Does anyone have an update on who was at fault on the collision in Florida?
It has been a very long time since I reviewed the ColRegs and I wondered if the barge was constrained by draft or moving freely. Very surprised that the sailboat couldn't stay clear, but I may be missing something.
Monroe, Nobody can claim to know exactly what happened or who was at fault, until the USCG investigation is completed.
I can tell you about the area, and what the data says, and what videos snips show.
The boat involved was a Hobie Getaway like this one:
Barge_7.jpg
Sailing from the Miami Yacht Club on Watson Island:
Barge_6.jpg
This is what the depths usually look like over in that area:
Screenshot_20250731_154950_Boating 1024X768.jpg
And I can show you generally where they were sailing:
Barge_10.jpg
Here is a sequence of stills from a surveillance video, showing the collision:
Barge_2.jpg
Barge_3.jpg
Barge_4.jpg
Barge_5.jpg
This is the telling shot for me, taken minutes before the collision:
Barge_1.jpg
An MYC chase boat and two other MYC sailboats.
Begging the question: Why didn't he chase them down and either warn them, or tow them away from the barge? ???
I have sailed in that area, headed from the Watson Island boat ramp, to Flagler Memorial Island (also known as Monument Island, at far right on the map above) and been chased away most aggressively, from MYC chase boats every time I sailed past the Miami Yacht Club.
Whether or not the girl operating the Hobie knew Col Regs – Rule 8 Action to Avoid Collision, she was essentially helpless to do anything about it.
Look at the pictures of the surrounding water.
Pretty flat, huh?
"There were six people aboard the sailboat when the crash happened around 11 a.m. near Hibiscus Island, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release"
NDBC databuoy VAKF1 (Virginia Key, about 1½ miles away) shows between 11:00am and 11:18am:
#YY MM DD hh mm WDIR WSPD GST WVHT DPD APD MWD PRES ATMP WTMP DEWP VIS PTDY TIDE
2025 07 28 11 18 10 1.0 2.1 MM MM MM MM 1018.1 29.0 31.4 MM MM MM MM
2025 07 28 11 12 10 1.5 3.1 MM MM MM MM 1018.1 28.8 31.4 MM MM MM MM
2025 07 28 11 06 20 2.1 3.6 MM MM MM MM 1018.1 28.7 31.4 MM MM MM MM
2025 07 28 11 00 30 2.6 3.6 MM MM MM MM 1018.1 28.7 31.4 MM MM +0.3 MM
Bear in mind that wind speed range of 1.0 mph to 2.6 mph over at Virginia Key, was in open water. Where they were, 1½ miles away at MYC, has significant wind shadow from all the condos, causeways and islands and the winds over the collision area, were very likely non-existent.
Barely enough wind to make way on a boat with 6 people aboard, much less maneuver clear of a barge.
That barge probably only had a few feet of clearance between his hull and the bottom.
So I was surprised when the sailboat hull was recovered largely intact:
Barge_9.jpg
Easy enough from the comfort of an arm chair to chide a barge operator, or a summer camp counselor, sailing a boat full of kids in light to non-existent air, but sometimes, you just get a tragic confluence of events that nobody walks away from, unscathed.
Personal Barge Experience:
In the Atlantic Ocean, no less.
Anchored with our expensive new Viking Danforth style aluminum anchor, bottom fishing at night, off 69th street in Miami Beach.
A tug boat began blaring its horn at us.
We were confused.
We're at anchor! :o Why doesn't he just go around us? ??? He's far enough away to do so! :o
In the darkness, we saw the barge. A paper barge, weighing who knows how many tons, bringing paper into the Miami Herald once they entered Government Cut and went into Biscayne Bay.
Yelled at my fishing buddy to start the motor on our outboard bow-rider, while I retrieved the anchor.
Which naturally, stuck fast to the bottom.
My buddy, either through excitement or adrenaline, neglected to choke the motor and flooded it.
Stuck anchor, no motor, runaway barge, approaching like a freight train.
I coolly grabbed a filet knife and cut the rode on the brand new expensive anchor and then grabbed a paddle and instructed my buddy to move the boat as best he could with the paddle, while I attempted to re-start the motor.
Maybe we would have cleared in time, but maybe not.
Fortunately, I got the motor started and we took off just feet away, in front of that massive barge, looking for all the world like a serial matinee cliff-hanger.
