This may turn into a incident that causes regulatory changes for uninspected towing vessels since there are now two known fatalities. This especially since there’s probably a certain amount of political power amongst the membership and the optics of killing kids.
I’m somewhat familiar with this style of catamaran and it wouldn’t be very maneuverable under sail in wind light enough to not cause ripples on the water but could have easily been paddled with the occupants hands alone.
I have no doubt that manning and watch keeping practices aboard the tug/barge combination are going to receive significant scrutiny. Video from local TV shows a neon colored sail hosted and I don’t think it shows a lookout on the barge but so far the security camera footage I’ve seen is fairly low resolution.
Horrible accident, hurt for everyone involved. I have seen a lot of comments about the rules of the road and who was at fault but the fact of the matter is, this should not have happened period. As a mariner you have to understand the limitations of the vessels and people around you.
That being said, the OP makes a strong point here in regard to uninspected tugs. I have been saying for years that it is a only a matter of time before the industry takes a long hard look at how these truckable tugs are being utilized and who is operating them.
My child learned to sail at a sailing club in FL on the ICW. The first thing she learned was stay the heck away from tugs and barges. If you lose wind paddle like hell.
I’ll wait and see what the investigation reveals in a year or so but my initial reaction is how did the person in charge of those kids let that boat get in that position, tugs and barges don’t sneak up on you where they were sailing.
I was going to say something along those lines. I have run RC for Hobie Waves and they are REALLY slow and sticky in light air, they aren’t escaping much of anything. This does not absolve the tug skipper in any way, but the club should have had a crash boat out there too.
The club where my daughter learned ALWAYS had a rescue/crash boat monitoring students in the summer program even though they were sailing in Flying Scots and J boats which are more agile. The club had Hobies but were kept out of the ICW for the most part but even they were monitored by a rescue boat or two, depending on the number of kids in the boats. Maybe they do things different 75 miles down the road in Miami?
I believe a paid sailing instructor must be licensed. From memory there are loopholes in the rule though, if the sailboat is not powered it’s exempt. I recently recommended a week long sailing school to neighbors for their 12 year old. The school provided a chase boat with a licensed operator. My observation the operation was well run paying attention to commercial traffic. What I don’t know are the limits of his license. How the CG counts passengers when they are on multiple sail boats not the power chase boat.
In any event pure sail in busy commercial traffic is risky.
No license needed if the kids are not in the crash boat. The USCG seems to let it slide if you grab a kid out of the water every now and then, but you can’t be using the crash boat as transport absent a license. That said, few clubs now would hire an instructor not certified by ASA (or similar?).
Back in the day when rules were more like guidlines at best at 16 I was instructing and running a Hatteras 36 with twin big-blocks as a tow boat and instructor transport.
If the sailing instructor was required to have a captain’s license, they would be the ONLY one in that incident with that requirement. Not the chucklehead captaining a 26ft 500hp pushboat and 100’+ 200?ton barge combo.
These cheater boats only exist because the hoops to get a license for these smaller barge combos are unobtainium if the pushboat is 27 feet. It is either a full TOAR or nothing. There really needs to be some middle ground. Maybe 100T Master with smaller barge towing/pushing training requirements for combos up to that tonnage? That is not going to break these companies. It won’t hurt the larger barge captains, in fact should reduce the incentive for cheaters. It is achievable, and in everyone’s best interest.
If the sailing instructor was required to have a captain’s license, they would be the ONLY one in that incident with that requirement. Not the chucklehead captaining a 26ft 500hp pushboat and 100’+ 200?ton barge combo.
I’m very aware of the uninspected towing vessel loopholes and have also run youth sailing programs as a young adult (now in my late forties). My knowledge is somewhat dated and limited to USCG District 13 (Pacific Northwest).
In this region mooring fields are uncommon and unlike other parts of the US there’s not a common practice of issuing limited USCG Master licenses to launch operators. By the late 1990’s it was becoming very common for organizations to require sailing instructors and coaches to have a certification from US Sailing or the American Sailing Association which are both private organizations which was becoming a common stipulation of insurance. I am not aware of any pressure from the USCG to license instructors on small boats or restrict incidental use of safety boats for transportation of participants. I know lots of people with MUIPV papers which they obtained to teach sailing on larger boats with engines which would be more more easily compared to a charter.
paid instructors are usually found on lager boats that are concessions.. theses sailing camps are usually monitored and offered by volunteer teenage sailors and moms and pops of the children themselves
i was a sailing instructor at U Mass Columbia point. the crash boat was used (usually a whaler to change one group of 4 kids in the sailing boat to another thus eliminating having to dock the sailboat to change crews for instruction. no operator was licensed.
I never did any formal sailing lessons, but experience as a recreational sailor is that many feel they the right of way, regardless of the situation. That might be true if you are talking about a 16’ power boat vs a 16’ sailboat on a lake. When you’re talking about a 16’ sailboat vs a large commercial vessel, not so much. Sadly, these kids learned the Law of Gross Tonnage the hard way.
paid instructors are usually found on lager boats that are concessions..
This is highly variable across clubs and community sailing programs and you shouldn’t generalize based on your own experience. Just like fire departments sailing programs are on a spectrum from completely volunteer operations in some communities to fully paid staff in others.
There’s dozens of folks without masters papers being paid to teach sailing in my region today. Most are teens being supervised by other young sailors on a break from college. Most are teaching from small powerboats but some are regularly in boats with their students.
I’m fairly certain sailing program staffing isn’t the aspect of this incident that’s going to get the most scrutiny.
I drive a large commercial vessel and no sailboat filled with children is going to “learn the hard way” from me because I maintain a proper navigational watch. This speculation is, tbh, ghoulish. We interact with sailboats all the time. Ones that know the rules and ones who don’t. We manage to not kill people.
Poor visibility and lack of a look out on the barge will be factors, maybe even the tug operator playing on his phone as well as lack of experience on the sailboat.
There is too much that we don’t know at this point.
Maybe whatever happened had nothing to do with the fact that the tug is an uninspected rulebeater. Maybe the operator is a licensed Master of Towing. Maybe a lot of things. We don’t know yet.