This past Sunday my family and I journeyed to San Francisco on my beloved 2009 R-21, TUG LIFE. We tied up at Pier 1 1/2, a public dock near the Ferry Building.
We returned to the boat an hour and a half later to find a group of people huddled around it. As so many of you know, this is ops normal with a Ranger Tug so I didn't think anything of it.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the typical gathering. The group of folks on the dock alerted me to the fact that a 37' Jeanneau sailboat had allided* with my tugboat. Thereafter, the sailboat proceeded to allide with the bow of a 150' Hornblower vessel that was moored to an adjoining dock. The sailboat was nowhere to be seen and apparently proceeded out to open water to avoid hitting anything else.
(* I'm a lawyer by day so forgive me for this, but this was an allision and not a collision. An allision is when a moving vessel strikes a stationary object, such as a bridge, a dock, or a moored vessel.)
The flagstaff was sheared off of the stern of my tugboat, as was the ring life buoy bracket. The ring life buoy itself appears to have taken a lot of the force, and is punctured in several areas. The rub rail is abraded on the port and starboard sides. There is minor fiberglass damage at the port side embarkation platform.
The Coast Guard is conducting a marine casualty investigation because the Hornblower vessel is an inspected passenger vessel. The Jeanneau that caused this mess was chartered for the day from a local sailing school. I was able to get contact information for the captain and am working with him and the sailing school to determine whose insurance will cover the damage.
I contacted the dock owner and was able to get a video of the allision itself. I'll link it below. The relevant portions of the video start a minute 2:40 and extend to minute 4:00 when the sailboat moves out of sight and allides with the Hornblower vessel. Minute 3:45 is the most significant impact. It actually looks to me like the sailboat allided with TUG LIFE twice.
The part I'm struggling with now is whether or not my tugboat needs to be hauled out to inspect for damage. I'm having my diver do an underwater survey this week. As far as I can tell, there is no structural damage to the hull. Based on the video and based on your experience does anyone have any insight on whether there might be damage that I'm not seeing or considering? Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to provide. I feel fortunate this wasn't worse and just want to make sure that the boat is as safe and sound as it was before the allision.
https://youtu.be/K4lAmFieqMo
Diver Update: The diver reported that there are scratches on the hull below the waterline on both the port and starboard sides, but otherwise no visible damage.
We returned to the boat an hour and a half later to find a group of people huddled around it. As so many of you know, this is ops normal with a Ranger Tug so I didn't think anything of it.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the typical gathering. The group of folks on the dock alerted me to the fact that a 37' Jeanneau sailboat had allided* with my tugboat. Thereafter, the sailboat proceeded to allide with the bow of a 150' Hornblower vessel that was moored to an adjoining dock. The sailboat was nowhere to be seen and apparently proceeded out to open water to avoid hitting anything else.
(* I'm a lawyer by day so forgive me for this, but this was an allision and not a collision. An allision is when a moving vessel strikes a stationary object, such as a bridge, a dock, or a moored vessel.)
The flagstaff was sheared off of the stern of my tugboat, as was the ring life buoy bracket. The ring life buoy itself appears to have taken a lot of the force, and is punctured in several areas. The rub rail is abraded on the port and starboard sides. There is minor fiberglass damage at the port side embarkation platform.
The Coast Guard is conducting a marine casualty investigation because the Hornblower vessel is an inspected passenger vessel. The Jeanneau that caused this mess was chartered for the day from a local sailing school. I was able to get contact information for the captain and am working with him and the sailing school to determine whose insurance will cover the damage.
I contacted the dock owner and was able to get a video of the allision itself. I'll link it below. The relevant portions of the video start a minute 2:40 and extend to minute 4:00 when the sailboat moves out of sight and allides with the Hornblower vessel. Minute 3:45 is the most significant impact. It actually looks to me like the sailboat allided with TUG LIFE twice.
The part I'm struggling with now is whether or not my tugboat needs to be hauled out to inspect for damage. I'm having my diver do an underwater survey this week. As far as I can tell, there is no structural damage to the hull. Based on the video and based on your experience does anyone have any insight on whether there might be damage that I'm not seeing or considering? Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to provide. I feel fortunate this wasn't worse and just want to make sure that the boat is as safe and sound as it was before the allision.
https://youtu.be/K4lAmFieqMo
Diver Update: The diver reported that there are scratches on the hull below the waterline on both the port and starboard sides, but otherwise no visible damage.
