Saturday, June 15, 2013

The 315MHz incident

The captain successfully single hands the down east style yacht out of the Lake Okeechobee Mayaca lock. He throttles up headed toward Stuart Florida. Almost immediately there is a problem. The boat seems sluggish, and not very responsive in the water. He glances back and sees a a 20' high vertical wall of water rising from the stern. Throttles are slapped back to neutral. The wall of water immediately disappears.

He now realizes the hydraulic swim platform carrying the dingy has been somehow actuated and sank fully downward. The dingy now full of water is nearly underwater. He is familiar enough with the boat to know there is a manual wired pendant in the engine room. Using this he raises the platform in small increments allowing the water to drain from the dingy. Shortly all is well. The engine's motor wasn't submerged, so in the end there is no damage.