32' Cat Rescue

[Chuteman]

cbs4.com - Spring Breakers Rescued At Sea

No specific details yet of cause.........also discrepancy on size 32 v 36'

[N.M.I.ke]

90% submerged? Someone please explain this... 36 foot cat with 8 passengers.

[44'cruisingcat]

8 persons in a 36 footer is not so extraordinary. Look at this: multihull.com.au - Launchings

The boat called "Olivia" a 35 footer in survey for 30 pax offshore!

[N.M.I.ke]

I guess I wasn't clear. I meant ONLY 8 passengers. Hardly overweighted. So how does a catamaran get 90% submerged?

I'm still learning about sailing (almost bought a boat last week, actually) but I was under the impression that cats flipped but didn't sink, and monohulls sank.

90% submerged = sunk as far as my feeble brain is concerned.

[44'cruisingcat]

Modern cats are built of lightweight composites, have multiple bouyancy compartments etc., and as a rule don't (can't) sink. Older cats often have heavier construction (eg. solid layups with chopped strand glass - heavier but not as strong) and possibly could sink. For instance if they got holed.

While 90% submerged is NEARLY sunk, it is actually still floating - having it there to hang on to is still a better position to be in than swimming for your life.

[fhrussell]

It needs to be defined that a catamaran will 'swamp', but won't sink like a mono. Although, as 44' said, some of the older solid FRP boats can sink if loaded heavily. Basically, the items inside (engines, batteries, etc.) drag the boat down. A plywood boat and foam composite will not sink.

[Raven]

I liked the part of the story where they described what the crew did during the 20 minutes they had to react.

"They used that time to call the Coast Guard and put what they could; cellphones, credit cards, and laptop in a dry bag."

A bit different than the more traditional ditch kit.

[Sonosailor]

Looked like a Gemini 32 or 34. I would suggest it was sunk as far as it was going. Some would call that 100%. Still a long way from bottom, though.

[Tropic Cat]

In looking at the video, the boat looks like a mid 1990's Gemini. The fellas in the video say the flooding began forward in the port hull, where the head is on a Gemini. Absent a collision with a submerged object, it could be that they lost a hose clamp on a hull thru.

Rick in Florida

[svHyLyte]

After my wife developed an interest in Cat's as a "flat" alternative to keel boats, in the Spring of 2000 we chartered a "new" Gemini from an outfit in Ft. Myers. During the subsequent week my wife, daughter and mother-in-law had a great time as we traveled about Pine Island Sound and the area from Ft. Myers to Pt. Charlotte. I, on the other hand, spent the same time jury rigging repairs to the head, rudders, rigging, chain-plates, etc., etc. etc. to keep the boat marginally functional. On the Gemini--which the boat that sank quite clearly was--the head is located in the bow of the port hull. On our Chartered boat, the head was plumbed to a Y-Valve with which one selected either the holding tank or an overboard discharge. Of course, if one left the Y-Valve in the overboard discharge position, while making headway the only thing hoping to keep the sea from back-feeding into the head was a joker-valve that, in our case, likely hadn't been replaced since the boat had first been launched and which, of course, didn't work, allowing the boat to flood. In our case, the flooding was discovered during the day and a simple flip of the valve resolved the matter. I suspect that the same failure mode may have occured on the boat in question--which could easily have been the same boat! The only benefit to the experience was my wife deciding that a Beneteau First 42 was where we belonged! Cheers, s/v HyLyte

[rtbates]

Flooding where the head is located? Sounds like someone left the head seacock open and the head lever in the FLUSH position.

[svHyLyte]

The seacock was routinely left open in the heads as it is on most yachts. In our case the anti-siphon valve was not functioning properly (plugged) nor was the joker valve, nor was the flush-dry bowl valve. With the the head just below the water line, water easily seeped into the bowl throgh the discharge line even with the pump handle in the down position, and back siphoned through the (closed) flush valve. While underway, the hydrostatic loads on the hull would turn the seepage into somewhat of a flood. At rest the seepage was handled with a few handle pumps and with 3 females aboard, the head was never long out of use so the situation was detected early on in our charter. Underway we had to keep the Y-Valve switched to the holding tank, or close the through-hull, although that was somewhat difficult to reach and hard to turn, particularly for the girls.

I'll wager $10 USD that the boat that sank was from the same charter company. At the end of our charter I sent them a 3 page list of required repairs and maintenance items that needed doing on the boat we had to which they never responded. I suspect it ended up in the trash. I'm sure the boat's owner would have been a bit disturbed to learn how his property was being "managed".

Cheers!

s/v HyLyte