AAR: P/C Hard Aground w/Injuries

It was about this time yesterday afternoon when I copied a MAYDAY call on Ch 16 VHF-FM and found the position to be approximately 3 miles ahead of me. A 29 ft Pleasure Craft ran hard aground while doing 30-40mph and had a severely injured crewman onboard. One fisherman (retired Firefighter) and a towboat had responded. I continued to monitor the situation, via the radio, and when it was announced that they needed a backboard and First Aid Supplies, I responded. I woke the off watch crew, launched our small boat and reached the scene withing a few minutes. The patient had flown from the cockpit down into the main salon upon impact, striking the Galley table along the way. I found a large lump on the right back of the head, a hematoma on the left forearm, a possible hairline fracture on the right forearm, three bruised ribs on her right side, and bad hip pain. we got her iced in places and then the USCG arrived in a small boat and we departed to make room. The USCG Helo arrived as we departed and the patient was airlifted to a Galveston or Houston Hospital. I left our backboard at the request of the USCG (to help get her out of the boat to a hoist position). We'll pick up our backboard when we pass through the Brazos River Floodgates on our return trip to Houston.

Good job, wildman_. Thanks for stepping up.

We sometimes forget that the gear we carry is not only for ourselves. It gives us the tools to help someone else in need.

Hope the lady will be okay.

Wow. Great work. Was it a speed boat? What'd they hit? The beach? Sand flat? Submerged pier/piling?

The boat was a cigarette shaped cabin cruiser. They were meeting a tow, in a sharp bend, and they ran out of the channel and into a charted shoal.

This was basically a case of "The qualifications for the size of Pleasure Craft that someone can handle depends on the size of their check book".

This "Master" did have a grasp of the "Rules of the Road" but he apparently has not paid attention to the "Prudential Seamanship Rules or the Good Seamanship Rules. He also has no idea about the handling characteristics of the various vessels that he will be meeting and overtaking in a commercial waterway (such as the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway). This gentleman also has no idea that he is responsible for any damages caused by his wake (wake damage to docks, shorelines, breaking up tows, etc) under Admiralty Law.

He was definitely going too fast (30-40mph) to have met a tow in the GICW. It is never wise to meet a large vessel in a bend. He had more room than he claimed by the simple fact that the tow he met did not ground their stern on that shoal.

I believe that she will be okay but she will have to live with the effects of a Brain Concussion for a little while as well as she undoubtedly woke up EXTREMELY sore all over her body this morning.

Very well done.

We did recover our Back Board as we passed through the Brazos River East Floodgate. The Lockmaster threw it on our lead barge as we passed through.now we are only short 4 chemical icepacks and they have been ordered through our supply system.