Just saw this on the news - three sailors rescued from Delaware Bay on Friday 5/25/18. Looks like they capsized an H16(?) and could not right her. One of the photos shows the capsized cat with bows up in the air (TU?), seems odd to me. Curious to hear more about what happened if anybody knows more.
https://www.dvidshub.net/…ues-3-water-delaware-bay



Edited by gm67 on May 27, 2018 - 10:36 AM.

Did they leave the cat abandoned? Three crew and a power boat and they couldn't right it? It didn't look that rough out there.
I imagine the water was cold, around 60* at Cape May, NJ.
I would love to hear more.

--
'82 Super Cat 15
Hull #315
Virginia
Previously owned: '70 H14, '79 H16, '68 Sailmaster 26, '85 H14T
--

This is becoming a common syndrome as these old H-16's develop soft decks &/or hull delams. Water gets into the hull very fast & with 3 rookies trying to find a spot on hull in water, boat goes toes up as water in hull rushes to stern. Almost impossible to keep it level so that it can be righted even with power boat. Happened to me number of years ago. Knowledgeable cat sailors need to impress upon owners of soft hulls to either fix soft hulls or send to dump. Pete

I agree with Pete (and this is pure speculation), my guess would be that they capsized the boat and in attempting to right it, stood on the lower hull. The hull (judging by it’s appearance and the sail color pattern, likely pushing 40 years old), cracked under the weight and flooded and sank until the point that the foam blocks took over. After that, the boat would have been extremely difficult to right.

I was out windsurfing that afternoon farther North in NJ and the air temp was very warm (mid-80’s) with a strong seabreeze that developed in the afternoon. Hopefully they were wearing wetsuits because, in spite of the warm air temps, the water was still likely in the low 60’s.

sm

From the other picture with the article, it appears they were not wearing wet suits, I was thinking to flood both hulls at the same time like it appears to be, perhaps they left the doc before confirming the drain plugs were in place....It is the little things like that ruins a good day...

wvsailingnut

I was thinking to flood both hulls at the same time like it appears to be, perhaps they left the doc before confirming the drain plugs were in place..

I agree, after I wrote my first post, I thought about it some more and it could have been something as simple as forgetting the plugs. They certainly would not have been the first Hobie sailors to make that mistake....

sm

Yep, and there where three people on board, everyone assumed the other put the plugs in...Probably went something like this:
Sailor #1- "WoooHooo first day of the season! This is awesome!!!!"
Sailor#2 - "This is awesome...is it me or are we slowing down..."
Sailor #3 - "Hey we are kind of low in the water....did anyone put the plugs in?"
Silence.....
Sailor #1 - "ah crap..."