tow boat and marine patrol in Melvin Bay
 

Does anyone know what the white and yellow tow boat was towing low and slow in Melvin Bay tonight? It seemed to be something heavy. They were escorted, at times, and followed, at times, by a green marine patrol boat. I believe they went into Melvin Marina.

Mitt Romney is secretly building a "Camp David" in that area...shhhh:D

One of th Secret Service Submarines broke down and had to be towed in. Ba ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!

Damaged Boat
 

They towed in a boat which appears to have hit rocks head on. The bow was torn open on both sides and the prop was badly damaged. I have pics on my phone to upload later.

My wife and I went to Melvin Village Marina yesterday as we will be buying our first boat. On the test trial, Matt took us south of the graveyard over to where the boat had hit a fallen tree a few feet off shore and impaled itself with the bow totally destroyed. It looks like the operator was going at high speeds during the rain storm Friday night around 10pm and was hugging the coast. If it wasn't for the tree the operator would have hit the docks directly behind. Thank goodness no one was killed.

Pete

Thank you. Hugging the "coast" is not a good strategy for getting home in the rain on Winnipesaukee!

Unless you want to be transported home via medivac.

Interested in seeing the pictures.

not speeding
 

New2Boating, the boat was going on plane probably less than 20 MPH not speeding, it doesn't take much to damage fiberglass, or destroy some ones reputation by false accusations.P/S some one was injured in this accident (at night in a blinding rain)

I can't think of a situation where driving a boat on-plane in a blinding rain, let alone crashing a boat into something on shore and injuring someone, would bolster anyone's reputation.

If they were going 20 MPH, that's more than 3 times the speed limit that close to shore.

It sucks that it happened, but in my opinion it was an easily preventable accident.

Yes speeding.
 

Within 150 feet of shore your suppose to be going at no wake or headway speed. :confused:
Kinda hard to do a whole lot of damage if they were following the rules.
And it's even worse if your driving blind in a downpour and going above headway speed.
Perfect example is what happened a few years ago on Diamond.
Sorry New2Boating you might want to freshen up on what your suppose to have learned to get your boater safety card.
Thankfully no one was killed. :eek:

Frankly almost all accidents are easily preventable...

That is so true. And no matter how careful people are an accident is an accident and they will always happen, no matter what one does.

You are picking on the wrong poster....

My mistake!
 

Sorry when I reread the quote on Dave R reply it was posted by Cow Isl Time. :(
The way it was quoted it was hard to tell, sorry New2Boating honest mistake.
It is hard to believe that someone would justify such unsafe actions.
BR

Sorry to pile on but the vessel was speeding per the law (safe passage), but more importantly, the operator was driving too fast for the conditions that night. No one likes getting caught in a storm, but there are better ways to make it safely home than making a run for it.

Without knowing the facts of this case, only third hand anecdotes, it's hard to know what really happened. But people tend to panic when it rains while they are boating, especially when there is lightning.

I just searched and found out that around 40 people a year die from lightning strikes and over 500 a year die in boating accidents. So a mad dash to port in a storm is probably more dangerous than waiting it out or slowly and safely returning to port.

Of course in my case, dying from a boat hook to the head is more likely, my wife hates being out in the lightning. :D

We have learned over the years that making the anchors fast and putting up the tops is our best option.
We have seen many without tops just secure their anchors and put the mooring cover on the boat and just wait it out.
I guess it all depends on what makes you feel more comfortable.
In most cases the sun returns and were where we want to be anyways only now we have a mostly empty lake.:D

Pictures
 

Here are the pics I took last weekend of the boat out of the water. There is significant bow damage and prop damage.

Wow that is some damage. I hope the injured people are well. Boats can be repaired or replaced.

There is a saying often used when aviators fly into poor weather leading to a bad outcome:

It's always sunny on the day of the funeral.

I hope these folks are ok.

That'll buff out.