Jackie Fenton wrote: > > >From your original post: > > > They panicked. I don't know whether the > > small motorized dinghy sank or drifted away but they did not seem to be > > able to hang on to it for support. > > Did anyone ever find out what happened to the dinghy and why they were > unable to hold on to it? That questions keeps coming back to me though I > agree that pushing my kayak to the panicky swimmers seems the most > logical idea in the scenario described above. Maybe the dinghy was > washed away in the boat wakes? I heard various reports. It was in the newspapers and on television since it was a double drowning within almost spitting distance of Manhattan's seawall. I don't think it washed away. I believe it sank when it filled with water. I had heard from marina people that the motor was too big. Perhaps it was and the transom (is that the word for the rear of a small boat?) had little freeboard and a wake washed into the boat. Given the precise scenario of this real life tragedy, I still think that a PFDed paddler giving up his/her boat by getting out of it was in virtually no danger and would provide the best instant rescue device, a large floatable object for the panicky non-swimmers to hang on to. They still may have screwed up and not known to hang on. Given the location, help was most definitely on the way. Over last winter, one of our paddlers went over while paddling a rather tippy sit-on-top. He discovered that he could not get back on. A passerby noticed him from the seawall, asked if he needed help. He said yes. Within a few minutes a police launch was there to help. The accident that I mentioned with the two fellows who drowned occured in the summertime with dozens of people walking in the park. I am sure that within 5 minutes there were two police boats on the scene, also several motorboats from the marina, as well as firemen up on the seawall. A kayaker's temporarily handed over kayak would have saved the day and it would probably not have merited more than about 5 lines as filler in some inside page of the Daily News or a small column in a weekly community newspaper. The need to do something immediately was that critical. > > Though somewhat heated :-) I think this has been a good topic. It has. And again, it has run the "what ifs" and "what I would dos" through our minds. If, god forbid, any of us find ourselves in a situation like this in any form, what we worked through our minds now might come into play. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Aug 18 2000 - 08:20:15 PDT
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