They were on that spot for almost an hour. I thought they might have had divers in the water but it was hard to tell for sure

Captain Dunleavy told me the accident was right in from of my cabin. He wanted to know if I saved images from the BearCam. I told him I do not.

Reports have claimed the accident was just north of the mail dock. Once again, that is the area viewed on the BearCam.

If anyone is interested there are more views of the area available from my other cameras at www.bearfeed.com

The best boating at night is on someone else's boat!! Personally, I fail to see the joy of boating at night, unless there is a really bright full moon, and even then not my favorite thing to do. Why go boating in pitch black darkness? I think you are just asking for trouble. Besides,I hate when the vinyl seats get wet with moisture/condensation when the sun goes down, you have the possibility of floating debris, and God knows what else... Not my idea of "fun". Would you drive your car in pitch black darkness with no headlights on...??? Whats the difference? No thanks. To each his own...

According to the report, Hal's boat was found in 48' of water out in front of the red double boathouse on Pine Island, just north of FL4, which might explain why the MP was out that direction today. It must have been a fairly strong breeze from the south for his boat to drift that far before sinking.

The last time I saw Hal was 10 or so years ago when I went to his house on East Bear to pick up my parents who had attended his wedding that day...

It is all so very very sad and the world has lost two gentlemen that touched so many lives in such positive ways...

Be careful out there -PIG

Each time there is a tragedy on the lake it sticks with me a little and I try to learn something from it. For instance, when the boater backed into his son on Paugus bay two years ago I decided to always shut down instead of going to neutral when there is someone in the water and I don't start up until I do a head count.
But i don't see a lesson in this accident. Two expert and experienced boaters in the wrong place at the wrong time in circumstances that would be hard to duplicate. So sorry for the families of these fine men.

SAMIAM, there's a lesson here for sure, we just can't know exactly what it is. What we know is that two boats collided--what we don't know is why and how it could have been prevented.

For example, if it was "hunkering down" because of the cold, the lesson is to bundle up. If lighting, have a backup energy/lighting source. If it was fog/visibility, the lesson is to use sound and slow down.

I know I'll be reconsidering how I proceed when night boating for sure.

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Accident !
 

My first experience on Winni was in a PENN-Yann SWIFT just like the one shown! I put in at Goodhue & Hawkins and learned that first time How little I knew about the Lake. Water Skied around Locke Island & then went in to the store & bought a Lake chart/map.. Lesson learned !! kerk

I think the lesson here is don’t go out on your boat at night.

Just to clarify, the boat in APS' picture is not anywhere near what Hal had. Hal's Penn Yan was more of a "day cruiser" boat somewhere around 22' and certainly had no performance characteristics whatsoever about it...

Dan

Don't go out at night
 

That is easily said, but I have had numerous occasions where it is hard to help. We frequent our friends property on Cow Island near Hole in the Wall. My wife does not like night boating, I personally enjoy it.

Although we usually attempt to head back to our home port, Lakeport Landing Marina, in enough time to avoid darkness, we are not always successful. We have had several close calls in the area of Weirs Beach and Eagle Island due to inattention by other boat captains. Fortunately no mishaps.

I take it upon myself to be extra vigilant after dark, but I should and want to be able to enjoy the lake as much as possible.

Just my opinion,
Bill

Is it just me or is that photo of the Penn Yan causing the size of my ipad screen to change to fit it in and cause all the text to get much smaller? When I posted here I could barely read what I entered.

Unfortunately... there is a lesson to be learned from every tragedy. Especially a tragedy like this one that on its face seems purely accidental. I am sure the accident reconstruction team will do their due diligence, publish their findings and assign the proper blame in due time.

IMHO, the findings will show that neither party will be 100% at fault... but you can expect to see "too fast for the conditions" and "failure to keep a proper lookout" as the catchphrases used in the report.

Woodsy

You could do that but when you live on an island that’s easier said than done. This time of year is very restricting if you can’t be out after 4:30. Maybe you should do things differently instead. Like having a set of battery powered lights. Like having a flashlight. Like having a gps when the blinking lights have been removed. Like changing the bow light and stern lights to led to eliminate blown bulbs. In the early spring you should boat differently when the water is freezing and when there’s a lot of stuff floating in the lake. You just have to be ready for what could happen. This would probably be a better new topic and we might all learn something new. For example, i’ll have battery running lights next season just in case. I learned that in this thread.

My previous post left out something important. I learned a lot more from this thread than just about battery lights. We all did.

I've resized that image to a better size.

Much better. Thanks!

Ditto for me
 

Same thing for me on my tablet, but at least I can "pinch " my screen to make it larger.

Dave

Disheartening
 

All good ideas, but its a bit jarring to know that all involved were seasoned islanders and this still happened.
I thought fishing into the evening sounded attractive. The results were cetainly worth it but the 'easy' ride home was not. Even in good clear weather and running just on plane it seemed too fast for comfort. The first nav lights I saw were ASTONISHGLY close and it seemed they came out of nowhere. I was off plane the rest of the way in. An unlit canoe or kayak could slip under your keel too easily. Yeah, it would be largely "their" fault but I dont want to live with that regardless.

Or a sailboat.

We were sailing on the big lake at night, navigation lights lit, and were almost run down and killed by some inattentive idiot in a cabin cruiser.

For paddling or rowing at dusk, or at night, www.topkayaker.com at 1805 Rt-16 in Center Ossipee NH has a number of high quality, battery powered l.e.d. navigation lights which show brighter than the old incandescent bulb lights. In the Safety Gear section...

