Flipped in San Diego bay.

[Tranquility]

I felt bad about this. We run a 52 foot sportfisher in San Diego. We were returning to port yesterday afternoon through the bay. We were at our cruise speed of 9.5 kts. My boat throws a substantial wake at this speed. As we all know that bay can be a crazy place on a nice day and there were boats every where. Room to manuever can be limited for a larger boat.

We past a kayak that I saw a little late. He popped up from behind another boat. However I thought that he had enough room to put himself in a reasonable position to cross our wake. As I watched him cross our wake sure enough he flipped. We turned around to assist him and also another boat came to help. The other boat took the yak in tow and he climbed aboard the other boat. We pulled up beside them and he was obviously upset. " You flipped me", " I lost all my fishing gear". I asked him if he was injured.

I am sympathetic to the fact that he flipped and lost his gear. My bigger concern at the time was if he was injured or not. He was not wearing any flotation. I repeat, no flotation.

I have never fished in a kayak, however I do regularly fish the bay in a smaller boat. 12 ft. aluminum. I keep to the area's of slow traffic in the marina's. Why? Because I feel that the bay is to dangerous and rough when its busy. With mixed traffic and no speed limits the opportunity for disaster is high.

I try to be considerate to all the users of the bay and I like the idea of fishing off a kayak. I often lurk on this website and have considered buying a kayak to fish the bay. I am not a kayak hater.

I guess I am posting this to point out the obvious. Some of us in larger boats are trying to look out for you guys. Sometimes you have to know where the limits are. San Diego bay is not a good choice for a kayak when its busy. This guy was way out in the middle of the bay along way from where he had launched and the bay was really busy. Our wake was one of many that he was having to contend with and I would not have been comfortable on a kayak or even in my small boat in the bay at that time.

Please wear flotation gear when you are out there. It could save your life.

Anytime we enter the realm of the ocean whether it be the open ocean or the bay's, careful consideration must be taken to ensure your own safety. Please be careful out there guy's.

[mrJB]

You were at fault. If you purchase a kayak, or even venture out in your skiff, please mark the vessel with some identification and we will have a talk.
The local waters are full of people like you - too much money and not enough respect for other people. If you were half a man you would have found the 'yaker and at least paid for his lost equipment, not to mention offering an apology.
Remember, "what goes 'round, comes around". See you on the water

[JrBasser]

could you have by chance, i don't know... slowed down? You know your boat puts off a large wake, and you were trying to maneuver through boats... so why not slow down to a safer, and non wake throwing speed?

[Fiskadoro]

Now that's an interesting post...

I used to run a 56 Ocean pretty much identical to this one.....


.......out of Marina Del Rey. There is long portion of the channel that had a ten or possibly now eight knot limit between the main harbor and outer breakwall, and since the power lanes are narrow on each side and the kayakers usually stick to the sides this put us in close proximity to kaykers.

Like you we put out a huge wake at certain speeds. I never dumped anyone but there were some close calls, especially with the small sabot fleet that frequents MDR.

What I did is played with my speed and throttle settings until I found the best wake pattern with the least height to it, and then used it coming and going. For us it was around six and a half Knots. I know that seems slow but when your only going a less then a mile there is very little real time ETA difference between 6.5 and 9.5 knots, and it was worth it to us for safety reasons to take the extra time.

Kudos to you for stopping, lots of guys would of just kept going, but your describing a potentially dangerous situation with lots boats in the area, and to me it sounds like you were going to fast.

By law any boat traveling in a harbor is legally responsibility for damage caused by their wake, no matter what speed they are traveling, speed limits in harbors are suggestions but it's the responsibility of the operator to keep his boat at a safe speed in relation to conditions, and others on the water.

Additionally the fact he was not wearing his jacket is irrelevant as far as your actions are concerned, his safety is his business. Lots of Bay yakkers are newbies with little experience but you're the one that's running your boat, and who needs to behave reasonably. If it had been a dog on a surfboard, or even a floating telephone pole out there it's your job to avoid it not the other way around. Not only for your boats protection but also for liability as your boat can do a lot more damage then a kayak, surfboard or even telephone pole.

