greater bit of fog was within the captains head.

I just hate boats like that. IIRC there is very little speed advantage to triple motors and almost none to four. Simply ego.

 

[rikhall]

This is from the news article:

"As of Tuesday afternoon, no charges had been filed."

But, I bet there will be

Rik

 

[JimMcGee]

From the article:
"At this point, with the fog, you couldn't really see anything,"

"It's estimated that Santiago was traveling between 40 and 50 miles per hour"

"The four-motor SeaVee skidded across about 30 yards of beach and crashed through the side of the Sunset Grille restaurant"

So he's running balls out in fog so dense he couldn't see a restaurant let alone other boats on the water.

I hope they crucify the bastard. It's a miracle he didn't kill somebody.
:hothead

 

[Rockter]

1200 hp in not-so-good visibility.
It is not that foggy in the pictures

He will get strung up for that one, methinks.

 

[ccriders]

"You really should slow down when you can't see where you're going"
Great line.
John

 

[captflood]

GREETINGS EARTHLINGS; On finding Fog or the warning of it slow down to a safe speed, place extra look-outs, turn on navigation lights, sound fog signal for the vessel, listen for other noises have engens ready for avassive action and be ready for anything out of the ordanary AS ALWAYS GO SAVE

 

[Stumble]

Hmmm, traveling so fast in heavy fog that you can't see where the water ends. That's pretty bad right there. And the idea that the boat didn't have a GPS to let them know where the water is seems pretty silly.

Frankly this guy should get crucified. There is no excuse for this to happen.

 

[JimMcGee]

Well if Tampa Bay is anything like Barnegat Bay the IQ of the captain is inversely proportional to the horsepower hanging off the transom.

The attorneys here can weigh in the legal implications, I just can't get past that it's a miracle no one was killed or seriously injured. And it's probably a good bet this isn't the first time he's done it.

Can you imagine being out in the fog and having this guy hit you broadside at 50 mph ?

:hothead

 

[blutoyz]

I saw this on FB...They should throw the book at this idiot

 

[TakeFive]

Guys, it's not his fault. It was foggy!

 

[OPossumTX]

Perhaps his GPS was off a bit. Obviously, he missed the channel. OH YEA!

40+ MPH in the fog.

One thing about it, he had the POWER to foul up royally!

Do you still have to sound your horn/bell/what ever if you are aground? Obviously you aren't going to be able to evade the other yo-yo's out there if you can't move.

 

[miketaz25]

Just sayin' but looks to me that theres radar aboard that craft......

 

[miatapaul]

Hmmm, traveling so fast in heavy fog that you can't see where the water ends. That's pretty bad right there. And the idea that the boat didn't have a GPS to let them know where the water is seems pretty silly.

Frankly this guy should get crucified. There is no excuse for this to happen.

Well perhaps he had it zoomed out too much to see Florida? Well the excuse worked for the Volvo Racing team! :laugher

Irritating that the officer said the fog played a roll, when the fog played no roll in the accident, it is an weather condition and was what should have been adjusted to. This was caused either by mechanical failure (perhaps he had a stuck throttle and broken ignition switchs?) but I doubt that, so that leaves captain stupidity.

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

Its the restaurants fault. They should have had valet parking!


Mark

 

[Minnesail]

Was the restaurant actively transmitting AIS? Was the restaurant sounding a fog signal every two minutes?

 

[HeartsContent]

This is the moron that I fear in the fog.

Hopefully he will be sued off the water - that boat says sue the hell out of me!

 

[RainDog]

We were in that fog today about 10 miles offshore from Clearwater doing 2 knots. A 48 foot boat departed the channel at 17 knots, heading straight at us. Visibility was less that 1000 feet. We hailed him repeatedly on the VHF, and got no response. AIS showed our CPA would be less than 500 feet. Finally we turned 90 degrees to port and sped up to full throttle to try and get out of his way as much as possible. He ended up passing about 1500 feet from us still at 17 knots. No shortage of idiots on the water.

 

[PorFin]

We were in that fog today about 10 miles offshore from Clearwater doing 2 knots. A 48 foot boat departed the channel at 17 knots, heading straight at us. Visibility was less that 1000 feet. We hailed him repeatedly on the VHF, and got no response. AIS showed our CPA would be less than 500 feet. Finally we turned 90 degrees to port and sped up to full throttle to try and get out of his way as much as possible. He ended up passing about 1500 feet from us still at 17 knots. No shortage of idiots on the water.

We had almost an identical experience, though it was back in December 2010. We were just about to enter the Clearwater entrance after crossing from Pensacola -- not really thick fog, but visibility was less than 100 yds. I saw a contact on the radar flying out at about 20 kts, and they too failed to respond to VHF hails. I assumed he was going to continue his course and speed and just waited him out. He passed about 50 yds in front of us, and when I hit the air horn from the bow pulpit I thought he was gonna crap his pants.

 

[krisscross]

Looks like the case of relying too much on GPS and not enough on common sense.