Just because the boating season is winding down doesn’t mean boat owners don’t need towing assistance – or recovery services, and not just on the high seas.
Periodically, a business such as SeaTow visits the docks to raise a boat that sank at its mooring.
Capt. Jack Moran of SeaTow-Cape May said his company had to offer assistance recently to two boats that started to sink at their dock. On Sunday, Sept. 28, SeaTow was called for a dockside recovery in West Wildwood. The call came in at 6:41 p.m., saying a 21-foot Sea Ray was taking on water and, because of battery issues, the boat’s pumps couldn’t keep up.
“The owner had used it every weekend, but we had quite a bit of rain; we had too much rain,” Moran said.
Moran said water weighs about 7 pounds a gallon. A Google search said it is even heavier – about 8.35 pounds per gallon. The weight can cause a boat to list to one side or part of the boat to go underwater.
Ten days earlier, SeaTow was at the Bree-Zee-Lee Marina off Ocean Drive in Lower Township, where a similar incident happened. SeaTow received a call on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 7:13 p.m. about a 34-foot Luhrs that had taken on water while dockside, this time from a leak around the propeller shaft.
On Sunday, Sept. 14, the boat had run aground in the marsh near Fortescue. Moran said SeaTow arrived around midnight to pull the boat from the marsh and tow it to Cape May. He said the boat had no radar or GPS, and had to be towed 30 miles to the marina. In four days, the boat had to be floated, pumped out and pulled out of the water.
Asked why this might happen, Moran said that besides the boat’s taking on water – for whatever reason – this time of the year no one might be around the dock all week to notice the problem.
“In the summer you have neighbors in nearby slips, there are charter boats coming and going, and someone might see there is a boat with a problem and call the marina. This time of year there is no one around to see happen,” Moran said. “The marina owners can’t walk the docks every minute.
“We don’t get a lot of dockside recoveries in the summer, but now there’s hardly anyone around during the week.”
Moran suggested that if a boat owner has to leave the boat in the marina, the owner should make sure the battery is charged so the pumps will work, and should have someone check on the boat.
SeaTow-Cape May ended its summer season with a fairly large recovery – a 58-foot Vicem Motor Yacht that ran hard aground on the rocks surrounding the Elbow of Cross Ledge abandoned lighthouse in the Delaware Bay.
On the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 26, SeaTow got a call that the captain ran the boat onto the rocks.
“It hit the rock jetty main shipping channel,” which according to Moran is the fourth- or fifth-largest shipping channel in nation.
Moran said the captain was outside the channel and ended up on the jetty.
“The owner of the boat was pretty savvy, but the captain said he wasn’t paying attention,” he said.
The rocks punctured the hull, causing it to take on water. Moran said at low tide the boat was completely out of the water, and at high tide it was halfway submerged.
“It was a total loss,” he said.
Moran said his crew worked several days along with a crew from Northstar Marine to secure the vessel and remove 450 gallons of diesel fuel. They raised the vessel with a 275-ton crane and barge.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
