The Front Almost Fell Off....

[Grrr...]

Oops.



The St. Marys, in that area, can have currents easily exceeding 6 knots.  Being in a catalina (is that a 34?  It's got a sprit, so it's a tall rig) in lighter air is probably not the greatest choice.  Or you should at least have your motor running.

You can see them get taken sideways as they try to sail 'up' the river rather than sailing across the current to get away.

 

[SIFF]

This is the story of ol' Bill MacDay,

Who died defending his right-of-way.

He was dead right as he sailed along,

But now he's as dead as if he were wrong.

 

[dolphinmaster]

officially, they weren't sailing.  aiming the boat downwind with the main and jib strapped is idjit boat riding.  They are lucky the guy driving the boat knew how to turn the rutter.

 

[Pertsa]

Meeting large freighters in narrow waters is always little scary. Quite common thing to do is to dodge those here in lake areas of Finland. On the areas with lots of current we just drop the sails and use engine. As I have sometimes dodged smaller boats in larger clumsy vessel I know it is not fun.

It is interesting how there is such old lake freighters still in use there. Here they all tend to be quite modern vessels. Those old ones look much better than new boring ones. Here is picture of one we managed not to hit.

 

[wal']

There just maaaay have been a little more room between the boats due to camera foreshortening

......... but bugger all....

 

[BayRacer]

Meeting large freighters in narrow waters is always little scary. Quite common thing to do is to dodge those here in lake areas of Finland. On the areas with lots of current we just drop the sails and use engine. As I have sometimes dodged smaller boats in larger clumsy vessel I know it is not fun.

It is interesting how there is such old lake freighters still in use there. Here they all tend to be quite modern vessels. Those old ones look much better than new boring ones. Here is picture of one we managed not to hit.

View attachment 459371

Fresh water and normally not too sporty conditions aid the longevity.  Though the Great Lakes can get nasty with very short period waves.  Generally spring and fall in the .  In the summer you can get occasional day or two of 10-15 foot waves if the fetch lines up right.  The "Cuyahoga" is going on 80 years old, but has been repowered from original steam plant and modern emission controls.  Ships are subject to hull survey/inspection every 5 years.

 

[Tax Man]

42 minutes ago, Grrr... said:

Oops.

Port Huron - just south of the bridge, you can see the Casino on the other side of the river.

The Cuyahoga was built in 1943.

 

[bgytr]

what a bonehead.  Some sailboats have no clue how non-maneuverable ships are.  Was on an ARCO tanker years ago, when we had to do our scheduled man overboard drill, it took us 15 minutes to do a Williamson turn.

 

[SIFF]

It is interesting how there is such old lake freighters still in use there.

A combination of fresh water operations and hell-for-stout designs.  The Great Lakes are the largest fresh water lakes in the world.  Some ore haulers are over 100 years old, and have plied the lakes their entire life.

This snippet is ten years old, but gives a good overview of the "grandfather" class of ore haulers.

http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-20131028-st-marys-medusa-challenger-pictures/

The freighter in question, the Cuyahoga, herself is no spring chicken:

https://boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/cuyahoga.htm

Enjoy!

By the way, shouldn't you be out raking the forest floor?

 

[SIFF]

As usual, the boat name explains all...

 

[Grrr...]

Sail number 25403, Catalina tall rig, boat name intrepid, raced in Port Huron yacht club races recently.  Just googled the sail number.

 

[BGeff]

@Grrr...  I'm just not sure how you said this is the St Marys when it is clearly Port Huron and the St Clair River, with the live cam being on top of the Edison Inn (more than likely)?

 

[Grrr...]

@Grrr...  I'm just not sure how you said this is the St Marys when it is clearly Port Huron and the St Clair River, with the live cam being on top of the Edison Inn (more than likely)?

You are absolutely right.  I blame it on old age.

 

[Pertsa]

A combination of fresh water operations and hell-for-stout designs.  The Great Lakes are the largest fresh water lakes in the world.  Some ore haulers are over 100 years old, and have plied the lakes their entire life.

This snippet is ten years old, but gives a good overview of the "grandfather" class of ore haulers.

http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-20131028-st-marys-medusa-challenger-pictures/

The freighter in question, the Cuyahoga, herself is no spring chicken:

https://boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/cuyahoga.htm

Enjoy!

By the way, shouldn't you be out raking the forest floor?

Just came to mind that reason why we do not have older ships in service is that because canals have been dug larger than they were before. So old vessels got small. Still there is few tugs from 1800´s which tow logs.

"Raking" is done with machines so no need for me there. I am just selling parts for sawmill machines. About 50 sawmills in North America use our high-speed sawmill line. 

 

[JEA]

Sure looked like the ship turned directly into the sailboat.  That just looked strange.

 

[alphafb552]

Sailboat was basically drifting with the current in the middle of the navigable channel, not making enough way to have steerage. They could only take avoiding action once they started the engine, which they left a bit late...

 

[alphafb552]

Sure looked like the ship turned directly into the sailboat.  That just looked strange.

The channel actually turns there, so the choice was turning into the shore or into the sailboat

 

[Monkey]

They could only take avoiding action once they started the engine, which they left a bit late...

I bet that conversation got interesting. I wonder if the recommended time for running the blower before cranking over an Atomic 4 gets shorter when a freighter is bearing down on you?

 

[alphafb552]

I bet that conversation got interesting. I wonder if the recommended time for running the blower before cranking over an Atomic 4 gets shorter when a freighter is bearing down on you?

So they basically had three options:

1 - getting run down by the freighter

2 - getting blown up real good by the gas fumes

3 - actually getting the engine started and making it to the safe side of the channel

Looks like they got lucky!