Wild show in the locks yesterday

[Salmon Troller]

If you have been through the locks, you have heard the instructions not to untie until told to. Ever wonder what happens if you ignore the instructions? We had a front row seat yesterday while coming into the lake. Two runabouts, one rafted a boat ahead of us, and one rafted to us, untied while the lock gates were 1/2 way open. The forward boat apparently suffered some engine problems about the same time that they untied and the big surge of water was at max flow. They untied & the motor died as they throttled up to meet the surge. A series of desperate grabs for railings and we watched as their railings litterally peeled off their boat, then spun off in the swirl. The runabout next to us also untied, but they were running and in control and were able to fall back out of harms way with the first boat falling backwards. The operator of the first boat was frantically trying to restart resulting only in momentary full power surges. First toward the wall, striking lightly bow first, a second time back toward the rafted boaters (luckily this was only a small burst & did not go anywhere), then a third blast headed again toward the wall at full throttle. A last second turn avoided a major collision, but did sideswipe the wall hard enough for the splash to land on the walkway. At last the motor was running, the current subsided, and some very embarrassed boaters left the locks. Now we know what happens....

[3788sam]

Yep- free entertainment on sunny weekends at the locks.
I'm just glad no injuries and the only damage were to his boat.

[RobS4588]

One time, some guy in a super-expensive yacht in front of us sat on his fancy remote control, and somehow got it in gear, ripping a cleat out of his boat. Sometimes, it's almost as much fun as the boat launches.

[Nehalennia]

I've seen the bow sprit of one sailboat rip off the bow sprit of another and both masts came down on a labor day finale about 20 years ago.
I suggest you wait on releasing the lines too, and keep your harpoon, I mean Pike Pole at the ready in case someone else hasn't seen this display of ineptness.

[Pegasis]

I talked with a friend who said he saw this. He said the lock master called the harbor patrol on his hand-held VHF and saw the harbor patrol stop the guy just before he would have gotten out of sight from the locks.

[Salmon Troller]

The patrol stopped which boat? The little runabout that we saw, the yacht with the cleats pulled, or the dueling sailboats? If it was the guys in the little runabout, I am not sure what the discussion with the patrol would have been about. Yes, they ignored the lock master's instructions and showed zero common sense. No, the boat was not seaworthy and was operated in an unsafe fashion. I don't know that any of these were unlawful, just dumb. I am not endorsing their actions. It was only with a bunch of luck no one was hurt and no one else's property damaged. No doubt they beat up their own boat & crew and hopefully learned some critical lessons.

[Pegasis]

My take on his story was the runabout that untied early and ran into everything/everyone, who did the damage to all those boats took off and apparrently wasn't going to stop to see what damage he had done to the other boats.

At least on this one incident the Harbor Patrol got the guy.

Maybe there were multiples of this similar incident that day.

[Salmon Troller]

Must have been two different incidents. The incident that I saw, I am reasonably sure that he did not hit anything other than the concrete wall of the large locks. The boat was an older yellow hardtop, maybe Reinell. If they actually connected with another boat, there sure was not the amount of yelling that I would have expected.