Help us find a lost finger!!

[oregoncruiser]

Yeah, it is as bad as it sounds! I loaded a boat for a couple this afternoon after she lost her finger in a boat/dock collision. I guess she was trying to slow/stop the boat as they approached the dock. Totally removed and crushed, non -re attachable. Did find it though.

So danged worried about a scratch on the boat, now his wife has only 9 fingers left. Expensive lesson, thought I'd post it so we all might learn it a little more economically!!!

 

[The Rooster]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

OUCH !!! Glad you didn't post pics. Thanks for the reminder though.

 

[Boats-A-lots]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

Detroit lake? Foster reservoir?

 

[oregoncruiser]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

Foster

 

[mommicked]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

I can only imagine the pain that woman is enduring. So sad..................No good way to accidently loose a digit, but having it smashed off has got to be the worst way.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

"Hands in your lap!" is my command approaching the pier, except a designated helper. Hopefully he knows to fend off with the heel of the hand.

But accidents can and do happen to the most careful, too; could have been one of those things. Sad.

 

[PiratePast40]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

WOW!!! Terrible but thanks for the heads up and reminder to watch what we're doing when docking. We were up at Detroit today. Amazing how the heat can take the energy out of you and mess up your thinking.

 

[QC]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

"Hands in your lap!"

Yep. And I don't even want the heel. I am so worried about arms and fingers and legs etc. People just don't know how bad it can be. I also warn about heads near swim steps while swimming, and toes under the hull or drive if beached. Any rising and falling can be a total disaster, around the dock or other wise. Expensive lesson, but an important one!!

 

[Silly Seville]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

I actually witnessed this...the stupid parent who drove their boat onto the trailer with a teenage girl straddling the bow, legs dangling precariously in direct line with the bow stop as the boat approached at greater than no-wake speed. As I was opening my mouth to scream at the girl, so did her dad from the open door of the pickup truck. She swung her legs out of the way about 2 seconds before the keel banged into the bow stop. Turns out it was moms first time retrieving the boat. The girl looked around stupefied as though she didn't understand what all the fuss was about. Three other young teen girls on boat laughing and yucking it up during the whole debacle with mom making four attempts to get boat on trailer straight. (Bunks were too far under water) Mad dad finally gets wet up to his thighs so he can crank the boat in straight. I figure that girl would have at least suffered a compound fracture of her shin bone. Stupid humans.

 

[dwco5051]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

We had an incident a couple of years ago with a PWC that had been pulling a tube. The occupants decided to explore on up the river towing the empty tube behind them and the woman passenger wrapped the rope around her wrist as they went upstream. The tube snagged on a log and she lost her hand.

 

[Stachi]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

Back in the mid 1970's , I was on a boat that was coming into the dock too fast. My friend who was at the bow reached out to grab the dock ,slipped and got his left hand between hull and dock.... split his hand in two between his two middle fingers all the way back to his wrist...NASTY and PAINFUL and BLOODY. It took several surgeries and a few years to recuperate. NEVER reach for the dock while boat is moving !!!

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

Silly, the other stupid thing they did was let the girl ride on the bow with legs over. I am not a busy-body but I have decided I will chase down anyone I see doing that. Good thing, it's illegal so the cops would do the same. You see it on boats of all sizes, even great big ones.

Pirate, heat as well as cold makes you sloppy, it's mild grade hyperthermia. Add some beers, early wake-up, long day to the mix and people are in bad shape attention wise.

DWCO: Ouch!

QC, I agree with larger boats and/or inexperienced crew, not to risk it by fending off by hand; it's SOP for small boats.

Stachi, yours is a reminder that even the experienced can have an accident. If the boat was coming in too fast he probably was scrambling to fend off. For that kind of damage, I'd say the boat was way too fast. No one thinks this way at the moment but better to let it crash.

 

[QC]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

QC, I agree with larger boats and/or inexperienced crew, not to risk it by fending off by hand; it's SOP for small boats.

Agree, 14 ft. tinny is different than even an 18 footer with an I/O. It is mass that changes the equation . . .

 

[Stachi]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

While out for a ride on my boat last summer , I looked to my starboard aft and noticed a family cruising along doing about 20 mph on a 18' bowrider . All three of their children were riding on the bow with their legs hanging over ! I motioned to the captain of the boat to slow up and pull alongside me. I asked him (quietly) how long it would take for one of his kids to be chopped up by the prop if they happened to fall off of the front of his boat....by the look of shock and fear on his face I could tell he had NO IDEA of the danger ! He quickly ordered the kids back onto the seats !.

Silly, the other stupid thing they did was let the girl ride on the bow with legs over. I am not a busy-body but I have decided I will chase down anyone I see doing that. Good thing, it's illegal so the cops would do the same. You see it on boats of all sizes, even great big ones.

Pirate, heat as well as cold makes you sloppy, it's mild grade hyperthermia. Add some beers, early wake-up, long day to the mix and people are in bad shape attention wise.

DWCO: Ouch!

QC, I agree with larger boats and/or inexperienced crew, not to risk it by fending off by hand; it's SOP for small boats.

Stachi, yours is a reminder that even the experienced can have an accident. If the boat was coming in too fast he probably was scrambling to fend off. For that kind of damage, I'd say the boat was way too fast. No one thinks this way at the moment but better to let it crash.

 

[cribber]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

I've had to yell at people to let it go when the wind caught us docking in 20 mph sustained winds. Hands in and let the rub rail do its thing... anything else insurance will cover!!!

 

[Adjuster]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

Bumpers and boat hooks are all that should be over the side of the boat.


/

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

I've had to yell at people to let it go when the wind caught us docking in 20 mph sustained winds. Hands in and let the rub rail do its thing... anything else insurance will cover!!!

that's why I like boats with working rub rails and not the decorative crap you see on "those kind" of boats. Likewise i wish my cars had real bumpers again. I often leverage off pilings against the rubrail to get in or out of a slip or other docking manuevers. try that with the strip of chrome over a plastic hump.

I am also trying to train my helpers to wrap a line around a cleat or piling instead of trying to grab on with their hands. Sometimes they can't stop the boat that way, and lose the grip or end up with a handful of splinters. Sometimes at low tide I slide the boat up the mudbank to the pier; if you don't wrap a line you slide back. Kinda like keeping it in gear when powerloading on a roller trailer, so I've heard....

 

[got2bgreen45]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

Another bad idea is the people who ride on the front of pontoon boats in front of the railing with their feet dangled over the side! One bump of a wave, and your in a blender!

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Help us find a lost finger!!

I hate it when I forget my boat has a reverse!... wait a minute, I never forget that... but I would if I did.