“Better watch your step,” the couple explained.
My family and I were walking on G-Dock at Port Sidney Marina on Sunday, September 2, just after dark on our way back to Slipstream. The incredulous couple was walking the dock, staring. Sure enough, at our feet were several lines macraméed across the dock from several of the finger piers, apparently holding the piers to the docks. There were also industrial-type inflated balloons apparently holding up the finger piers. And then there were the busted pilings – one tied and floating, another atop a pier. There weren’t any boats in the slips – but the marina wasn’t full earlier in the day when we stopped by the boat to unload our gear.
The story behind the floats and lines – pieced together from the couple, another boat owner on the dock and the marina staff, was this: A gentleman’s large, heavy powerboat (one person suggested a Nordhavn) ended up out of control and going fast between the F and G docks. It’s still not known what caused the control issue, but at the time the boat owner allegedly claimed it was a malfunction of the remote control. It hit at least two boats before stopping against one of them. The sound of splintering fiberglass was heard loudly around the marina, and the three boats were later towed out to a local boatyard. I didn’t get to see the boats, but the broken pilings and docks told me all I needed to know about the impact and size of the vessel.
“Our main concern was that nobody was seriously hurt,” Casey Pullen of Port Sidney Marina said. Fortunately, the only apparent injury, a minor one, was to the owner of the out of control boat, whose cut arm was tended to at a local hospital. According to witnesses, the staff acted “very professionally” in securing the docks and clearing the marina.
These things happen, though usually not to this extent. Personally, as an owner I would have wanted a call from the marina and some warning signs placed on the dock (I’ve got a couple energetic boys who love to jump gaps). But otherwise it sounds like it was dealt with promptly. Slipstream didn’t seem damaged when I checked her out at daybreak. As the insurance issues are sorted, expect the Port of Sidney to effect dock repairs and get on with life as usual.
I guess the moral of the story is if you see a big boat going too fast or seeming out of control in a marina, it’s probably a good idea to stay clear ’til things are settled.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
I saw a similar event years ago when the skipper of a large power boat had a massive heart attack. We got the boat under control and did CPR for an hour until the EMT’s came to evacuate him to the hospital. In that case no one else on the vessel knew how to run the boat, so we chased the out of control motor yacht along the marina as it smashed docks and boats and eventually came to a stop against the sea wall.