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Ouch! 132' Broward Motoryacht Serque on the Rocks...

Discussion in 'Broward Yacht' started by Capt Bill11, Mar 31, 2015.

  1. Capt Bill11

    Capt Bill11 Senior Member

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    132' Broward Motoryacht Serque on the Rocks...

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  2. captholli

    captholli Senior Member

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    That's going to hurt the pocket book! Interesting yacht, with out a doubt the most heavily modified and re fit Broward out there.
    Owner would place a Captain and Chief engineer on the payroll seasonally? Ex stewardess manages the boat and hires the crew.
    Obvious poor anchor watch or mechanical malfunction to getting underway once the anchor dragged.
  3. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    It's a charter yacht too....makes it even a bit more intriguing. Very nice 2008 Broward. $99,000 per week. I'd think they probably lost money this week.
  4. Capt Bill11

    Capt Bill11 Senior Member

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    Plus Broward was well known for under sizing the anchors and windlasses they put on their boat.

    I would expect that with all the work that was done to that boat they would have addressed those issues. But....

    And I hate that style of anchor. Never trust them unless they are way oversized. And even then I don't sleep well with them on duty.
  5. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    I could never sleep without someone on anchor watch. I don't care how advanced the technology and alarms are. I don't care how well the anchors hold. I just know that's what I'd be thinking of so I wouldn't be able to sleep.
  6. NYCAP123

    NYCAP123 Senior Member

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    I'm with you on that one. On the boat I run we always overnight in marinas, but eventually along the Loop I expect we'll have to spend a night or two on the hook. Since I'll be solo I've installed a loud drag alarm in my SR, but I have a lot of trouble seeing myself sleeping without someone on anchor watch. I know a lot of people do it, but in all my years on the water I've never slept on a boat without someone awake at the helm. Seen too many boats drag anchor.
  7. Capt Bill11

    Capt Bill11 Senior Member

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    It's one thing if you're only going to be anchored one night and keep a watch all night. But if you're running with a small crew and busy owners or a charter party on board and you're anchoring every night it's pretty hard or basically impossible to keep an up all night anchor watch every night, night after night.

    Sometimes people can sleep on the bridge if need be. Or perhaps getting up periodically at night to check on things.

    Odds are you're more likely to have an accident from crew sleep deprivation than dragging I would think.

    But based on the few facts known, on a boat this size, watch keepers or proper alarms should have prevented this from happening.
  8. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    We very seldom anchor at night and I think have only one time anchored two nights in a row. That time we had 13 on board, all willing to take a turn keeping watch.

    I also recognize people anchor all the time and are comfortable with it and encounter no problems. We have more than adequate alarms and experienced crew, just a personal paranoia I have. I would definitely have to go through a process and quite a few nights to get personally comfortable.
  9. NYCAP123

    NYCAP123 Senior Member

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    Which night do you choose to have anchor watch and which not? And OK to sleep on watch? I'm sorry Cap, but watch means WATCH. If you're afraid your watchman might fall asleep or be too groggy the next day run shifts. Now there's no requirement on most small boats to maintain a watch, but you can't schedule the watch only for the night the anchor busts lose, the bilge starts to flood or intruders will board. These things just don't lend themselves to your schedules.
    Yes you'll probably be fine 99 times out of 100, but here is # 100. I'd hate to be making the calls that captain had to make that morning, nor be explaining the situation on my next job interview.

    Again though, no requirement that I know of, and I may well find myself in that situation before too long as I'm the only crew, but I consider it a bad practice and would only do it with absolutely no other choice.
  10. Norseman

    Norseman Senior Member

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    Aye, anchoring is my middle name.
    Been there done that as a young liveaboard with a 44' Yawl in the hurricane belt and with no boat insurance.
    One learns fast..
    We had another big thread on this forum some 8 years ago about the super mega sailing yacht dragging anchor in a hurricane down in the Florida Keys.
    Turned out his anchors looked good but they came apart when the poop hit the fan.
    Although the anchors on a big yacht can't be scaled up to what I had on my last sailboat: The holding power of the storm anchor matched the displacement of my boat. (16,000 lbs vs 16,000 lbs)
    The everyday working anchor was about 1/4 of that, 4,000 holding for a 33' boat, a 55 lbs Delta.
    Easy to be Monday Morning quarterback yakking about the above incident.
    My take: If you have a puny anchor, have a 24/7 anchor watch.
    Strong anchor that set good with strong reverse power in good holding, go to bed and sleep good.
    Once in Honeymoon Harbour in the Bahamas while anchored, a squall blew through and nearby boats were dragging and screaming and squeaking.
    (45 knots)
    I just rolled over in the bunk as I trusted my anchor and chain 110%

