Boat sinking Bowen Island

[kaelc]

Scary how many boats go down these day, but great to see everyone rescued and thank you RCMSAR volunteers. Anyone know the top three causes of fair weather sinking? It seems like broken bilge pumps and cracked raw water lines are causes?

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/4-people-rescued-after-pleasure-craft-sinks-near-bowen-island-1.3572755

 

[Peahead]

The particular boat in the sinking off Bowen was apparently 17' and a 'runabout' so my thinking was, if an outboard would less likely have raw water intakes or any thru hulls below waterline. Likely no hoses to crack that would bring in water. Bilge pump exit/thru hull would (should) be well above water line. Runabouts normally don't incorporate deck scupper drains because the floor needs to be higher than the water line for scupper drains to be used. This makes smaller runabouts (with outboards) a bit easier to figure out what might cause it to take on water - as often no intake openings/hoses at or below water line to maintain. They do however have a garboard drain plug so that would be one thing that may have been an issue in this case.

I am not sure the boat in this story was an outboard pwr or not but at 17', probably. The question then is how did water enter with no rough water and not hitting anything? If people went to one side and took water over a low stern and/or low gunwale or no well, that could also be a possibility. People stated they didn't see where the water came in but I'd still consider that as possible. If a vessel pwr is stern drive (or inboard/shaft) it does have additional chance of water leaks as can be seen in the first link I included below . The first few of the top 10 reasons a boat sinks look to be more with inboard and stern drive maintenance issues.

Always interesting and informative to find out why any given boat takes on water .......
http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/magazine/2014/april/keeping-your-boat-afloat.asp


I enjoy reading David Pascoe's articles - here is his 'Keep Your Boat From Sinking' article:
http://www.yachtsurvey.com/sinking.htm

 

[Fish Camp]

If the bilge pump tube is in the water outside the boat, at the time the bilge pump is shut off while the bilge tube is still full of water ,a sypon is creatted filling the boat with water .

 

[Mike_R]

If it has an inboard/outboard it might have been the bellows