Tow Boat Sinks 65 ft Cruiser on the Tennessee River

R

RichardW

New member
Last Thursday night at approximately 8pm, an upbound tow with several barges exited the large ( ~95 ft lift) lock at Wilson Dam on the Tennessee River and 1/4 mile later crashed into a 65 ft yacht. The yacht sunk immediately into 90 - 100 ft water. The 59 year old boat owner was recovered within 2 hours but the other 3 passengers were not found by divers until 3 days later. Hard information is not yet availiable but speculation is that the pleasure craft entered the river from a creek and ran right into the path of the tow.

I am posting this to remind all of us how dangerous boating can be, especially with restricted visibility and at night. I hope to hear the tow pilot's account of the incident which should clarify a lot of questions. The owner of the yacht had only purchased it a few days before the accident and reportedly, his girlfriend was on board.

We rarely cruise at night without a compelling reason to do so.


:roll:
 
There was a similar accident that happened in BC waters a few years back.
A "new captain" on his new boat was heading out to see our annual summertime fireworks show. and drove between the tug and the barge.
The tow cable got hung on the prop and rudder and actually rolled the boat. I think 4 people died. The guy actually tried to sue the tug company because they hadn't marked the tow cable. He didn't win.
Jimbo
 
Happend in lower new york harbor last oct. boat between barge and tow hit the cable. I love boating and it's so sad when them things happen . Proper look out at night is so important & you have to know what you're looking at , best to stay away ( wide berth ) from com. traffic.

I like boating at night , never go faster than hull speed, and still get fooled once in a while especially near the city with the backgroud lites , they can really play tricks on your eyes and hide some big ships sometimes..

I can see how with little experience how easily a tragic mistake could be made, still very sad to hear though ..

SAFE BOATING all john
 
Several articles on the net about this accident, each with their own set of facts. Here is a link to one http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=8083282
This story mentions three (3) bodies found, one still missing, also, the boat was t-boned by the barge and was possibly anchored at the time.
He did not hit the tow cable. The barge was allowed to continue on to Houston after the preliminary investigation.
Tom
 
There was a short piece on this tragedy on the 10 oclock news with little more information other than they are still searching for the 4th body.

Hard facts are still hard to find at this point.
 
That would make a big difference if they were anchored outside the channel, compared to cutting across the bow of the tug, in the river here tugs cut the channel corners all the time , but i never heard of close calls or worse .. These typs of stories are always of interest to me, from the point of finding out what happend - to try to learn how it could be avoided.

but on the same note deeply sadden me when you hear of a tragic loss of life , my sympathy goes out to thoes poor people , sorry to hear it

john
 
A tug in tow can be a dangerous thing if you don't know what you're looking for. We have a lot of them in the southern Chesapeake Bay.

I was at a boat show here last month and talked to a USCG rep. It's incidents like these that are forcing authorities to mandate safety classes and begin issuing boat licenses. They are starting out in the lower age brackets (where most of the accidents happen) and ratcheting up. Other than this brief discussion I can't site any other references or specifics, if anybody can find one it would be appreciated.

McMike
 
Unfortunately licenses or classes will not prevent this type of problem. It is due to poor judgement--sorry that there is loss of life, and it should not happen.

We ran 25 miles after dark the night before last on the ICW. Several times we voluntarily went outside of the ICW because of irradic actions of other boats, and the risk of a tug and tows. We had only our running light on. No othe lights to cause confusion or loss of vision.

We saw a number of other boats with so many lights on that the running lights were not visiable. The skippers could not have had any night vision--and often they were "navigating" by spotlight--that is constantly lighting up the nav markers, and basically bouncing off one to another. The tugs down here, normall y run two very powerful search lights. This is necessary for the tug to see the bank ahead, and that night the tugs we encountered turned their lights to the opposite bank to avoid blinding us.
Barges have only the dim red and green running lights, and occasionally will have other lights as appropiate, for example a stern light if towed or on the hip.

Morals: Run with your boat dark, inside, on the deck and only use a spotlight if you absolutely have to. Check the radar and well ahead as you merge into a main channel. Call on the VHF radio--ID your boat, location, speed and direction of travel, with a "security" on channel 16 and 13 (or what ever bridge to bridge frequency is used in your area).

