Close call when you find yourself diving in the middle of a sailing race course

[Nitrodiverrr]

Saturday I was diving from one of two private boats on the Vermont side of lake Champlain. The two boats were each flying a large dive flag, and were anchored about 100' apart in less than 10' of water on a shoal. One bost was about 150' the other 250' from a green can marker out in the middle of the lake. There were three divers in the water from each boat. Each group was pulling one divers down flating flag. When the 1st group surfaced including myself, there were sailboats from as small as 10' to the majority which were probably 30-40' long going around the can, next to our boats and very close to the still submerged divers floating dive flags. Many of the sailboats were within 100' of our boats and within 50' of the divers dive flag. Divers from group had to yell at the sailboats to watch out for the divers still in the water. One of the sailboats even circled all the way back around to us to yell "that because they are not under power, they don't have to stay away from dive flags". Actually Vermont law restricts all boats from coming within 200' of dive flags. We surmised that the can was a turning point as the sailboats came from the direction of Burlington and then headed south. The operator of a hard bottomed inflatable that seemed to be a race monitor ignored our request to come over to us for about 10 minutes. When he finally did approach, he was told to keep his race off from the heads of our divers, he then went out beyond the can to tell incoming boats to give us some space. No one from our group was hit. The incident was immediatly reported to the coastguard, who said they would send a boat out from Burlington. The coastguard raced past us almost an hour after the incident first started. We were on the site for a couple of hours and never heard anything from the coastguard. We had written down a dozen boat numbers (from sailboats that came within 100') to give to the coastguard. Being that the coastguard never came back to us, it would appear that diver safty isn't one of their higher priorities. This assumption is partly based on a similair sailboat incident a couple of years ago at a diffrent spot on the same lake to one of our 6 divers. The coastguard had been notified that time as well. You would think that the coastguard would have notified the offending yacht club after the prior incident. Divers are trained to not surface when they hear a boat overhead, but how do you know not to come up, when you can't hear a sailboat ?

 

[deepstops]

You make some valid points but Vermont DOES permit powerboat (or sailboat) operation within 200' of a swimming area (or dive flag) provided it's at speeds of less than five miles per hour. These sailboats might have been doing 6 to 8 mph but I can't see the CG is going to come running out there to write tickets.

And specific to scuba diving, it only addresses motorized vessels (not sailboats)

Safety Handbook Page 2 | Vermont State Specific Laws

I think maybe you need to have some calm discussion with the sailboaters and work things out. Everyone has a right to use the water.

 

[Nitrodiverrr]

The handbook that you refrence states that for distance requirements "A person shall not operate any vessel except a non-motorized canoe or rowboat, a police or emergency vesell within 200' of a divers down flag" We had no idea when we entered the water that we were anchored in the middle of a race course. The people running the race should be the ones monitoring their course. If they find divers anchored in the middle of their course they should be able to report the information to all their participants quickly via radio. The guy in the inflatable who ignored the problem for at least 10 minutes finally did go out and meet each incoming boat individually. If they had been using radio comunication there should never have been a problem. Being that our dive group/meet consisted of divers from various parts of upstate New York except the Lake Champlain area we do not have contacts with any of the local yacht clubs. It is difficult to stay calm when you see boats bearing down on your fellow divers in shallow water where there isn't much place to hide from a danger that can't be heard. We did the annuall registration with the State of Vermont division for historic preservation and had reserved times to dive "sensitive sites" on a prior day at a diffrent location. IMHO Vermont and Canada do a wonderful job in providing moorings for wrecks.

 

[stakanak]

Everyone has a right to use the water yes, but safety must always come 1st and sailboats with a big heavy keel can kill someone who is submerged. I akin it to pedestrians and autos on the streets, except you can't see the people. If they are submerged you would not even know that you killed them until the that nights evening news.
Just because it is law does not always mean it is right!

 

[redacted]

What came first? The green can marker or the dive flags?

