The fishing and boating community here in South Florida has a keen interest in the NFL player's boating accident this past weekend, thought I'd share the video of the salvage boats righting and salvaging the 21' center console. I've heard of this being done before but I've never seen it, pretty slick operation...

Condensed video ... Salvage operation.

Full video ... Salvage operation

The full video came from a forum member on one of the Florida fishing sites I visit, he did the salvage.

Do they know what happened yet?

I read in the paper that apparently the boat flipped over at about 5pm when they were raising anchor.

Who knows if that is accurate, or what exactly caused that to happen (equipment malfunction, human error, weather, ect.)

Adrian word is they were pulling the anchor and somehow the boat flipped. Most believe while doing so the rope got caught in the engine propeller and took waves over the transom, the seas in the video are 3', the seas at the time they were trying to bring in the anchor was 4'.

Here's a thread regarding the accident with a picture of Victor Cooper taken just a couple of days prior by one of the guides on the forum during a inshore fishing trip.

Thread

Sad deal, all of the way around.

In my boating experience, that 21ft boat was to small to be out in those waters, especially when I heard the weather conditions were not exactly the best.

A very sad story indeed. They also interviewed a good friend of the boat's owner. Sounds like the day before, he had some reservations about taking the boat back out to that location, and said he wasn't going back, at the last minute he changed his mind.

I use to own fishing boat just a little smaller than that, there were times when I would think twice about taking it out on Lake Simcoe, never mind the Great Lakes. I've seen people take 13-15 ft boats out on Lake Ontario with 6-7 people aboard on occasion....very hard to comprehend.

I've never been boating in salt water before, but considering I wouldn't go out on the Great Lakes in anything less than 20 ft, I don't think I'd boat in the ocean in anything under maybe 24-26 ft.

That looks like a brand new boat - no rubs on the hull, no water marks on the bilge outlets. The only thing worse than a boat in bad weather is a boat owner not familiar with his boat in those conditions. 21ft is not a small boat, but one big wave can get over the sides. Still, I'm surprised they flipped. I've spent year fishing 80 - 100 miles offshore in the Gulf and that kind of accident is rare in 4 ft seas.

On a lighter now, the video shows them pulling the boat at speed to let the water drain out the back and coming up. I knew a crew of people with a brand new 40+ foot Hatteras Sports Fisher (very expensive boat). They were tied to an oil rig and all on board were sleeping. Someone got up and noticed that there was water up the knees in the cabin. They called the often used trick of pulling the plug and running a small boat to let the water drain (as the video shows). So they unhooked from the rig, and drove the boat away. Well, problem is, big boats don't go fast enough or get the bottom high enough out the water to let the water drain. So within 100 yards of the rig, the boat went down like a brick - only days old. Bigger problem - the current pulled the men away from the rig and survival became a serious issue. Thankfully all found wellheads to hold onto and all lived. Wish that had happened in this case.

I don't know much about the waters down your way, Charles, but 21 ft doesn't seem all that big to me. Of course a lot has to do with the hull design/beam ect. but I know out on the Great Lakes, which for all intents and purposes are inland seas, I'd certainly feel better in a bigger boat than that. The weather is really the main factor here, some days you could paddle a canoe on Lake Ontario, other days I wouldn't go out there in a large boat.

For those that are familiar with Lund boats, I had a Pro Angler Deep V, almost 18ft and 8ft beam, and even around some of the larger lakes in Iowa and Minnesota, we get waves and white caps that smart boaters realize it is time to get off the water. Of course, I am very careful at monitoring the forecast before I hit the lake. I'm with ya Adrian on the great lakes, even a 21ft boat is to small in many conditions.

The boat flipped, so I am not going to fight this fight. But, I fished for many years in a 21 foot Wellcraft deep V offshore center console - similar in design to what they had. Often, when going 60 - 80 miles out, you can't predict weather, so we often fought 6 foot seas. Not fun. So we got a 26 foot Glacier Bay catamaran and 6 foot seas did not bother us anymore. Also remember guys, here, it seldom gets below 70 degrees offshore. In the summer, it is easily 95 offshore. We can float all night and live. You folks would be ice cubes after that long in the water.

A 21' is not unusual at all to see 30 miles out on the water down our way, you just have to pick the right days. The boat these fellas were on, an Everglades 21' is certainly a capable boat and like a Boston Whaler is unsinkable, doesn't mean it still can't get you in trouble though.

Latest word is apparently they had engine problems and after 3-4 hours their mental state started to deteriorate. Anchor got caught and when they tried to pull it free rather than cut it loose, a wave crashed over the bow and swamped the boat, from there we have heard the remainder of their story. This is supposedly from one of the CG personnel. The fact that the engine cowling is off is a good indication that there may be some truth to this, anybody familiar with the new Yamaha outboard knows how difficult it would be to accidentally unlatch the cowling while upside down.

Again, just because it's new doesn't mean it can't have problems ... just about four months after we bought our brand new boat we lost complete electric 13 miles out while anchored and bottom fishing, couldn't get either engine started and the radio fuse blew, scared the bejesus out of me but luckily the seas were calm and another boater happened to see us and radio SeaTow, four hours later we were being towed back to port. I now carry more safety gear than I hopefully we'll ever need and those crappy little shotgun shell flares ... they've been replaced by multiple flares that would make the Dept. of Defense proud.

One thing I've not understood since I started boating is seeing so many people not wearing lifejackets. If I'm not mistaken, in Canada you are not required to wear them but to have them easily available(on deck?) in case of an emergency. I think as boat sizes get smaller it becomes more prudent to wear them, the ones these days are quite comfortable compared with years ago. When I had my boat, generally I wore a PFD all the time and insisted anyone aboard wear one too, when the boat was being driven, then left it up to the person if they wanted to wear it while fishing/lounging. Not wearing a PFD to me is a little like not wearing a seatbelt in a car. Wearing one doesn't gaurantee your safety but increases your chance of survival exponentially...were those players wearing life jackets?

I generally agree, but I will point out that temperature can play a role here. It can get real hot in the sun in the Gulf of Mexico. Life Jackets can become your own personal pressure cooker. We keep them handy, but only vest up in bad weather runs - which we seek to avoid!

I agree with the 'pressure cooker' synopsis Charles, they do get rather hot, esp if it is a darker colour in addition. I do most of my fishing in relatively small water where the shoreline is usually within half a mile at most. As you say, the weather makes a lot of decisions for us, when boating...if it gets too bad, we just don't go out.

We do the same as you Zimm, keep them handy but vest up during bad weather, which can happen in a hurry during the summer months down here. I always watch the weather very close, from several different sources and typically during the summer will leave the dock in the wee hours of the morning and try to be back near shore in the very early afternoon before the weather starts building in the afternoon.

I believe the NFL guys did have their vest on, some sources say they went back and retrieved them after the boat took the wave and turned over ... those fellas just didn't have any luck at all on their side that day, especially if in fact it was a broke down engine that caused them to stay that long.