Trust me I hear where you're coming from, I've been right there.

My pet peeve was outside the harbor where small private boats would pull right directly in front of me and then stop for a halibut drift while I'm cruising at 20 knots on Autopilot.

With sixty thousand pounds of inertia, and my two Detroit's spooled up what could I do?

If I tried to slow down and make a wide turn I'd wake the holy hell out of them. If kept on at speed and just avoided them, I'd have to pass within maybe twenty feet of them at speed, and they'd still get a sizable wake, not to mention just be scared silly.

I finally learned the thing to do was just throttle down to almost nothing, just enough power to keep steerage and coast to almost to a stop.

That lead to some interesting exchanges let me tell you.

When 56 super sport coasts to a stop within twenty feet of your boat... well people take notice.... LOL

My favorite thing to do then was just idle up along side, lean out of the fly bridge and the say: "Don't do that!!!" "That's not very smart!!!" Talk about some sheepish looks... LMAO

Like I said: I hear where you're coming from and Kudos to you for stopping or even having the guts to come on this board to post about it. That said keep in mind that there are a lot of boaters and yakkers out there without that much experience, and they certainly do not know what is involved or understand just how difficult it is to run a boat of your size, and ultimately you're responsible for your boat, it's wake and any damage it causes. If in doubt you should always slow down.

So what are you running in that thing? Twin Detroits, 2X300 gallon tanks? About 2 grand to fill it up?

You might want to consider replacing the guys gear, or at least offer to buy him a rod or two. At less then 10% of your fuel bill it's not going to kill you and will sure do a lot for your rep, and make you look like a stand up guy.

I didn't own the 56 Ocean above nor could I afford the fuel to run it, but just ran it for the owner. If it had been us that's the exact advice I would of given him in the same situation, and if I was at the wheel I'd of then told him to take it out of my pay.

That's just my take.

Jim

[Matt]

The fact of the matter is simply this you should never have gone past a paddle powered boat throwing off that much of a wake, you as the motor boat are supposed to give way to the kayak. Check your coast guard regs man....if that kayaker files a complaint with the coast guard you could be in a lot of trouble!

[sterling]

It takes two to create a collision or accident. I fish way out in the mouth of the bay on my kayak. I leash my equipment and wear a pfd, and am always watching what the big boats are doing. Let's see cruise liners, aircraft carriers, various military vessels, yachts and ya hoos galore go through there some screaming since it's a ways back to the dock.
The sportfisher said he didn't see the guy, "he popped out from behind a boat." He went back and was so concerned he posted here. Yes he could have been more careful but so could the yaker. Nobody was injured and lessons learned. I think this incident and post should serve as a safety reminder. It sucks for the guy who lost his stuff, but who hasn't lost equipment off a yak. Just the cost of doing business.

[dsafety]

It sounds to me that Mr. Tranquility is a stand up guy who has probably learned from this incident. The kayaker is probably really pissed off and that is understandable but I bet he does not understand how lucky he is that people came to his aid. Without a PFD, he could have been toast.

I do not defend the fact that the sportfisher was probably going too fast for the conditions. I suspect that next time he will dial things down a notch. On the other hand, as someone mentioned, there are cruise ships and Navy boats galore out there and they are not bound by the "yield to unpowered boats" rules. We in the tiny plastic boats need to keep our eyes open. In my mind, kayaking in a busy shipping channel is kind of like riding a motorcycle on a busy freeway.

The bottom line is we all have to turn on our brains before we get out on the water. Kayakers need to be careful and power boaters need to be courteous. As someone said earlier in this post... What goes around, comes around. That is a good thought to live by.

Bob

[Gino]

shit happpends


last time a boat got that clsoe and almsot flipped me, he got a free



but he didnt like how he got it!

Be safe out thier folks!