Beached Sailboat in Block Island on Ebay

[Dogfish]

Beautiful boat! What a shame! Anyone know the story?


https://www.ebay.com/itm/17551607121...wAAOSwpDljieqv

[bensolomon]

I can see some anchor chain hanging off the bow. Up in that area, people either keep their boats anchored or on a morning ball. Perhaps it simply broke Free.

[Bill O]

In the ad it said it was aluminum and those pics were taken the day after in went up on the rocky beach. Then it mentioned something today the boat is to be salvaged. I wonder what it looks like now???

The ad also mentioned the amount of aluminum and lead in the boat (like it was scrap). Good thing on these bids is you can back out if it isn't what you expected once you see it in it's current state.

[Dogfish]

I should have just Googled it! One of those stories that makes you want to ask a thousand questions, but of course you weren't there.


https://www.blockislandtimes.com/art...-aground/61534


Text from story:


On Tuesday, November 8, 2022 around 11:15 a.m., Harbormaster Kate McConville received a call that there was a sailboat very close to shore on the west side of the island. When she got to the scene, McConville told The Block Island Times, the vessel was among the rocks just south of the entrance to Dorry’s Cove. There was “one individual on board, alone, no injuries. We spoke via VHF radio and I notified the United States Coast Guard,” she said.
The boat’s owner, Mr. Peter Prauss, 78, resides in Hamburg, Germany in the winter months and sails along the coast of the tri-state area during “the season.” He was on his way to leave the boat in Warwick just before returning home for the winter. McConville told The Times that Prauss has owned the 46-foot Galaxie for 12 years.
Prauss’s engine quit working and he went below to try to repair the issue. “Unfortunately, when he came back up, the keel was hitting bottom. It was too far in and we lost the tide to safely pull it off,” said McConville. “The Narragansett Fire Rescue swim crew came over on a USCG vessel to assist getting the owner safely off the vessel. He had to jump off with a life jacket and they swam him in. I took him to the Rescue Station where he could dry off and warm up.” (A short video of the rescue can be seen on the New Shoreham Harbors Department Facebook page.)
While waiting to get off the island on Wednesday, Prauss spent some time at the Block Island Chamber of Commerce, and according to Chamber Director Chris Crawford, said the boat engine overheated when the cooling chamber dislodged from its weld just off shore and the currents and wind pushed the boat into the rocks before he could repair and reinstall it.
“People are asking me why no one helped him,” said McConville. “He was unable to verify his insurance, and tow companies require that before they assume possession of a vessel in such distress. Without proper insurance, the price for service is extremely expensive. I was not going to put the town marine patrol at risk when there was no person in distress.”
“The Chamber of Commerce found him lodging in South Kingston Wednesday night so he could get a new charger for his phone and coordinate repairs to the boat,” said Crawford.
“He has worked out its removal with a salvage company from the mainland,” said McConville. “It should be removed, hopefully Friday [November 18].” High winds and surf from the remnants of Hurricane Nichole that caused the ferry to be canceled on Saturday, delayed the salvage operation, which will involve bringing in a barge outfitted with a crane.
The boat, with an aluminum hull, appeared to suffer little additional damage from the stormy weather, but did look as if it had a hole in it, McConville said on Monday upon revisiting Dorry’s Cove to take additional pictures for the salvage
company.
“I am just glad there were no injuries,” she said.

[Chotu]

2 crimes here.

1) they are going to just drag it off the rocks and destroy it.

2) his anchor failed to set

[Muaddib1116]

Pretty sure this is a Mccurdy Rhodes design that was for a sale a couple years ago.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by Chotu

2 crimes here.

1) they are going to just drag it off the rocks and destroy it.

2) his anchor failed to set

From the pic it didn't appear he tried to anchor the boat.

The 3rd crime was he couldn't sail the boat out to deeper water then work on the motor.

Agree they will most likely drag it out and destroy it. If it only had one hole in it (as reported in the article), it maybe have been repairable and as good as new. After they drag it out, who knows.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by Muaddib1116

Pretty sure this is a Mccurdy Rhodes design that was for a sale a couple years ago.

Article mentioned he owned it for 12yrs, surely he would know in that amount of time how to sail it off a lee shore.

[jordanbigel]

“People are asking me why no one helped him,” said McConville. “He was unable to verify his insurance, and tow companies require that before they assume possession of a vessel in such distress. Without proper insurance, the price for service is extremely expensive. I was not going to put the town marine patrol at risk when there was no person in distress.”


This sounds to me like he tried to call for a tow on VHF, reached someone (SeaTow or something?) and then after they told him the cost he said "never mind"?

And I don't get what he means by "town marine patrol" - is this a reference to a different potential rescue service (a non-commercial option)?

Also, what's all this about "tow companies require that before they assume possession" - is this some kind of legal thing or trade lingo? If you get a tow from a commercial towing operator, does that mean the tow operator "assumes posession" of your boat? That sounds to me like it only happens in a salvage scenario where the boat is not occupied. Confused (by so many things).

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by jordanbigel

“People are asking me why no one helped him,” said McConville. “He was unable to verify his insurance, and tow companies require that before they assume possession of a vessel in such distress. Without proper insurance, the price for service is extremely expensive. I was not going to put the town marine patrol at risk when there was no person in distress.”


This sounds to me like he tried to call for a tow on VHF, reached someone (SeaTow or something?) and then after they told him the cost he said "never mind"?

And I don't get what he means by "town marine patrol" - is this a reference to a different potential rescue service (a non-commercial option)?

Also, what's all this about "tow companies require that before they assume possession" - is this some kind of legal thing or trade lingo? If you get a tow from a commercial towing operator, does that mean the tow operator "assumes posession" of your boat? That sounds to me like it only happens in a salvage scenario where the boat is not occupied. Confused (by so many things).

I guess that is so the tow company can bill the insurers should the owner default.

[Bill O]

They may have arrived on the scene and told him it would be a salvage operation.

The boat doesn't have to be unoccupied to be deemed salvage instead of a simple tow.
From BoatUS "Salvage refers to any emergency boating situation which requires the rescue of a boat from peril or danger including hard groundings and sinking."

This is a good article describing the difference between tow and salvage.

[gonesail]

not sure if Boat US had the capability to pull a 46 footer off the rocks.

[boatman61]

I do agree with a previous poster.. its surprising he did not use his sails to gain more searoom before going below to work on his engine..

[Brioche]

Hindsight is always 20/20, of course, and it would be nice to get the full story, but these reports are always instructive. There is lots of deep water on the way past Block Island to Warwick, so perhaps it was unwise to be motoring so close to a lee shore in the first place, and perhaps it was unwise to assume that an engine purring along would continue to do so. When a temperature alarm goes off, the early assumption is that there is a broken impeller or clogged fresh water filter, so that would be a quick fix, which the owner tried to do here, but apparently the problem was worse. At that point, he may have been getting close to shore without much space to get into the wind to raise sails (though he should have been able to get enough of the mizzen up to swing around). In hindsight, given the fact that the boat was lost, it would have been worth risking major engine repairs to have run the engine dry long enough to get out far enough to start sailing. Personally I tend to look to alternative power in emergencies: when I am sailing and in a fix, I start the engine; when the engine starts beeping, I may turn it off and then start it again just long enough to get the sails up. But the bottom line is we really need to hear the owner's full story to understand how this happened.

[Captain Graham]

It seems to me that he focused on fixing the engine problem instead of focusing on keeping the sailboat safe.

When something goes wrong it is very easy to focus on the wrong thing.

One rule I have on my Watkins 27 sailboat is when I am motoring always have the sails and anchor ready, just in case.