Urgent ... weekender disaster in St. Catherines, Ontario ...

[Stuart Benbow]

A friend in Ontario caught a tragic news cast and touched base with me with the info, wondering if the boat involved was from the Erie Fleet.

Here is a link to a webcast of the story as of last night, and the details are under the "Family Tragedy" heading

You will need real player to view the web cast of the story.

Here's the details that I picked up from the newscast:

A Father (in his 90's) and his son (in his 70's) took a homebuilt sailboat out for a sail on the 21st of September at about 9 am, and were not seen again until the father was found dead, teathered to the boat, full of water and floating at about deck level. The son was found later, 3 miles west at Port Dalhousie.

They departed out of Jordan Harbour, St. Catherines, Ontario, and the boat wasn't found until the next day in Port Wellar, which I'm guessing is 7-10 miles East, along Lake Ontario.

The boat looks like a Weekender, complete with wheel, trailboards, folding mast, tippy when someone left the boat during the news cast, and from personal experience, floated at about the right level while full of water without floatation.

The boat is blue with a white stripe fore to aft, with a white cabin roof, greyish looking cockpit, and a brown deck and cabin sides. It looks like a wooden electric motor mount on the port side, and it has a white mast, boom, and gaff. The car used to trailer the boat is a a blue toyota.

Does anyone have any idea who built this boat? Is this one of our members/visitors, one of the messing about visitors, or a friend of someone who is?

Here is a picture of the boat, which links to a gallery with other photos ...

For those interested, according to the newscast, the water was like glass when they left the harbour and headed out into Lake Ontario, and the water was in the 60's, yet they went on to say that hypothermia would still have set in since they had been in the water over a day.

Please folks, make sure that you've got floatation in your boats, as they don't right themselves, and can be a real monster to get back over even if you can touch bottom. One tragic sail in a weekender is one too many, lets learn from it, so it doesn't happen again. Even though these boats are not intended for Great Lake use, I know several have done it ... File a float plan, and if you're really going to be out on water that big, have a means of getting help, marine radio, flare, etc.

[Frank Hagan]

The boat was found upright? (I have a dial up connection, so I can't view the webcast ... well, I could, but it would take a week!)

Its a strange accident to happen without a storm or something, and if the boat was found upright, or even knocked down but not turtled, I wonder what happened to the father and son? They may have been injured in a knockdown and drowned, or something. But it would be really unusual for a knocked down Weekender to right itself (I think impossible!)

[Stump]

Boy, that sure does look like a Weekender! My guess would be some type of knock down, righted by both men, one helped back aboard by the one in the left in the water, unable to get the other one in the boat, and for some reason unable to bail the boat, then hypothermia got them both. Very sad. My prayers are with the families.

[Mike Pennington]

This was posted by Richard on BYYB,

Hi folks, let me first introduce myself I am Stuart Benbow's friend from Ontario, actually we went to high school together.

Just an update the men were Albert and Larry (I am sure they said Larry) Edwards from Kitchener, Ontario.

The 11:30 CKCO news (out of Kitchener) said the boat took on water through the bottom of the hull. They said there was a design flaw, but see the success you all have with the boats I suspect maybe a built flaw. Anyone know these gentlemen and if they had taken the boat out already of if this was the maiden voyage?

I am real curious, it would be real nice to get a look at the boats interior.

Mike

[P Doug (WA)]

Very sad. Keep in mine the age factor which makes a theroy like Stump stated very possible. Boy, How great though, 90 and 70 and father and son still enjoying life together.

Maybe one of them tied themself to the boat and went in the water hoping that it wouldn't sink altogether?

[Mark Gudschinsky]

May we all be sailing when we're 90.

In the mean time we're looking over our boat with an eye towards making it that far.

[tomstock]

Sounds like they forgot to bring something to bail with, or lost it in the knockdown.

[kydocfrog]

There is a picture somewhere in this forum of a Weekender on its beam ends, but it is clearly sitting on the bottom in a couple of inches of water.

Has anyone done and documented a full beam ends knockdown test in a couple of feet of water at least -- enough to see what the hull does afte the knockdown?. My suspicion is that with a wooden mast sunk in the full jacketed socket it might be hard to actually force her past 90 degrees unless the knockdown was forcefull enough to break the mast. That leave a full swamping at the probable result.

Likewise, has anyone done controlled swamping of a stock design weekender. or one with added floatation. The comment about forgetting to bring a bucket to bail with doesn't help much if the boat turns out to be un-bailable or, worse, if she fills and sinks, perhaps driven under, in part, by the weight of the rig that kept her from going past 90 degrees initially. That was something that used to worry me about my Cape Dory Catboat. It also had a fully stepped-to-keel mast with a gaff rig. Set right up in the eyes of the bow, it was enormously heavy and it seemed highly unlikley that the boat was going to be very stable when swamped even with floatation. That though might lead to consideration of a quick way to strike the mast in an emergency.

Lord, that's a gloomy post...

DavidA

Charilie Girl II

[Greg Luckett]

I think Tom's comment about bailing was due to the fact that the boat was found upright but needed bailed. If that is indeed the case then the bailing might have saved the crew from hypothermia. If that is so, then I agree about the bailing bucket, though I would prefer a pump. I reviewed the news story again and it is obvious the boat is floating and pumped out (at the dock) and at that point no repairs had been made to the hull to fix any damages per the story. My guess is they had a knock down, hatches not closed, filled with water but the boat righted, then were unable to bail it fast enough to avoid hypothermia. The age of the crew must have had an effect too. As always I am very saddened by this sort of thing and try to learn as much as I can. I have strobe lights, whistles, and reflective tape on the PFDs for my boats now due to a tragedy on Lake Michigan a few years ago.

I haven't noticed any comments from the Stevenson's.

[John Weigandt]

there is a non specific message on the stevenson's site about some family problems (assume health) they're not filling orders at this time, so theyre probably too busy to monitor the forums right now too.

John

[Greg Luckett]

I was wondering why Mike had not commented yet and hope they are okay.

[barnacle5]

I thought I read here and on the byyb that the water came through the hull . was that theory expelled? that would explain why the boat was found upright. maybe the rescuers plugged it and bailed the boat to tow it in. a very sad situation nonetheless. my heartfelt prayers go out to their familes . barnacle bill

ps. kydocfrog. I will be more than glad to help you do some research on swamping and knocking your boat down next spring. hope you are feeling better too. ( he's been under the weather lately) . the best to all , Bill

[Greg Luckett]

I thought that was just speculation but am not sure either. Where did we see that?

[barnacle5]

10 posts back

[Greg Luckett]

Yep, I see that, but it is not definite as to what a "design flaw" was and the picture on the news shows the boat floating normally at the dock. That is why I thought it was speculation. Thanks for pointing out where we read it.

[tdrown]

I'm also wondering what happened to the mast? Why is it down?

[Frank Hagan]

I would have to have a better authority than a newspaper to say there was a "design flaw." If the CN Coast Guard investigates, I would listen to them. Otherwise, its probably a reporter that doesn't know a boat design from a building defect, from an unlucky day in a hostile environment.

[Greg Luckett]

I agree completely Frank.