Sportfish "Silver Fox" accident at Sailfish Marina

Sailfish Marina (Singer Island- Palm Beach Shores, FL) north dock, north side. Just south of "The Buc" marina to which the "Silver Fox"- a 58 Scully- was going into it's slip. At least four on board, no major physical injuries to persons onboard was the report; boat's gear was stuck in reverse and the engine(s) rpm climbed rapidly. Actions by the captain did not changed the rpm's climb; place gear/throttle levers to neutral/forward; reportedly hit the "stop" buttons all had no effect. MTU V-10 M93 (common rail) engines. Captain is well respected and experienced; did not appear to be his fault- was a electronic gear error/runaway diesel. Took out at least one piling and the concrete finger pier then stopped by the concrete main pier. SeaTow on scene within minutes via land and sea with lift bags and pumps Supposed to be transported/towed to a haul out facility within an hour of my last pics. I cannot verify 100% all of the above so you might as well consider it my opinion and not fact.

A 68 foot, not 58 Scully. Not the V-10's M93's. All agreed (that I spoke with) that it was due to control failure; that's what it looked like and that's what the captain said. One engine died, the other stayed in reverse, then went right to full throttle. Hit the dock about 2100 rpm. Glad it was near high tide as the boat hit the concrete dock after taking out a finger dock. If it was low tide the cockpit would have gone under the dock and then the house/salon would have stopped the boat's backing motion.

From other study and personal experience most electronic control failure is related to low voltage. Mathers Microcommaders controls have had numerous failures- including several times on boats when I've been at the helm. Mathers is now ZF. I believe the Silver Fox had MTU engines and ZF gears. If you google "Mathers Microcommanders problems failures" you'll find others have had issues- and those issues including going into gear and then full throttle; both forward and reverse.
Of course it seems these issues are extremely rare for the amount of vessels with ZF products so this is not a condemnation. After talking more with captains who witnessed the event (I was there shortly afterwards but did not see the crash) they all agreed again the captain of the Silver Fox put the lever forward to no effect, and pressed the engine stop buttons to no effect. One captain said without hesitation that one engine was not running at all and the other was in full throttle reverse.
No amount of being a "cowboy" -backing into a slip faster than the speed you wish to hit the dock- would caused this amount of damage.

Very, very lucky no one was hurt or killed. If he had come in directly to concrete dock it would have been much worse. The finger pier slowed the boat down. If the tide were lower the cockpit would have slid under the main dock and then the house/salon would have taken the brunt of the crunch.

I spent three hours helping them with the response. Great owners of our local franchise; it was clear even with a full staff more hands were needed and I knew what to do and when to do it. Boat was scheduled to be hauled out at the Viking yard just across the way. The Viking Manager on duty (whom I used to work with when I was employed there) made a couple visits over before the haul.


lol- another boating site (THT) member with a thread about this incident cut and pasted my posts. I forgot my password over there and so did my computer. They linked it as well.

More pics

No I don't know how the engine was stopped. When I got there the engines were not running and the boat was floating but taking on water. I ran to get my 110 emergency pump and hose but when I got back in 3 minutes it was a bit too late and plus the dock's power was cut off by marina staff for safety reasons.
I could not speak with the captain- he was a bit busy talking with more appropriate persons. Initially I was told the boat is a 58, then a 68, I don't know for sure but there is another Scully on our our dock which claims to have the same engine package which is why I said what engines it has. I cannot tell you exactly what happened because I did not see the actual crash. I spoke with my captain peers who did however. One theory of being a "cowboy" who backs into a slip high speed is clearly wrong- he was not even trying to dock at that marina- much less that slip.
I wish I did know how he got the engines to stop, and I know we all wish we knew the actual reason for the controls to not respond to the inputs from the helm and instead tell the engines and gear to do what they did.

I've been in contact with the mods to get my username and password.
The thread over there has more than a few captains and others telling about electronic controls failures as well as non-electronic controls failures.
A pre-arrival controls check before pulling into the slip is always a good idea no matter what size vessel you are in.
I don't know exactly what controls the Silver Fox has or why they failed. Why they failed is the important question in hopes of avoiding future incidents.