Im always looking at the safety thread to get tips and get myself thinking on other peoples’ experiences. My turn to contribute!
Was out on my Regal 1800 with my brother and a friend to run the boat and fix some carb balancing issues (thats another never ending story
) . Worked on it for a bit and shut the boat off to just float and relax during sundown. Started to get close to dusk so we turned on the stern light. The lake that I boat in is a dammed up portion of the Housatonic River in CT so its treated (and enforced by marine patrol) like a highway, it not being the widest body of water. We were floating about 20 ft off shore on the right side of the lake going north, well out of the main channel and in the north heading lane. Hadnt seen another boat for over an hour. At that point saw a Lund fishing boat come around the bend about 1/4 mile up river, lights on, full plane going down the wrong side of the lake, heading south in the north lane. I remember thinking that was to fast for the time of day, it getting darker at this point. With this body of water, every boat coming from the opposite direction always looks like it heading right for you for a bit, so by the time we realized this guy wasn’t going to change his heading, it was to late. We waved and yelled but ended up striking us perpendicular about two feet down from the bow of the boat. Could have easily been fatal if we were hit a couple feet closer to the stern, would have went right over us. Bow is pretty damaged above the hull, knocked the cap off the hull a bit and shatter the gel coat and fiberglass. That seems to be the extent of it for now. There was an injury on my boat as well as his boat. Nothing life threatening but required ER visits. Cops, EMS and DEEP were called and a full report was written up.
There are many more details and pics I would want to share, but while this is still being settled I'll leave those off for now.
The owner of the other boat is taking responsibility without a problem from what I can tell at this point. I'm in contact with his insurance company. I’ve never been in a boating accident before, nor dealt with boating insurance. I would imagine its very much like car accidents but I’m not sure. Any tips would be appreciated.
Was out on my Regal 1800 with my brother and a friend to run the boat and fix some carb balancing issues (thats another never ending story
) . Worked on it for a bit and shut the boat off to just float and relax during sundown. Started to get close to dusk so we turned on the stern light. The lake that I boat in is a dammed up portion of the Housatonic River in CT so its treated (and enforced by marine patrol) like a highway, it not being the widest body of water. We were floating about 20 ft off shore on the right side of the lake going north, well out of the main channel and in the north heading lane. Hadnt seen another boat for over an hour. At that point saw a Lund fishing boat come around the bend about 1/4 mile up river, lights on, full plane going down the wrong side of the lake, heading south in the north lane. I remember thinking that was to fast for the time of day, it getting darker at this point. With this body of water, every boat coming from the opposite direction always looks like it heading right for you for a bit, so by the time we realized this guy wasn’t going to change his heading, it was to late. We waved and yelled but ended up striking us perpendicular about two feet down from the bow of the boat. Could have easily been fatal if we were hit a couple feet closer to the stern, would have went right over us. Bow is pretty damaged above the hull, knocked the cap off the hull a bit and shatter the gel coat and fiberglass. That seems to be the extent of it for now. There was an injury on my boat as well as his boat. Nothing life threatening but required ER visits. Cops, EMS and DEEP were called and a full report was written up.There are many more details and pics I would want to share, but while this is still being settled I'll leave those off for now.
The owner of the other boat is taking responsibility without a problem from what I can tell at this point. I'm in contact with his insurance company. I’ve never been in a boating accident before, nor dealt with boating insurance. I would imagine its very much like car accidents but I’m not sure. Any tips would be appreciated.
