Serious waking incident on the Potomac - Bad Manners or Just Dumbness?

[DCatSea]

I'm SURE that no Albin driver would dream of committing such an egregious display of bad boating manners but thought it worth posting this note from a slip-neighbor.
I'm trying to post the somewhat scary video so you can see Mazboot bouncing around on the luckily brand new spring lines (second vessel in), but don't seem to be able to post it. Can anyone give hint on posting mp4s?

MESSAGE:
At approximately 6:36pm on Sunday July 31st, vessel "Stedfast" MMSI:338302325, transited the no-wake zone in front of Old Town Alexandria at approximately 22kn. Stedfast is a 13M Fairline 48 and was en route to Capital Yacht Club. A picture of the boat from AIS as well as the speed log from AIS is attached.

The wake smashed into the piers at Old Dominion Boat Club and Alexandria City Marina. Breaking waves breached the sea wall at Founders Park. It was an enormous wake. I have attached one video showing the wake. At the 35 second mark of the video you can see the boats tossed and the smaller boats taking wakes over their bow. There are other videos available on the Alexandria City security cameras as well as private cameras on some of the boats.

Radio traffic from the Water Taxi's confirmed the wake came from Stedfast. When raised on the VHF the captain of the Stedfast claimed not to see any no-wake signs. The captain should have known better about transiting in front of a marina on a plane.

Capital Yacht Club: Please ensure this guest of yours is aware of the no-wake zones for their return trip.

ODBC and Alexandria City Marina: You may want to share this information with your members to inspect for damage.

DC Harbor Patrol: This is FYI in case damages are reported by slipholders or other dangerous behavior is observed by this captain. Please see the attached video in its entirety.

[RobS]

Ugh. Sounds bad. Dumbness for sure, whether he "missed" the no wake zone markers or not common sense should prevail Unfortunately common sense is anything but...

Best is usually to upload to YouTube and post the link.

Have you seen this one?: https://youtube.com/shorts/yizVkaQDNO4?feature=share

[WillieC]

There are a few out there. Hope they nailed the guy under the bridge.

[DesertAlbin736]

Agree with posting on YouTube. Easy to set up your own channel to post my cruise video. Then just copy-paste the link. Then we could see all your adventures!

Regardless of presence or absence of no wake signs and/or buoys owners are responsible or damage caused by excessive wakes, especially if offender is identified & documented on video. But like many things they'd have to be caught in the act by CG or local sheriffs/marine patrols. More than just bad manners or dumbness, it's just plan money talks and BS walks arrogance.

[DCatSea]

Thanks for the YouTube tips.

Here's the video of my slip bouncing around. Mazboot is next to the boat flying around.

Luckily no damage other than the unsecured ice chest and wheelhouse chairs moving around. Now tied down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uUVbme ... =DougCraig

[Ambler27FC]

On my one trip to DC I have distinct memories of a number of folks driving like they were on the beltway and being a little relieved to get back to my home waters. Some issues are tough to fix completely.

When I see one of those big boats pushing a giant bow wave I always marvel at how much gas they must be burning. For those big boats that actually slow down when they pass - having considering your situation - I have a policy of sticking my head out the window and waving my cap.

Good your boat was not damaged though!

[Nancy]

A couple of years ago, we had damage from an enormous wake that rolled into an anchorage from a 55' boat passing at cruise half a mile away. First it hit the sailboats further out in the harbor. The bows went up so high that you couldn't see the transoms. Then the transoms went so high that you could see the rudders. Back and forth five or six times. When it came into our raft, we all rolled violently side to side...not in tandem. We were lucky to not have worse damage than there was.