For a kayak or stand up paddle board, a bright white l.e.d. navigation light can maybe make the difference between being seen, or becoming a "speed bump."

For $19.99 check out the 'c-strobe with c-clip' that's powered by two AA batteries, not included, and flashes with 45-lumens white light ..... hand held ... you can wave it around and pray you don't get hit ....... or attach it to your pfd ..... does not float .... "has intense strobe light visible up to 2-miles."

www.topkayaker.net

Funeral Arrangements?
 

Is any information available yet re funeral arrangements for Hal and Jim? 🐻

Good question but if I was out in my canoe after dark I would be hugging the shoreline for sure. Cant really think of any reason to be out there in a canoe or kayak when its dark tho. Then again, the most dangerous thing I want to do these days is ride my bike down a dirt road during the day.

Yes it is legal, with an "all around white light". Not nessisaraly a good idea, but legal.

Here on Lake Winnipesaukee, 99.44%-of all the motorboats keep serious attention to staying outside the spar marker buoys because there could be shallow rocks along the shoreline areas which makes for safe paddling close along the shore, within the spar markers.

Out in the motorboat zones, you can get hit on a sunny day just because the motor boater never saw you, and was not expecting a kayak/sup to be there. Motorboats and jet skis can travel along at 45-mph ..... while kayaks and sups paddle along at 3-mph.

Is similar to a motorcycle not being seen by a car driver; ...... say-hey ..... I never even seen it, there?

It’s very much not a good idea. I’ve had too many boats come too close during the day. And I have bright orange kayaks to help be seen better. A little white light is not enough. That is a disaster waiting to happen.

And this is exactly why people get hurt or killed. This is the most insane, incoherent and stupid suggestions ranking right up there with the foam noodle nonsense. Yes please go out at night in a kayak, canoe or even better one of those ridiculously unstable stand up boards I mean what could POSSIBLY go wrong? Hmmm wait for it, yup speed bump..... the only thing you got accurate is do this and you better damn well pray you don't get hit.

People that do this are the very fruitcakes you see on TV on the 6PM news wondering why a disaster occurred. Um DUH? Here you go, another Darwin award winner.

FLL - seriously please save us from more suggestions from the galactically stupid.

..........

Hey Maxum buddy ........ Ebay.com has these 'ACR C-Strobe lights', a personal distress strobe light w/ a short lanyard, and two loops for attaching to a pfd strap, size-6" tube shape, works on two AA batteries, 45-lumens flashing white strobe light can be seen two miles across the water,

shipped from Tampa, Florida for $14.50-ea, shipping included.

Hey Maxum ..... is this a great Christmas stocking stuffer, or what!

At $14.50, shipping included, will be sold out soon, so don't delay your purchase. ... :D:
........

For a vessel stopped in a highly trafficked spot on the lake after dark, one of these small white strobe flashers could be very helpful ..... seems like a no brain-er.

Just remember that the all around light must be mounted high enough to be seen for 360 degrees and be visible for a distance of 2 miles.

For paddling a kayak or sup in the dark, what would work good is a baseball cap light, with the navigation light somehow attached to the very top of the cap ...... a nav-cap night light!

Ready for an extraordinary situation, one of these $14.50 psychedelic white, 45-lumens, C-strobe flashing l.e.d. beacons can be secured :idea: to your pfd ..... like, wow! ..... if you need to pray you don't get run over by a big, fast boat like it's going over a speed bump .... is right time to turn on this flasher beacon .... and continue to pray!

Embarrassing
 

Two finer men, experienced boaters, met with tragic ends.
Frivolous speculating about kayaks and flashlights is embarrassing and should not be part of a solemn thread. Have some respect and start another thread if you have to drift off course.

It's not only embarrassing but disrespectful.

"shocking" words
 

People really need to think about exactly what they're saying, and how it clearly comes across to others reading it. Saying "shocked" is such an inappropriate word to use. Thoughts expressed regarding and accident and death should convey sympathy, and heartfelt sorrow.

Agreed
 

Thank you and welcome to the Forum with a thoughtful post..

So, here's a question on this extremely unfortunate, sad, and unhappy collision: Were the two motor boats both moving along and collided head-on, or was one boat struck while it was stopped, or what?

Now we add sarcasim :(

Obituary
 

Obituary for Hal Lyon:
https://www.laconiadailysun.com/comm...36b54ef39.html

Wow, what am amazing list of accolades. I never met him, but am sad I didn't. Such a loss to the community.

You really need to refrain from posting on this thread. You just don't get it! :(

It's scant consolation, but it seems both gentlemen passed while doing the thing they most enjoyed while at their favorite spot on earth.

So I’m kind of with FatLazy.

While this is a sad unfortunate event and my condolences go out to friends and family, there seems to be a lot of unanswered questions. This thread is about a boat crash and people have questions. Maybe a thread should be started to celebrate the lives of the individuals that were lost.

Take the names out of it and I think there would be some different reactions to this crash.

Examples:

Drinking always comes up in these type of threads, why not here? An operator runs into a breakwater at night and leaves the boat there and the knee jerk reaction is that the operator was drunk.

Common sense, why where people boating in these conditions?

Who’s at fault? Operator error? Mechanical?

Could this have been avoided?

All due respect to the deceased and their families but 2 people lost their lives here, families/friends lost loved ones. There has to be some lessons learned from this in addition to accountability.


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