Boat Tilt????

[Ky Grady]

Hey folks,

Anybody had this situation on their Grady? Was cruising the Seaswirl website and came accross this discussion about the Seaswirls' leaning hard over when everybody goes to one side to boat a fish. Looks pretty scary. Not a good situation.

 

[Lefty]

Whoa! I don't know much about the Striper boats, but I would say this: In my humble opinion, small craft operation, regardless of whether you're running an 18 foot Bayliner or a $250,000 Grady, takes more "situational awareness", common sense, and boat handling skills than if you're in a 70 foot Bertram where the whole defensive line of the New England Patriots could run to one side with nary a list. The captain and his/her passengers need to be on the same page when it comes to boat safety. And it's the Captain's responsibility to ensure his friends aboard, if they are not experienced, don't do anything foolish to create an accident. I would say these guys need a lesson in boat balance.

With that said, I've made lots of boating mistakes through the years and continue to make them now and then - just goes to show you that you have to stay diligent when it comes to boat handling, or you can get bit in the *** real quick.

 

[magicalbill]

This situation is exacerbated by the fact that they are beam-to in the swell. While the height of these seas are not threatening in a normal cruising scenario, with all those dudes leaning to port WITH the caught fish, it might list the boat over enough to take in some water over the gunwales.

Solution..forget brand names of boats. In ANY craft the Captain, as stated above, should be aware of any potentially dangerous situation and be ahead of the game to correct it. In this particular case in question, someone should be at the helm, heading bow into the swell to lessen the rocking and alleviate weight on the port side.
Remember the NFL guys aboard the CC in the Gulf. Their demise came when they all went astern to try to weigh anchor in a heavy sea. (They had anchored in the stern which was unbelieveably stupid to begin with.) The weight of three linemen aft tilted the boat enough that they were swamped from astern. The guys above are not that far away from repeating that scene.

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

Magic:
I must contest the description of the 21 cc accident off of Clearwater. I called both the Coast Guard and the Florida Game and Fish investigation unit as I did not want to make the same mistake. The captain down there did tie off the anchor on the stern and he reported getting the anchor hung up and attempted to recover the anchor by using thrust of the motor. The week before he lost an anchor and did not want to lose another. He gunned it and the cleat where she was tied off, she rolled and that was all she wrote. They were 7o miles off in the winter in building seas at night fishing for grouper in about 70 feet of water. The Coast Guard Lt. I spoke with told me had they had an EPIRB on board, it is highly likely nobody would have died. I went out within a couple weeks of this accident and purchased an EPIRB.

As far as this boat goes, you gotta admit she is listing -rolling a bit much. I do think the hull shape has a factor here. Boats have intial stability which is the proclivity to roll and secondary stability, the ability to right themselve . As a kayaker with some Current Design sea kayaks, they tend to roll easily with a low initial stability, but they turn well by leaning and they have an excellent secondary stability. Perhaps this boat has a poor initial stability and a great secondary stability?

 

[magicalbill]

Hi Smoky..
Thanks for the clarification and the extra info on the Fla. incident. I was not aware of them gunning the engine to free the anchor. I thought they all just went aft to have a try at pulling it loose and a sea boarded them over the transom.
As far as the boat in the pic above, I agree it is rolling too much. You think it's the hull design that is contributing to the extra list? I am no one's expert on hulls; You may indeed be right. I still say that the captain should've manned the helm and got them out of that beam-to situation. That would have eliminated 1 person's weight on that side.
Who knows? Maybe seconds after the pic was taken they ran to the centerline and let the fish go..I doubt it though...

 

[capeguy]

This is clearly a small boat in the 18-20 foot range. I have a 180 and need to be very careful with distribution of weight, in particular when landing fish. With 3 guys on my boat fishing and multiple hookups, it is not unusual to have all three on one side momentarily no matter how vigilent I am as captain. In any kind of swell, drifting neam to like this, it can happen. It is a small boat!! I don't know about Seaswirls deadrise, but if sharper then it will be more exaggerated.

 

[bayrat]

I had owned a 26' Seaswirl. Has 20* deadrise at the stern. I never had any problems with it leaning like in that photo. Agree; combination of a small boat, lousy conditions plus 3 guys and a fish hanging off one side.

 

[uncljohn]

That is a light boat with a hard top and uneven weight distributon, not to mention the fish.

Some boats have thinner (read cheaper) hulls which makes them light. Then they slap on a normal 200# hardtop on it and people wonder why it rolls. I bet this would not be as extreme in a Grady.