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ApS · 10-10-2005, 08:43 AM

Other boating sites are citing "smooth fixed wood benches", so I don't know about the plastic chairs mentioned. Perhaps some were added to seat the "extra" passengers. (?)

Wheelchairs couldn't have helped the situation. The other sites say that the Ethan Allen listed to port when filled with passengers.

It sounds like a lot of factors entered here:

1) Lots of passengers.
2) Listing to port with passengers -- at the dock.
3) Altered superstructure.
4) New heavier engine, and ballast added forward.
5) Port-sliding passengers (upon a starboard turn).
6) Wheelchairs sliding to port
7) Possible wake.
8) One crew member short

What hasn't been mentioned -- as yet -- is the possibility that the captain "gunned" the engine to address some circumstance (like meeting a wake at 90°).

That would have torqued the hull to port.

BTW: I have a photo of the Judge Sewall sunk in four feet of water.
I don't know how the swamping came about, but the boat has a floating yellow ring/collar around it, and the shoreline it's resting on is too shallow to have been on his normal route.

10-10-2005, 08:43 AM	#31
ApS Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Florida (Sebring & Keys), Wolfeboro Posts: 5,943 Thanks: 2,218 Thanked 779 Times in 555 Posts	The Judge Sewall sank once. Other boating sites are citing "smooth fixed wood benches", so I don't know about the plastic chairs mentioned. Perhaps some were added to seat the "extra" passengers. (?) Wheelchairs couldn't have helped the situation. The other sites say that the Ethan Allen listed to port when filled with passengers. It sounds like a lot of factors entered here: 1) Lots of passengers. 2) Listing to port with passengers -- at the dock. 3) Altered superstructure. 4) New heavier engine, and ballast added forward. 5) Port-sliding passengers (upon a starboard turn). 6) Wheelchairs sliding to port 7) Possible wake. 8) One crew member short What hasn't been mentioned -- as yet -- is the possibility that the captain "gunned" the engine to address some circumstance (like meeting a wake at 90°). *That would have torqued the hull to port.* BTW: I have a photo of the Judge Sewall sunk in four feet of water. I don't know how the swamping came about, but the boat has a floating yellow ring/collar around it, and the shoreline it's resting on is too shallow to have been on his normal route.