A response by Haines Borough harbor crew kept a 35-foot cabin cruiser from sinking near Battery Point on March 25.
Alan Bosworth, wife Angela Bosworth and teenage daughter Destiny Bosworth were aboard their 35-foot Formula cabin cruiser “Rambo,” en route to their homestead near Sullivan Island, when the vessel apparently struck a submerged log about a mile offshore of Battery Point.
“I felt a bump and the boat raised up and pulled us to the port side, almost like it was going to roll,” Alan Bosworth said. “It was pretty scary, just trying to get control of the boat.”
One of the boat’s two engines immediately sputtered out, followed by the other. Bosworth said when he opened a hatch to check on them, the engines already were covered with water. “The bilge pump was running but it couldn’t keep up. It was basically hurry up and get off because I thought it was going to go down.”
While Bosworth deployed a Zodiac dinghy on board, Angela Bosworth radioed for help, contacting harbor crews at about 11:30 a.m.
Harbormaster Shawn Bell and assistants Gabe Thomas and Mark Allen responded in the harbor skiff, arriving to find the family in the Zodiac and the Rambo’s lower deck under about two feet of water. “(Bosworth) had just topped off in fuel and we didn’t want it to go down full of gas,” Thomas said this week.
Using a pump they brought and another that was borrowed, they were able to keep the Rambo above water and get it up on the beach where it would sit level at low tide, Thomas said. “The good news is that no oil or gas got out of it. We managed to keep everything inside the boat.”
Thomas said details of the apparent collision are still uncertain. The damage came to the vessel’s stern. “We don’t know if he hit something or something hit him. The rudder looked bent. It looked like something pushed the rudder into the back of the boat.”
A Juneau salvage company patched the hole in the vessel and took it to Juneau for repair.
Alan Bosworth said he bought the Rambo about a year ago for $25,000 and it was insured. Early this week he didn’t know if it would be salvageable. The fiberglass vessel was built in 1986 and the Bosworths motored it up the Inside Passage about a year ago. “We were told there was a lot of damage. I haven’t seen the boat yet,” he said.
The Bosworths recently sold the remote property and were making the trip to pick up their last belongings there, Alan said. They had made several trips between town and the homestead without incident, he said.
He said he was still “pretty shocked” by the episode, but was grateful for the help of harbor crew. “We greatly appreciate those guys coming to the rescue. It’s good to have guys like that around.” And he felt lucky that the incident occurred on a day with calm seas.
“I wouldn’t want to be out there on a day like today. God was looking out for us that day,” he said.