![\"Tenn-Tom](\"http:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tennesse-Tombigbee.jpg\")
<\/a>it is a 234 mile man-made waterway that extends from the Tennessee River to the Black Warrior-Tombigbee River system. In many areas it is very narrow and you must pay attention to other boaters and tow traffic. <\/p>\nI’m always interested in what causes boating accidents. A couple of years ago, a 43′ Trawler rolled over on its side and sank after passing a tow on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The four passengers aboard swam to the safety of the dinghy that was being towed. The captain reported the boat rolled in less than 10 seconds and the boat sank in 5 minutes. So what caused the Trawler to roll over and sink?<\/p>\n
There are few published facts regarding the cause. We do know there was a motorcycle on the roof, which could explain why the dinghy was being towed. We also know there were 4 people on the flybridge which explains why no one was trapped inside the vessel. For those not familiar with the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, <\/a>it is a 234 mile man-made waterway that extends from the Tennessee River to the Black Warrior-Tombigbee River system. In many areas it is very narrow and you must pay attention to other boaters and tow traffic. <\/p>\n
On the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, a motorboat will communicate with the tow captain for permission to pass and on what side. If the Trawler and the tow met on a sharp bend and the captain of the Trawler was not aware of the tow, it was too late. If the Trawler and the tow were both on the outside of the turn where the water is deepest, the captain of the Trawler would be moving close to shore and it would be too late to change sides. Concerned he might run aground, it would have been natural for the Trawler’s captain to immediately turn sharply behind the tow and cross the tow’s wake.<\/p>\n
Tows generate very small waves beside the barges but have a very high wave directly behind as all the water displaced by the barges and tow boat fills back in. The wave created by the tow would have caused the Trawler to tip away from the tow. With the motorcycle and the four people on the bridge creating a heavy load on top, the boat would tip even further. One reported that this 43′ Trawler cannot right itself from a roll of over 65 degrees. It was also suspected that the stabilizers were operating at the time. The rapid current of water behind the tow filling in the \u201chole\u201d would be going in the opposite direction to the Trawler. The stabilizers, instead of correcting the roll, would make it worse.<\/p>\n
The lessons learned — Always be aware of traffic on narrow rivers and never cross the wake behind a tow closer than \u00bc mile. Use your VHF radio to announce your position before entering bends or get an Automatic Identification System. AIS shows the position, heading, speed and name of any tow within 5-10 miles whether you can see it or not. By law, vessels over 300 tons must have a Class A unit that transmits their position via VHF radio. Your AIS will show the tow\u2019s position, heading, speed and most importantly, its name. You can then call the tow boat by name and get permission to pass. <\/p>\n
United Marine Underwriters is more than just boat insurance.<\/u><\/a> Browse our Boats For Sale<\/u><\/a> at BoatBrowser or our Lake Resource Guide<\/u><\/a> at LakeBrowser or share your fishing stories and photos at True Fish Tales<\/u><\/a> \u2013 the ones that did not get away.<\/p>\n BoatBrowser by United Marine Underwriters<\/a> I’m always interested in what causes boating accidents. A couple of years ago, a 43′ Trawler rolled over on its side and sank after passing a tow on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The four passengers aboard swam to the safety of the dinghy that was being towed. The captain reported the boat rolled in less than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242,237,238],"tags":[340,339,338],"class_list":["post-1473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boat-insurance-2","category-boating-safety-2","category-boating-tips","tag-boat-insurance-boat-safety","tag-boating-accidents","tag-tennessee-tombigbee-waterway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1473"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1497,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions\/1497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitedmarine.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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