For example: "Any concerned traffic, Tug Charlie West Bound at the 165 at 4 knots pushing 4"
Reply: "Securitie: Tug Charlie and any concerned traffic, motor vessel Thataway, South bound out of Perdido Bay, joining the ICW at the 125 and proceeding East Bound at 8 knots".

Run the radar, chart plotter and DS--but also assign one person to look ahead only--never to compromise their night vision. Use the spotlight sparingly if necessary to idenify markers or unknown objects--never on the bridge of another vessel.
 
Good advice Bob ,

Don't mean to question the master but you should have your all aroud white on too. Maybe i raed it wrong.
 
I was hoping to spur discussion and valuable lessons learned out of this tragedy. Without all of the facts, I do not believe that they were anchored in ~100 feet of water; more likely, they entered the channel from a cove which runs very close to the channel and timing may have played a large part in the accident. Wilson lock is on the RDB and the tow was likely close to that side for quite a distance after it exited the lock.

Tows on the Tennessee have and use bright, far reaching spotlights at night but the pilot may have had no time to react if the yacht ran directly in front of him. I also wonder if the yacht had their VHF on and tuned to CH 16 as I have heard tow pilots yell at boaters who do stupid things to put themselves and the tow crew in jeopardy.

I would like to hear the tow pilots account. I could not agree more with Bob, that poor judgement causes more mishaps than any other factor and all of the safety regs and safety equipment in the world cannot compensate. Experience really counts assuming boat captains normally use good judgement.
I appreciate these constructive comments and good advise put forward.
 
IT-SEA-BIT-C":kvillyfk said:
Good advice Bob ,

Don't mean to question the master but you should have your all aroud white on too....
Click to expand...

Wouldn't that be the Anchor Light? I thought when running you just have the red/green lights on.

Tom
 
Good catch on the 100 ft. anchoring thing i missed that your right .

tom&shan hope you don't run up to fast on me from astern on a dark night.

White light is part of nav lights,, Anchor light is white all around , no nav.( red - green ) showing , so others know your not moving ( in a nut shell ) thus anchored . GET A LIGHT LIST-it would take forever to explain all the configurations here, if your not sure

One thing I can tell you books probably won't is never take lights for granted people around her run all the time forgetting to put them on-, hit the switch for anchor only while running , and forget to switch to nav., which is bolth. bulbs go out, so be carefull. Kinda like trusting someone with thier blinker on in thier car just cause the lights blinking don't mean thier gonna turn , would you pull out in front of them ? I won't untill i see them at least start to turn ( showing intention ) I try to look for intention while boating even more , like bob said about getting the heck out of the channel above , you follow ?
safe boating ,,,,,,john
 
Just for clarification, I do recommend that all boaters carry a set of the Navigational rules--international and inland on board. These are required only on a boat more than 12 meters in length. Lights, Colregs, lines of demarcation, radio protocol are all included in the book.

On line at: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/mwv/navrules/navrules.htm or in book form for $11 at Amazon or your local marine store.

Running lights for a boat less than 12 meters comprise of red and green foreward running lights (may be combined bi color light) visiable for at least one mile and an all around white light visiable at least 2 miles. (Rule 23 c) I prefer that my boat have more visability than the rules require so that I am more visiable.

The way the C Dories are set up--you can either have the anchor light or the nav lights on. If the all around white light does not come on--check the wiring. The red and green reflections are usually visiable on the bow railings and you can put your hand out the window above the top of the cabin house to check that the 360 degree white light is on. I check the running lights at least every hour. Also be sure that the all around white light is not obscured by radars or other items on the cabin house. I also carry an extra 360 degree white light and bicolor light--such as used in the dinghy on board as well as extra bulbs and fuses for the circuits aboard.
 
Another good idea is to carry one of thoes cheape battery powerd nav + seperate anchor lights that work on batteries , may save you, if you have a short , even if a bulb blows you can just clip it on the bow rail or suction cup it quickly till you get back to the dock or somewhere safe.
Cheap insurance, may even save you life . john
 
RichardW":2qw08ssb said:
I was hoping to spur discussion and valuable lessons learned out of this tragedy.
Click to expand...

