54-foot boat stuck on its side in Detroit River

[Jimaz]

54-foot boat [st]uck on its side in Detroit River

According to the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Detroit, 20 people had to be rescued from the boat as it began sinking.

Not very dramatic but unusual enough to note.

[Richard]

Kinda strange,CG usually has pumps onboard,it’s a Yacht not a boat or ship but apparently poorly maintained to have 20 people onboard or they struck a submerged object and punctured the hull.

I would have thought the river was deeper pretty far out from shore and 15’ of water ?

[MikeM]

Didn't watch the video, but did it drop anchor before it sank? Scott Middle Ground is only a few feet deep. Wonder if it drifted in there or was passing through intentionally?

[Richard]

The writing part of what Jimaz posted is the only information provided,even in the video.

Looks kinda like a charter cruise it’s hard to get 20 people together to get on a boat otherwise.

They have insurance for that stuff - Sea Tow etc is like $150 per year ,they would have immediately come out,put the pumps in and pull the boat to lift out,within minutes like AAA for your car.

Now it’s going to cost them $1000s to salvage that .

There are only a couple of things that would have allowed it to sink,unless they hit something submerged and punctured the hull it would have been a through hull rubber hose or shaft seal blew out but there should have been bilge pumps running and high water alarms blaring ,it’s a river,it’s not like they could not have made it to shore before sinking.

As presented it make zero sense ,so yea - confusing.

1/2 sunk or not that’s $100k gone poof and if they did not have the means to properly maintain it odds are it will be sitting there for awhile.

But it is a boat and things happen- Break Out Another Thousand - BOAT

54’ add some more zeros to that first Thousand.

[One Shot]

I think whoever was driving this wasn’t qualified therefore didn’t know you can’t cut across the middle grounds. Also wasn’t there a story in the last couple years about someone running a charter boat without the right licenses or training?

[Richard]

Would have had a depth finder on it that told how deep the water was,looks like maybe if it was that shallow,prop hit the ground and damaged the shaft seal and allowed the water to get in.

Everybody has a chart plotter and depth finder that tells you exactly where you are,how deep the water is and the layout where you know long in advance what’s ahead.

But I have seen boats that have literally run into islands at night while running radar and night vision,to many people,to many distractions,as the caption you have a responsibility to everybody on your boat,thank the lord nobody drowned.

[Gistok]

That boat is already at the bottom of the Detroit River in that spot. Between the MacArthur [Belle Isle] Bridge and the Detroit Yacht Club is Scott Middle Ground, a sunken island that has water as shallow as 4 ft. It is very treacherous for all but the shallowest boats.

From the Belle Isle Beach the water level goes to about 30 ft. deep in a narrow channel, back up to 4 ft. deep in Scott Middle Ground, back down to about 30 ft. deep in another narrow channel just before a very steep and narrow rise in depth to the mainland along the Gold Coast.

Because Scott Middle Ground is a barrier in the middle of the river channel to the north of Belle Isle, you cannot easily just wade in the shallow water of Scott Middle Ground. The very shallow nature of the water there makes for a very strong current, dangerous to swimmers.

Here is a nautical map of it...

[Richard]

I have a 28’ and the draft is 6’ ,put 20 people on it and worse,20 peoole is overloaded for that boat.

That would have had that map on the chart plotter right in front of them.