Bumped on our mooring

[Russell]

After a short sail today we left our two older sons on the boat and joined some new freinds on their boat 4 spaces down on the channel. One on the nice things about Wickford is the ability to watch traffic at the public dock. We watch one boat with 8-10 adults come in and conducted a perfect fire-drill. The lines they tried to throw were too short. The Captain abandoned ship to try and pull her in, leaving no one at the helm. The ended up bow pointed straight out into the channel, the Captin reboarded, and pulled out at a high rate of speed to turn around and try again. Instead he side-swiped our boat with a thud (noticed by 2 teen-ages down below) that we heard from the other boat. They managed to dock, and we went to check the damage. No big deal, appeares they hit the rub rail. Went over to talk to the captin as his guests were unloading the left over beer and wine, yes they seemed to be tanked. When I talked to the captain he denied they touch our boat, and immediatly left the area. So for all of you that assumed this was a power boat, wrong, it was an older HUNTER. Guess we have our rotten apples too.Russell

 

[J. Hrab]

Bumper shock

I would simply report this to the harbormaster with witnesses and a short description.No harbormaster worth his salt would let an incident like this go free.Next time it could be mine, and I may not be around to witness it.Rgards

 

[Ron]

Nobody leaves

There are crappy people in all walks of life. You must be a nice guy, because had that been my boat the Captain would not have left unless he was a VERY BIG man (and very strong, too).

 

[Steve Dion]

report him to the CG

Russell:Why don't you report him to the Coast Guard. Hit and run is a violation on the seas too. If you are not in a CG controlled area then the local sherriff is your next resort. I would do this ASAP. If the person is a HOW reader, he may even turn himself in and plead stupidity. Seems that if you did something like this you would just own up to it and let the insurance co. take care of any damage (if there was any). On the other hand if you are little "sauced" maybe you don't want to have any authorities involved.

 

[Bob Zolczer]

Alwayds put fenders on both sides.

I always rig 3 - 8" X 20" fenders on both the port and starboard side of my 29.5. It's more of a hassle taking them up, but it's cheap insurance.It doesn't excuse the idiot who ran into your boat. What was the boat name?