Sailboat sinks after crashing into jetty
The 15 feet of mast sticking out of Charleston Harbor on Thursday didn't belong to a submarine.
The U.S. Coast Guard said a 63-foot long sailboat crashed into a jetty in the morning and then disappeared underwater within a half hour. A good Samaritan boater rescued a husband and wife, along with their dog, before the Ryota went under.
"They were taken off safely before the boat even sank," Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Walworth said. "It sank pretty quick."
A Coast Guard press release identified the couple as Dewayne and Lynne Wesley of Jacksonville, Fla. They radioed for help about 7:30 a.m. The good Samaritan boat, the Pay Dirt, was in the area and responded to the scene.
A 41-foot Coast Guard rescue boat crew picked up the passengers from
Pay Dirt and transferred them to Coast Guard Station Charleston.
Authorities had received no reports of pollution resulting from the accident. Salvage company Charleston Marine Services was overseeing the removal of the sunken vessel.
The Coast Guard asked boaters in Charleston Harbor to stay alert and monitor VHF Channel 16 for up-to-date information.
Walworth said the salvage company put a strobe light on the mast to alert other vessels. The cause of the mishap was under investigation, he said. Investigators said it's possible that the captain misjudged a turn during high tide.
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Comments
This article has 6 comment(s)
Posted by Neponset on November 28, 2008 at 6:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The economy may be in the toilet, but it looks like our marine salvage folks will have a good Christmas.
Posted by CedarPosts on November 28, 2008 at 9:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Salvage guys are like the pirates of old they get pretty much whatever price they claim.
The spoils are often worth the trouble. The Cheoy Lee was worth around 500k and the trawler, maybe 250k scraped and slavaged.
Rrrrrr!
Photos of the Cheoy is happier days at http://lifefloatingby.blogspot.com
Posted by rollo on November 28, 2008 at 10:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
7:30 AM, possibly missed a marker in the rising sun?
Posted by Neponset on November 28, 2008 at 10:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I am just a duffer, who has passed thru the jetties maybe 20 times in boats of less than 30 ft, both thru the main channel and thru dynamite hole, wonder where they hit the rocks. I suspect that a boat of this size would be using the main entrance.
Posted by CoastofCarolina on November 28, 2008 at 2:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Cedar Posts is right. Having worked for them both here and in another state (the employees don't get paid anywhere near the amount of money salvors take in from salvages, believe me!), I can tell you that "pirate" is almost too kind a word. The prices they charge are the direct cause of the abandoned boats around here. No one can afford to be salvaged.
The salvors take possession of the boats using maritime laws, refurbish them (they get parts and fittings wholesale), and sell them for high retail prices. I should know - I bought a sailboat once. Paid too much for it but she was the best boat ever.
Salvage is where the money is - that's why the boat-towing businesses charge so little for their annual memberships. They get you with salvage prices. Then, when the salvage work becomes the bulk of their business, they sell off the towing franchise and keep the salvage equipment and boats and stay in business, sneaking around the non-compete clause they signed when they sold the towing business.
They offer to "assist" the new franchise owner ("sucker") with salvages and "split" the income (padding their portion of the work done on the job, of course). There's nothing the "sucker" can do about it, except work with them, because the "pirate" has all the equipment and contacts. Otherwise, the "sucker" would be in direct competition with the "pirate" and the "pirate" will go to great lengths to steal the jobs (first one with a line on the sunken vessel gets the salvage) and make sure the "sucker" gets nothing.
It's cutthroat and the ones who lose is us - the joe duffer boat owner. Whatever happened to helping out fellow boaters and charging a reasonable price to do so, in order to maintain goodwill? Yeah, I know, that was just a dream.
Posted by Neponset on November 28, 2008 at 4:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Coast
Sounds like our friends in the legal field - ambulance chasers.