Breaking News: New 74' Spencer sportfish sinks...

Well, IMO speed had everything to do with the damage to the boat and sinking. If they were going through at 8 knots the damage would have been minimal to the hull and probably limited to the props. I would say the biggest fault was operator judgement and chart stitch error and low light. I certaintly wouldn't be blasting through that narrow pass unless it was daylight and I was in a 20' center console.

Capt J, I agree with you.
Speed was not the operators friend in this incident.

Nobody is going to say more than this.

I'm old school, I've been a captain for over twenty five years, whenever I'm in unfamiliar areas or unmarked areas going in for the first time with no track line, forget the plotter, I use a chart, pushing ahead at idle speed, depth sounder with alarm ON, with a spotter on the bow...

That's all good and sound thinking obviously. But I'm not sure you can rely on a chart any more than a chart plotter. It all depends on when the area on the chart was last surveyed and when the chart was last corrected.

Never know when those young/punk reef heads move around.
Latest info is important.

Well considering what's on your chart plotter was taken off of the latest paper chart. I'd tend to trust the latest paper chart.

Assuming it's the latest paper chart, updated yesterday.

99.99% of the time the rocks and coral reef don't move over the course of a decade. Unless someone tries to move them at 40 knots

I believe that the point Capt J is trying to make, with regards to paper charts, is that when you plot a course on a paper chart, you are more likely to look at where the line passes and see if there are any rocks or hazards etc. however when plotting a point on a GPS, some captains may not zoom in on the entire route and there is the possibility that a hazard could be overlooked, such as in this case

Perhaps. But most people don't have THE very latest chart. So if they haven't been correcting it, it could be less accurate than a plotter that has been recently updated. Assuming your using the correct zoom level.

Of course in most cases coral doesn't grow over night. But previously uncharted objects can.

But in this case I doubt it would have made a difference which they had been using. Because I believe they weren't even looking at it. Or at least not very closely or timely.

Where the boat ran aground. This pass that they attempted to go through is pretty much a local knowledge only pass, and they should've gone around the other way which is all deep water. I have a satellite photo of exactly where the spencer went down but cannot figure out how to post it as a friend sent it to me.

Could anyone an "X" on the above to indicate where she struck bottom? Frankly that pass does not look that dangerous- pay very close attention and stay in the center of the chart's deeper water; where it's darker blue on the GoogleE photo. No different than half a dozen spots going up and down the coast - going over Frying Pan Shoals (with a single red buoy) instead of all the way around it for example. The key of course is to focus and pay attention- Operator Error is the cause of many many accidents.

Yep

And the cause for this accident.

So, 2 weeks later, no real comments from the players (owner, seller, crew, yard).
I glad all were well.
I'm sure they may still be under a hush instruction pending leagle and (?) insurance settlements.

BTW, was that reef in a protected park? Subject to US reef protection and enforcement?

Oh THAT would be the icing on the cake or insult to injury, if you will.

I have the exact map with a point on it that was sent to me by someone in the know, but cannot figure out how to load it. Yachtforums says the file is too big and I can't figure out how to compress it. If anyone is willing to do so, I can foward it to them.

It is very narrow pass and curves fairly tightly to the South, see the point of land on the East side of the map. Go down a little bit and go West on the Map, the one that's zoomed in. The dark blue water between the 2 light areas is the pass......it's maybe 75' wide if that. It is a LOCAL KNOWLEDGE ONLY pass and nobody else attempts it in a big boat.