 

[Nitrodiverrr]

The Green can marker is a permenant navigation aid to warn boats and ships of low water levels. The can is NOT something put there by the yacht club. In this case the water level was 40' right at the can and as little as 5' deep 75' to the west of the marker. The marker was north west of Burlington at a spot where the lake is miles wide. The shallow water is probaby why there was a wooden barge wreck to dive on. Lake champlain offers some decent wreck dives. There are walls in excess of 200' that are only a boat length from shore. Zebra mussels have helped increase visability but are destroying the old wooden wrecks. If you like wrecks, spending a day in the Burlington VT harbor area and another day north of Westport NY will allow you to hit some of the most popular ones.

 

[deepstops]

If I'm piecing this together correctly, the divers were all within 200' of a navigational marker. Is that correct??

 

[Nitrodiverrr]

The sailboats were traveling from East to West, around the can and then South. One of our boats was anchored about 150' west of the can, the other about 250' west of the can, and the wreck and divers in the water were about 350' west of the can. Our boats were anchored on the shallow side of the marker. Some of the sailboats cut in very close to the marker where the water was 40' while others went around our boats and out over the wreck area in about 20' of water. Our boat closest to the can would have had divers within 200' of the can when entering the water, if my estimate of distance was correct. The coast guard boat that sped past us did not stop to say that we were in violation of any regulation. The coast guard who had been given our cell phone number, could have called us, to tell us that we were in violation of a regulation.

 

[captndale]

There is no legal requirement for a boat to maintain any distance from a navigational aid. In fact, boats often come within a hair's breadth while navigating around them. The only prohibition in the law is that a vessel may not tie up to a navigational aid.

The best way to handle sail boat racers is to work within their own rules. Their racing rules require them to obey all local government rules when meeting vessels not racing. A boat that is racing and violates the rights of a boat that is not racing might gain an unfair advantage over racing boats that obey the rules. Any racing boat that was then disadvantaged could protest the boat that violated the rules. A successful protest would result in the disqualification of the offending boat - believe me, that is the worst thing short of sinking that can happen to a racer. You, the dive boat, cannot protest a racing boat; the protest must come from another boat in the race. You can try to hail the boats on the radio but most usually do not have them turned on. If they do monitor their radios they are usually tuned to channel 69. I actually think that the best way to handle the problem would be to get on the yacht club's schedule in late winter or early spring and make a short presentation on sharing the water and diver safety directly to the members.

 

[nolatom]

I race sailboats sometimes, and dive sometimes. Not to defend the sailors, but if the geography is as you describe, quote:

"The sailboats were traveling from East to West, around the can and then South. One of our boats was anchored about 150' west of the can, the other about 250' west of the can, and the wreck and divers in the water were about 350' west of the can"

Unquote, and the boats were heading west to the buoy, then turning to port to head south, then there would seem to have been room to make a tight rounding (meaning withing one boatlength of the buoy during the turn) while still being almost 300 feet from the divers (and yes, as close as 100' to the closer boat, which is too close).

If they didn't, and some actually went *west* of your boats, and over to where the floating flags were, I can't explain it, since they're giving away a *lot* of distance on their competitors if they do so. They may have been confused by seeing dive boats there (is this a common or uncommon dive site?) and spread out to try to avoid them, and then found themselves on top of the (smaller?) floating flags.

You need to get in touch with the sponsoring yacht club and open up the lines of communication with them and other divers. Yes, racers use government marks as well as portables. No, they don't typically send an "escort" boat out ahead just on general principle. You complain that none of the boats used radio. Did you use yours, as you watched (or did you?) the fleet approach from the East, in order to warn them? Or did you give a Securite broadcast when you arrived and anchored pretty close to a govt mark? communication is a two-way street, using your radio might have gotten a response, and hence a heads-up about the approaching fleet.

And you had no locals in your group. Did you consider asking any locals, or local shops, if there were any regattas going on where your site was?

Glad no one was hurt. I suppose "taking names and calling the cops" as you did, might be one solution. But there may be other solutions that would work better.


Edit PS: What capndale said above.