Turned out, a hot-shot sports fisherman had cut in between the tug and the barge, trying to get somewhere quicker, and cut the tow line and the tug operator was trying frantically to steer the barge away from well . . . EVERYTHING!!
Anyone can assert this Col Regs, or that Col Regs, but Inertia Don't Care.
And God doesn't repeal the Laws of Physics for anyone; not even small children. :(
My analysis: Straight Up Tragedy, with plenty of blame to go around for everybody.
Or, nobody.
One guy's opinion,
Charles Brennan
Charles,
Thanks for an excellent recap of the tragedy. You know, I completely forgot about the possibility of an absence of wind with enough strength to help the sailboat maneuver. In my view you are absolutely correct in saying there is enough blame to go around to tar everyone and the truth may be it was truly just an unfortunate accident.
Thanks for taking the time to write this summary.
Monroe, Thinking about it a little more, I realized that I also forgot to take the tides into account.
Here's a pic of the tides at Government Cut which opens alongside that area of Miami Beach.
Barge_11.jpg
As you can see, flood tide was probably around between 9 am and 12 pm in Government Cut, on July 28.
If the collision occurred at 11:00 am as reported by witnesses, the current was probably slowing a little, an hour from high tide, but still going along at a pretty good clip.
Here's the pic I posted previously of the area for reference:
Barge_10.jpg
Notice all the shallows east (to the right) of Flagler Memorial Island.
When the tide comes in, it builds up on those shoals and when it flows off the shoals into the channels, it can create quite a current. Sailboats racing around Flagler Memorial Island frequently exploit those tides, to slingshot around the island.
BTW, that island was dredged up and built by Carl Fisher in 1920, as a memorial to Henry Flagler, for the express purpose of giving all his yachting buddies something to race around. The island was (at that time) one nautical mile, to race around.
Here's a more enlarged pic, showing a larger view of the same area:
Barge_12.jpg
The lower right corner shows the Government Cut entrance, where the Atlantic Ocean flows into Biscayne Bay.
Aggravating the currents in that area near MYC, are the shallows adjacent to the channels, towards the top of the pic. (North and East, on the pic.)
It's entirely possible, that between the lack of any winds and the still incoming (although slowing) tide, that the sailboat was literally swept in front of the barge, with zero control.
(And for the record, I'm still wondering where the Hell >:( the chase boats, were. In my experience (back when I lived down there) they typically use two of them, for most MYC sailing events; one to head off other random boats coming into the MYC sailing area, and one to corral the youth sailing boats.)
Another thought came to me, watching the videos again. We might need someone like Norm Lasky, to provide some experience and judgement, as to tug and barge characteristics. In the videos, you can see all kinds of prop wash from the push tug just before the collision, (almost like he was trying to furiously reverse) but very little bow wave from the front of the barge. To a layman like me, it would appear that the barge was moving very slowly, compared to the usual barge speeds (and resulting bow waves) we see in the ICW. The movement was definitely forward, as the sailboat gets crunched under the bow and I am wondering, if the same tides that swept the sailboat under, may also have simply pushed the barge over the top of the sailboat.
A little more Food for Thought,
Charles Brennan
Charles,
You are more than thorough with your analysis and it will be interesting to learn what the Coast Guard investigation reveals. One lesson learned is that the MYC will need to be more vigilant in the future for all sailing events. How comfortable did you feel when sailing solo in that area?
Charles - thanks for the insight of what may have gone wrong. My Daughter and I at one time took a Hobie beach Cat on a fairly windless day. We had a heck of a time getting away from the beach, as the tide and current kept pushing us back before we could catch the nonexistent breeze. We effectively had zero control, but fortunately were yards from the beach.
Monroe, What an unusual question! :P
Quote from: Monroe on Aug 01, 2025, 12:29 PMHow comfortable did you feel when sailing solo in that area?
A lot of my sailing (>60%) is done solo, which I enjoy, because I'm not responsible for anyone but myself. But when I'm not sailing solo, I also take my family near there.
I've taken my family over to Monument Island (Flager Memorial Island, but Monument Island is what all the locals call it) numerous times for picnics, on Sunday afternoons.
I've sailed the area around Watson Island sometimes, just to avoid all the madness just a little to the south, in Key Biscayne, where weekends get entirely too crazy to deal with.
"Florida Man", like most cliches, had to have come from SOMEWHERE!! :P
Was your question about feeling safe, around barges in a constricted shallow area, with lots of other boat traffic?!? ???