Well said! One of my favorite sayings is "Always learn from mistakes, preferably somebody else's." It's a lighter way of saying that it's important to look at tragedies such as these and determine if it was isolated momentary lapse of common sense that caused it, or if there were underlying factors that may cause similar incidents. Just based on the few number of tug and tow accidents mentioned here, I'd say that there is, indeed, a common thread worth evaluating.

The night time issues are huge, as well, and we seem to be hitting that nail pretty hard. Anybody who's ever been at sea at night knows what "dark" really is, and we owe it to ourselves and those that come after us to respect that and exercise good judgement. Our eyes were not made for darkness, so night vision is critical. Any way you can make your vessel more visible to others without ruining your night vision is a good idea. Installing red or blue lights in the cabin would go a long way, too. Having spent more hours than I can count staring at a radar screen, I know how important some type of radar reflector can be! CD's sit very low in the water, making it hard for higher mounted, longer range radars to detect, ESPECIALLY in the presence of a heavy sea return. A CD at night with any kind of choppy seas would be invisible.

On the subject of rules of the road, my honest opinion is that anybody transiting navigable waters should be required by the state to pass an exam and carry a license. Running around on a mountain lake is one thing; dealing with commercial vessels is an entirely different beast. Speaking of the Rules of the Road, handy little quick reference guides can be found at http://www.pilothousecharts.com/rulesoftheroad.htm. Doublesided and laminated, these could be easily stuck in the corner so you have something to go to when the head-scratchin' starts.

Ok, that's my $.02, I'll bow out now, gotta get moving!

McMike
 
To add to this discussion I will relate a story I read about several years ago. I don't remember all the exact details but I think the basics are good for thinking about safety.

A couple in their smaller sailboat (probably less than 32ft) were cruising the ICW. On one leg of their cruise they decided to anchor a short distance outside of the channel markers for the night. What they did not know was that they had anchored in a path that many tugs with barges used as a short cut. Apparently they were on the inside of a sweeping curve and the barge traffic knew it was deep enough and generally cut the corner.

After the couple went missing the coast guard obtained the radio logs of the barges that passed that way. They found that early in the evening they captains saw the anchored sailboat and relayed the information to other captains behind them. Then late that night the radio reports of the sailboat stopped. The divers found the sailboat crushed into the bottom.

Many times when I have been around commercial traffic I look to get outside of the marked channel to be safe. This incident shows that may not alway be enough. With our C-Dory's we can make sure that we anchor in water too shallow for almost any commercial boats to reach us.


Steve
 
Good piont and story . Tugs do the same here often , and I have heard them pass along the same type of info. to each other.

I have noticed one thing thats been happening lately , with AIS now, securti calls on the raido have been getting much less . - I live close to the river and leave my handheld on , always hear traffic calling before worlds - end ( a sharp S turn in the river ) usually calling a few times upon approaching the turn for concerend traffic. But it's been alot quieter lately .

Aanyone elese noticed this ?
BTW shallow water always lets me sleep a whole lot better at night also , when on the hook.
john
 
i believe it's a coast guard reg that the commercial captain give one pro-long whistle (blast of the horn) when approaching a blind bend on the river. typically they call on vhf announcing their location and intentions.
any opposing traffic would give a blast back, giving recognition that they are aware of approaching traffic.
on our river and it's tributaries, tow boats are pushers. so, we do not deal with the separation of the tug and barge. however, when a barge is being towed they only need display side lights and mast light on the barge. nothing marks the hawser. crossing in between the tug and the barge is generally not good for fiberglass.
interestingly enough, i have found pleasure craft traffic is better organized on the river as opposed to on a lake. on lake cumberland, kentucky, (1200 miles of shore line) there is no coast guard presence. channel 16 is trashed big time. it is not uncommon to hear a 20 minute conversation about whats for dinner. i don't believe it's arrogance, rather lack of education.
hope all are experiencing a terrific day!
best regards
pat
 
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