The Pensacola Paper also carried a story line on this tragedy. The forum "The
Hull Truth" had been discussing this boat since it was first reported missing.
There have been posts about problems handling in choppy beam seas with the
Glacier Bay 26. This was something which we looked at--but unfortunately
there were no really rough beam sea conditions when we sea trialed the Glacier
Bay 2680. We specifically looked for these conditions in the Tom Cat 255--and
didn't find any unusual handling problems (Probably because of the broader
hull bottoms--TomCat is a planing boat vs the Glacier Bay, which is a
displacement boat). The handling in beam seas were a minor decisive factor in
our choice of the Tom Cat 255 as our next boat.
This is a case of a power cat capsizing--one can argue that the boat was
overloaded, with 7 passangers, or that shifting the weight, coolers etc
contributed to the capsize, but I wonder. I would appreciate the analysis of
the cat designers and builders would comment on this tragedy.
The final plea is for all mariners to carry a personal EPIRB and a
Submersiable VHF on their persons! If the captain had a EPIRB and VHF, most
likely he would not have died from a "cardiac event"--and suffered hypothermia
as at least one crew member did. Also a "6 pac" charter is not required to
have a life raft. It certainly seems like a good idea to have a raft!
Bob Austin
The Pensacola Paper also carried a story line on this tragedy. The forum "The
Hull Truth" had been discussing this boat since it was first reported missing.
There have been posts about problems handling in choppy beam seas with the
Glacier Bay 26. This was something which we looked at--but unfortunately
there were no really rough beam sea conditions when we sea trialed the Glacier
Bay 2680. We specifically looked for these conditions in the Tom Cat 255--and
didn't find any unusual handling problems (Probably because of the broader
hull bottoms--TomCat is a planing boat vs the Glacier Bay, which is a
displacement boat). The handling in beam seas were a minor decisive factor in
our choice of the Tom Cat 255 as our next boat.
This is a case of a power cat capsizing--one can argue that the boat was
overloaded, with 7 passangers, or that shifting the weight, coolers etc
contributed to the capsize, but I wonder. I would appreciate the analysis of
the cat designers and builders would comment on this tragedy.
The final plea is for all mariners to carry a personal EPIRB and a
Submersiable VHF on their persons! If the captain had a EPIRB and VHF, most
likely he would not have died from a "cardiac event"--and suffered hypothermia
as at least one crew member did. Also a "6 pac" charter is not required to
have a life raft. It certainly seems like a good idea to have a raft!
Bob Austin