Welcome to south Florida!! :P
You left out the Mega-Yachts sailed (badly!) by the Nouveau Riche. The jet skis, the arrogant Sports fishermen in their 60 to 80 foot fishing machines, the Cigarette and Donzi speed demons, that think 60 mph is only a little above idle speed. The locals in their center console T-tops, over-loaded with the relatives. All the recent immigrants from all over the Caribbean, using boats similar to their home countries and handled in much the same manner. (De bigges' boat, got de right of way! . . . . .)
You adapt or you die. :-X
I've also been just north of Watson Island, near the Venetian Islands, because in the right time of the Fall and right time of the tides (remember, I mentioned sometimes they get quite a lot of tidal flow in there) and brisk temperatures, plus strong Northwest winds, and you can get some excellent shrimping accomplished.
Here's a trip in that area, made with my Grandchildren, in 2012.
Start out with a way to hang a Coleman lantern over the side:
IMG_20121223_162706_800x600.jpg
Take up some lantern slack by repurposing a flag halyard:
2012-12-23_21-25-31_HDR.jpg
(The Cyalume stick was lashed to the PFD they were wearing, in case a kid went overboard, you could easily see them in the water.)
Put a Granddaughter on the starboard cabin roof with a Shrimp net:
IMG_0204_800x600.jpg
How she looks now:
20210725_134651 1024X768.jpg
And a Grandson on the port cabin roof, also with a shrimp net:
IMG_0205_800x600.jpg
(A mast and a boom, provides just barely enough physical separation, to keep the fighting to a minimum.) :-[
How he looks now:
20250625_134225 1024X768.jpg
And within a few minutes, you have the makings of dinner! ;D
IMG_0207_800x600.jpg
Hey! We had just GOT there!! >:(
After the action picked up, we got too busy to take pics and by the time we were done for the night, I was weary and forgot to get a final tally shot.
Notice how bright their eyes are in the light?
They look just like that in the water, under the glare of the Coleman lantern.
Those tides I mentioned:
The shrimp normally are down on the sandy, grassy, bottom, in fact, clinging to the eel grass and the turtle grass.
BUT! When the the temps fall and the tide starts ripping through there, they can no longer hang on the bottom and they get swept to the surface and carried away in the current.
Right past our hull. 8) See the shrimp in the water, just above and to the right, of the lantern?
IMG_0208_800x600.jpg
So we scoop them up with nets.
You totally have to rely on tidal flow; at slack tide, they may be floating near the surface, but get a net anywhere near them and they go flipping across the water, like a skipping stone, all the way to the horizon!
Strong currents leave them helpless.
This is why I can't believe I didn't note tidal influence, in my first post in this thread. :o
The area where the collision occurred is not all that close to the Venetian Islands, but they could still have had a good current running. That is why my gut tells me, she didn't sail the boat in front of the barge, she got pushed, by Mother Nature. :(
(While chase boats, watched.) >:(
Hope this clarifies,
Charles Brennan
Love the family photos and the kids shrimping. I have done that up by Merritt Island. Lots of fun! When I was a kid on summer vacation in my mom's hometown of Cambridge Maryland my uncle would take us to dip net Blue Crabs from a slowly cursing boat along the bridge over the Choptank River under the bridge's streetlights.
I remember entering Gulfport small craft harbor when I had my 8.7 meter Columbia, a fairly heavy boat with a deep fin keel and having kids from the yacht club buzzing around on sunfish yelling starboard at me. The entrance channel was narrow, with a rock jetty on one side and a shoal beach on the other. I remember stopping at the yacht club where I was a member at one time and telling the Commodore, a friend, that you better gather up those kids and reteach them whatever it is they've learned about right of way, including the concept of channel bound and least maneuverable vessel before there is an accident.
I also remember when in the Marine Corps Amphibious Tractor unit having people in sailboats complain that the tractors would not give way. Those 60's era tractors had the maneuverability of a floating rock.
I'm not an expert on Col regs but I do have some common sense.
Frank,
When our Sail and Power Squadron would teach the Boating Safety Course each of the four chapters was taught by a different member (helps to keep the audience awake). When our most senior member taught the "Rules of Boating" section he would always emphasize that you should know the rules, but if you or another boat do not know or remember the rules remember this:
Common sense and courtesy can keep everyone safe.