Boating Accidents ,sinking ,swampings.collisions

[Mike the Pike]

OK you great OFC people.Have you got some stories about some bad boating experiences ,sinkings accidents. Have you lost the boat to the bottom?Did anyone have to endure many hours in the water?Has someone used a survival suit for many hours in cold water.I think we have all tipped over in a canoe before.Love to here some happy endings.Mike

[Fisherman]

Forgot to put the plug in once, boat sank about 3 inches, put the plug in, bailed it out, that's as close as I got, I have a healthy respect for nature and water.

[Marc Thorpe]

Water spout with 5 little devils twirling around the mother,about 1/2 football field in front of it

2 sept 2005,Seen lots of em but never close enough to surge me forward on 5- 6 foot waves,We dont get many 6 foot waves norm is 3-4 but instant swirling 60 to 90 gusts kinna do this ,never seen waves pointy as such coming from every direction.Scary thing I wont soon forget

 

Lighting storms for 2 hours paralyzed against shore,waiting to look like poutine from a lightining strike

Every year,I never learn,one day I am gonna look like ShishKabob with a compre forked through me

 

Lost a wheel doing 110 km/hr,kept my cool and coasted to a stop,could have been a disaster 2005

[Garyv]

Back in 2002 we drove up to fish the "Fish Kincardine Salmon derby" and took my buddies 17ft. Wilker I/O. We had pre arranged a dock in the river and once set up launched the boat and secured it to our dock. It was raining so we decided to take a ride to Southhampton and upon return just spent the day shooting the breeze with other people we knew. Next morning we got up around 6, had breakfast in the motorhome and walked down to the boat with our gear. As soon as we started down the hill something did not look right and when we got closer the back 3/4 of the boat was down with only about 6 to 8 inches out of the water. Dock ropes were tight and the dock was listing towards the boat. Battery, most of the engine etc underwater. We decided to climb in and hand bail with 2 plastic pails Manny had in the boat. Water was very cold and the bailing took a LOT of time. Tried the bilge pump once the level started going down but the line was plugged with nesting material from mice. When the boat was about as empty as we could get it we checked the oil to see if there was any water in the crank case and when it was determined there was not we decided to try and start it. To everyones surprise it not only turned over but started as well. Over to the launch we went, got the trailer, pulled the boat and went to Port Elgin. We found a mechanic that would do the job quickly for a few extra dollars. Turned out to be the boot had cracked and was letting water in. We did get to fish the derby after that but it was one expensive trip.

 

Living on the Great Lakes ( in my case Huron ) as Marc mentioned above you can be subjected to quickly changing weather. Been in lots of flash storms and the like but thats a story (s) for some other time.

Edited December 28, 2006 by Garyv

[Joey]

That was pretty lucky Gary!

 

Only story I can think of is when we still had the tinny. We went to Buckhorn for the first time and set up camp. Went out for a fish and upon return decided to take an afternoon siesta. I thought Paul tied up the boat and he thought I tied up the boat. When we woke up, guess what, no boat. We found it tied up down the shorline. Someone said they saw it floating away down the lake and just tied it up for us Oops.

 

Joey

[Rizzo]

Siesta Joey?? Sounds more like a Roy story, although I vaguely recollect images of Paul slouched in a chair.

 

I once had to boot into shore due to a fast approaching thunderstorm. Ended up crouching under an already fallen-over tree at the water's edge. Crawled out onto a branch and caught a little bass. Made a fire out of receipts in my wallet and twigs I found, skewered a bass filet onto my knife and cooked it up. Didn't taste too good, but was kind of a fun way to spend an hour when you're stranded.

[tjsa]

I think we have all tipped over in a canoe before.Love to here some happy endings.Mike

 

Yup, canoe tipping over, but with our assistance

 

Hunting for ducks. We were paddling out to pick up the spread, me in the back, bud in the front. We near the spread, and he says ducks coming in from the bow end. We stop, ducks are flaring, then they break right(our right, we are both right handed). So, I flip the shotgun around to my left shoulder and fire. Down goes a duck.

My bud turns and asks, "how'd you hit that duck. Told him how.

Sooooo, we paddle toward the downed duck, and he says 4 more coming in. Straight at us, flaring, break right again(our right, shouldn't have told him how it hit that previous duck)

 

B-BANG, 2 shotgun blasts left handed(bud tried it also, lol)

 

GLUB, GLUB, GLUB, yup, we both shot at the same time off-handed and ended up flipping the canoe, with chest waders on, all gear in soft packs and such, deep in the wild rice in about 5 ft. of water with loon(you know what) bottom. Amazingly, we kept our cool, we both managed to hold onto our shotguns, flipped the canoe back over displacing as much water as possible, I crawled back in over the stern while ridding my waders of water, my bud did the same over the bow with me staying flat on the bottom of the canoe. The paddles were feet away, since we were in the rice and they could not go anywhere. We retrieved our decoys, and the duck I shot(we don't know if we hit the others coming in) and paddled like hell for 2 kms back to the landing. Loaded everything up, and off to town we went, with our shirts off and the heater on high.

People were kinda wondering about us riding around in an old Dodge Fargo without shirts, on a cool September 30th when we were stopped at red lights

 

Amazingly, a couple of buds of ours were within 300 yds. of where we flipped our canoe the very next weekend, and did the exact same thing, but for some reason could not get back into their canoe. But they were in a more clear area, and with waving their paddles in the air, a couple of american fishermen saw them from over a mile away while perch fishing, and came to their rescue.

 

Scary stuff really, thinking back about it.

I don't hunt ducks any more, but not for that reason.

[Guest Trophymuskie]

I crashed my first boat, didn't sink it but did flatten the keel and killed the lower unit. My buddy who was sitting on the front chair wound up with his crotch wrapped around the front of the boat with one leg in the water to his hip. I was doing 25MPH and doing like I was told to go around the left side of the island, but I think they meant the other left.

 

I had my first guide boat written off by the insurance company for a grapefruit size dent in the hull when I hit the only steel/concrete boye on the Ottawa. I was entertaining my daughter at the time and trolled right over it.

 

Spending over 100 days a year on the water I get to see all kinds of things, never seen a crash but some close calls. I've rescued people in canoes, peddleboats and jetskies. I've also enjoyed watching people run their expensive boats aground on some sand bars.

 

I've also forgot or lost the plug and realized so when my lakewood bait boxes started to float so you can guess just how much water was onboard by then. One time my client caught a 45 pound muskie and when we were working on the fish the waves were coming over the gunnel, I remember one big wave but the rest were minor but added up to almost sinking my boat and had me believing I had lost the plug.

 

My second boat almost blew up on me when the wiring for the fishfinder shorted out and burned up and the wire was going over both the battery and gas tank. Lucky me the wire burned through some 80% of the gas thank and not all the way through.

[Eddyk]

I was a Volenteer Firefighter for the Township of Scugog for many years. One night in early January we got a call of people calling for help some where out on Lake Scugog about 8 PM. Six of us volenteered to go out after them. We found 2 guys who had fallen through the ice. One was dead and the otherone was in bad shape. We got them both to shore but we could feel the ice moving under our feet. It could have been a disasster if we had all gone through the ice. Shortly after that the Township bought us 6 Survival suits and an inflatable raft for ice rescuses.