    Another time in the same anchorage, I was snug as a bug in a rug, lunch hour, we were settled in and popped the first drink.
    We dragged onto a small reef, then the tide went down.....
    Wife was crying as we were healing over. No damage, strong keel and we got off at the next High Tide.
    I was cocky because of my big anchor.
    Sailed back to Florida and bought the next generation , super holding Rocna.
    Never dragged since....Yet.
    Not sure what Mega Yachts carry for anchor gear, but based on various threads around here, not much:((
    (Then there was the Super Sailing Mega Yacht somewhere in France that also dragged and foundered: Bad but good looking anchor and the Mate or Skipper was not paying attention, they had an anchor watch if memory serves right?)
  11. AMG

    AMG YF Moderator

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    I used to sleep on the bridge with radar alarm and depth sounder alarm on. These days you can probably add a GPS-alarm too. To me this is as safe as sitting and staring out in the dark...
  12. NYCAP123

    NYCAP123 Senior Member

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    The key is being awake and hearing the alarm, not what you're looking out at. I'm fairly confident in myself, because I wake up if the boat rocks wrong or there's an odd sound, but at home I could sleep through cannon fire. Would hate to have those traits reverse on the wrong night.
  13. Kevin

    Kevin YF Moderator

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  14. captholli

    captholli Senior Member

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    Been on several 50 meter + charter yachts where the crew numbers allow for a rotation of 3 Hr anchor watches stood by deck and engineering crew and 100% used all electronic aids such as radar guard zones and GPS anchor boxes etc. Two of these vessels had inexpensive tethered ROV's called "Bluies " that would be deployed next to the anchor & had video cameras on board modulated to the bridge monitors and you could sit in the bridge and watch the anchor in real time whilst eyeballing the Brooks and Gatehouse system for wind speed and direction while watching the fish swim by the anchor. In lieu of the rare vessel with the live streaming anchor watch, the crews that I stood watch with were trained by standing a watch with a senior crew member the first few times to learn the nuance's and the tell tale motion of the vessel " sailing on anchor in the arc but also trained to notice any different motion such as a passing wake or a 180 degree wind shift and swell motion. I will say that quite a few of these vessels would place a mattress up on the bridge in front of the helm where the watch stander was right there to hear any alarms go off and could still have a light sleep . I've also worked on vessels where the anchor watch was required to walk the deck for a show of security awareness at night along with the anchor watch and the Capt. would never in a minute consider a mattress in the wheel house so I guess its all up to how the master runs his vessel.
    With the price of electricity in the Caribbean, its not the dockage rate keeping large vessels off the docks but the power kw prices so more and more vessels find it cheaper to anchor & run the Gens and the subsequent fuel and lube oil consumption costs plus water maker and still come out way ahead of the price game.
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2015
  15. Kafue

    Kafue Senior Member

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    We often anchor for a week at a time, especially if it is a time when we are the only or one of the few boats in the location.
    The most harrowing times have been when there is even a minor weather change, but more vessels have dropped anchor.
    All too often I have watched a sailboat or cruiser drag anchor and take one or more boats with it. Even in a small change in the wind.
    Some guys just don't account for tide or weather when letting out the chain. It's these nights that I sleep light and in the saloon.
  16. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    On a similarly sized boat we carry two 530 lb anchors with 400 ft of 5/8 inch chain.
  17. Good Spirit

    Good Spirit Member

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    We anchor out every weekend and have at times spent a week anchored out. I use a good Bruce and 200 ft of 5/8 chain (42ft Carver). I always ensure a good hook and back down on it well. I use 7:1 scope and if weather kicks up even more. Never dragged yet and most often have to use the boat to drag the anchor free. That being said I do sleep light if the weather kicks up or winds shift.
  18. captholli

    captholli Senior Member

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    All the listings for Broward's of that vintage and size from 1992 through 2000's the specs for ground tackle was on the light side calling for 231 lb. Pool anchors and 300' of 1/2 " chain. This particular Broward was built as hull 536 @ 117' in the Lauderdale yard in 1995 as "Independence" and had the same spec. Not to say that was what was on Serque 20 yrs. later as just about every system was touched and upgraded through the multiple refits. But I was certainly surprised at the skinny ground tackle per captbill11's post #4 that has proved to be the case through research.
  19. Norseman

    Norseman Senior Member

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    Wow, that is adult size anchors...
    What type or brand?
    Rated holding power in good sand?
  20. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    Wow, that is undersized.