Ultimate Kayak Fishing: Jamaica Bay Capsizing - Ultimate Kayak Fishing

J-Bay was not all fun and fishing this year. Against one of our basic rules, we all had our own plans for tournament day and went off accordingly. The weather was much like two years ago, very windy with some waves breaking over yak bows but not rough enough to call it off. Tim's (Tim Salmon) Hobie was taking waves and apparently the bow hatch seal would part as the yak flexed and slowly took water into the hull. Eventually he capsized and had to swim for forty five minutes towing his yak, will a hull full of water to an island. He had to de-water himself and his boat and get paddling (peddling) before he lost too much heat. No one saw him until he had recovered!

I'm hoping Tim will write up his experience because I think there is allot there for us to learn. We will be pressing him to do that.

Comments:
There are allot of bad things that could have happened we are fortunate Tim had the presence of mind to do what he did.
Frankly I do not think I could have pulled off that swim as tired as I was from paddling. Tim gets an "extreme bad dude" rating in my book. BTW he is sixty years old.
We need to practice what we preach about fishing with someone. I'm not talking about fishing is a cove in home waters, J-Bay is big water and can get nasty pretty fast. We insist on it at our tournament (the rodeo) yet we go off to place we don't fish much and split up.

Robert

Wow!! Glad he's allright!! That place gets Fugly fast.

I agree, safety is the most important aspect of what we do, kayak fishing is fun when everything goes well and it can kill you when it goes wrong. We fish together when we go out for a day of fishing and we catch fish, if we do the same on tournament day we will still catch fish. Everyone wants to win but everyone who comes home safe are a winner in my book.

Tim, I'm glad you are OK and I hope it's not going to discourage you from kayak fishing...

Please give us a writeup on what happened and what happened with the kayak?

Nils

Sorry about the mishap but that's a great recovery. You had to have your nads strapped tight for that swim. Tim's experience will help others become better prepared when unforeseen events happen.

I think it's time for Manufacturers to address hull flex, especially in longer rides. The longer a ride gets the worse the flex. Something has to give way, unfortunately it was a hatch seal. A rubber buffer to absorb flex near the front hatch might be a quick fix for those concerned with this. I don't know if Tim had the Adventurer but at 16' there is going to be quite a bit of hull flex. Maybe the new Tegris material that Heritage is playing with will be the answer and still save on the wallets of anglers.

Robert,

You raise a very good point. I myself always stress fishing with a partner and yet I was gone with the wind at 6:05 AM hauling across the bay as fast as my feet would take me.

Even with 200 other kayakers on the water at J-Bay, there were hours where I was completely alone.

Thank god that Tim only has a story to tell.






A couple of points.

1) The boat flex/front hatch leak is still speculation at this time.

2) Tim has the Outback, a 12' long very wide boat specifically designed to carry a heavier paddler.

3) I have the 16' Adventure and Tim and I are roughly the same size. When I got the boat I had problems with taking on major water in rough seas, but never a drop in calm conditions. I found that the gasket on my front hatch had delaminated. Over the winter I reglued the gasket down with marine goop and removed and sealed the other two hatches as well. I took on about a quart of water in 8.5 hrs of very very wet fishing conditions. I did discover last week that the rudder pin in my Hobie is also leaking (it is yet another in a long list of known Hobie leak points). I'm fairly certain that this is the only leak I have left in the boat and will address it ASAP.

Dude it's just an observation with the information provided...chill out. lol

Sorry, I didn't mean to come off as harsh as that may have sounded. I was just trying to prevent speculation from snowballing into "fact".

We all know that Hobie has had more than a few problems keeping water on the proper side of the hull, and with the increasing popularity of their boats its really important to make sure that the problems are thoroughly and accurately documented. I myself have had to deal with alot of misinformation and misdirection when trying to identify the leaks I have encountered on my own boat.

Wow. Glad Tim's allright.

I would like to add that although we used the buddy system while fishing on Friday afternoon, both our exuberance and our experience made us all complacent of this number one safety rule…”The Buddy System”. I know I am just as guilty of fishing alone as anyone and although I would never advocate to anyone to fish alone, I have and do in fact do that quite often and need to rethink my strategy, especially when in water that I am not as familiar with and in rough seas, as was the case Saturday morning.

Robert and I talked about this afterwards and we both agreed that if it had been one of us…we were not sure if we could have done that same thing. Although Tim is 60 years old, he is also in very good shape and a trained Navy Diver.

Once again, it is important to follow some basic rules while out there, for the sea is a very unforgiving environment. Buy a good PFD, one that is comfortable, for if it is not, you will not wear it. Second, wear the PFD, for it is not if you go in, but rather, when you go in. Third, practice falling out of your kayak and conducting and self rescue-reentry, and forth, never paddle alone.

I hope he shares the event with everyone as some important questions are still up in the air. Where the water came in from, how fast did it come in, didn't he realize it as stability was changing with all the water. Did he try to get back in, what happened with the drive? I have paddled my T160 after the hull was full from not putting in the plug after draining and was surprised how it still paddled when it was almost full! Are Hobies more difficult to right and reenter? Is hull flex something to worry about, my 160 flexes like crazy is rough stuff.

Glad he is OK, hopefully he will let us know what happened.