Nine dead in Oregon fishing boat accident

azfamily ^

[chance33_98]

Nine dead in Oregon fishing boat accident 06/14/2003

By KGW.com and Associated Press

TILLAMOOK, Ore. - At least nine people are dead after a charter fishing boat carrying 19 people capsized as it sailed out of Tillamook Bay Saturday morning, Tillamook County Sheriff's officials said.

Rescuers continued searching for one person, the Coast Guard said.

Eight people were brought, cold and in shock, to the emergency room at Tillamook County General Hospital, said nursing supervisor Heather Scovell.

"They're cold, in shock, getting fluids," she said. The seven men and one woman suffered from hypothermia, needed oxygen because of near drowning and had small lacerations, she said.

"They hit a wave wrong and the boat capsized, that's what I was told," Scovell said.

Those at the hospital ranged in age from 13 to 48, and some were members of a family, she said.

The have since been released.

The 32-foot Taki Tooo capsized in 15-foot breaking surf as it sailed out of Tillamook Bay at 7:18 a.m., according to U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Patrick Brennan.

At the time the boat went out, there was a "small craft advisory for hazardous seas" in effect, according to KGW meteorologist Bruce Sussman. He said the system that created Friday's rain stirred up the ocean, making conditions hazardous along the Oregon Coast.

The Coast Guard dispatched three helicopters and two 47-foot lifeboats to search the choppy water at the mouth of the bay near the north jetty, he said.

One helicopter was later called away because the search grid was too small to accommodate all three aircraft, Brennan said.

The wrecked boat has since washed ashore near or on the jetty, Brennan said.

The Coast Guard will continue searching for four to eight hours, the length of time a person could survive in the about 50 degree Pacific Ocean water, Brennan said.

[tet68]

Making these passes can be dicey. That's why coast guard boats up there are built to roll completely over.
There is some awesome video somewhere on the net.

[cricket]

Surely a legal limit; but 'nineteen' seems like a lot of passengers for this boat.

So sad, this group was across the board on ages; youngest being thirteen and that more than one member of some families are gone. . .

[HairOfTheDog]

Yes, a 32 foot boat should be considered a small boat... Small Craft Advisory means winds of 18 to 33 knots or other sea conditions that would be dangerous to craft under 50 feet (IMHO) though I don't think small craft is defined. (These warnings came out long before personal watercraft) You can easily have seas of a 3-4 feet at that wind speed. 18 knots creates a plenty uncomfortable amount of chop in a 32 footer.

Ramius or Tonk may remember the details on where the cutoff is for these advisories in terms of seas.... My boating and seamanship course was a long time ago!

[Hinoki Cypress]

Reason #116 why I'm not a fisherman/ don't go boating/ like terra firma under my feet at all times.

Prayers for the dead; admonition for the survivors.

[Ramius]

I'm not sure where the cutoff is. I think it's about 35 or 40 knots. The next warning level after a Small Craft Advisory is a Gale Warning. The SCA means "things are nasty out there", and the Gale Warning means that "things are brutal". :-)

There is actually no rule that defines what a "small craft" is. It's just a guideline for skippers to decide whether they want to go out or not. Just because there was a SCA active doesn't mean that the skipper was wrong to go out. It depends on lots of other things too.

[Tailback]

The Oregon Coast is dangerous. I personally know about a dozen people I grew up with that have died in commercial fishing boat accidents and a (very) few that have survived accidents. Last week a young man died trying to save two girls from the valley that got caught in a riptide, he died of hypothermia. Every single year people from Portland, Salem, and Eugene go to the coast thinking they can just go swimming to their hearts content in the ocean and end up drowning, dying of hypothermia, or killed by logs on the beach. I was nearly killed at the age of ten while clam digging when I was hit by a sneaker wave and I knew of the danger because I grew up there. My advice is to never ever go into the water over your knees without a wetsuit at the Oregon Coast.

[Tailback]

Making these passes can be dicey. That's why coast guard boats up there are built to roll completely over. There is some awesome video somewhere on the net.

It's also why the Coast Guard's motor rescue boat school is located just North of Astoria, OR on the Washington coast near the mouth of the Columbia river. The Columbia river bar passage is known as one of the 3 most dangerous in the entire world.

[Ramius]

I saw the boat on some of fox's coverage.

Something doesn't seem right. There were no rod holders on the railing, and 19 seems like a lot for that size and configuration of boat. It was just a regular open cockpit in the rear. No walkaround to fish that number of people.

I wonder if this wasn't a whale-watching trip. That might explain why so many and why there weren't rod holders.

[tpaine]

The whole west coast is very dangerous.

The SF bar has been known to generate waves in the 'potato patch' just off the GGate, that scour the bottom.
Ships/boats have 'grounded out' then been swamped by the next wave. -- It's nasty out there.

[Ramius]

The Columbia river bar passage is known as one of the 3 most dangerous in the entire world.

Actually I think it is among the 1 most dangerous. :-)

It gets really hairy. The other bars and harbors along Oregon get plenty nasty too. Sounds like this guy may have just come out of the harbor, lost power and got into the surf. That sort of thing can develop in just a few minutes, and it gets really ugly really quick.

[Ditter]

You used the term 'sneaker wave'. Do you mean a wave that seems to come out of nowhere? I was standing about 2 ft. from the waters edge on a beach in Hawaii. The water was relatively calm & all of a sudden the water sucked back & formed a wave that was at least 6-8 ft. I turned & ran but it caught me & got my clothes wet to my waist.

[Ramius]

You're right about the risks of the Oregon/Washington coast. It not like Malibu out there.

The CG National Motor Lifeboat School is at Cape Disappointment, along with Station Cape Disappointment. This is where CG coxswains go to become rated as a "Heavy Weather Coxswain", and it is the only place in the country that does this training. Heavy-weather coxswains are the fighter pilots of the boat-driving world. Cocky, arrogant, and they deserve every bit of it. :-)

Station Cape D is the most dangerous station in the USCG. More coasties have been killed there than at any other station.

[csvset]

Station Cape Disappointment

[bruinbirdman]

"Is a 32' boat considered a "small craft?" "

Small craft . . . "built in accordance with boat building practices and recognized construction standards for smallvessels, for example, *Nordic Boat Standard (Commercial Boats less than 12M),". . .

yitbos

[Willie Green]

Rescuers continued searching for one person, the Coast Guard said.
At the time the boat went out, there was a "small craft advisory for hazardous seas" in effect,

If there is justice in this world, the captain/owner of this vessel is sleeping in Davey Jones' locker.
The dam*ed idiot should've known better than to take passengers out on the sea in these conditions.

[Ramius]

Actually, they often go out in seas like this and worse. Very rarely does the Coast Guard actually close the bars and harbors to prevent people from going out.

It's nasty like this out here all the time. If they always had to wait for nice weather they'd never go out.

It's possible that the skipper made some judgement errors, but not automatic. The first question I have is whether that boat overloaded or not. 19 people is a lot for a 32 footer.