Lake George
Two Finger Lakes tour boat operators said Monday they were baffled by the capsizing Sunday of the 40-foot Ethan Allen on Lake George.
"I was just talking about this with my dad (William Simiele), and we can't conceive of how it happened," said Mark Simiele, president of Captain Bill's Seneca Lake Cruises. William Simiele is the founder of Captain Bill's, which operates an hourly tour boat, the Stroller, and a dinner boat, the Columbia.
Mark Simiele said the U.S. Coast Guard conducts yearly inspections of commercial boats on Seneca Lake, and once every five years the boats are brought on land for a dry dock inspection.
"This year we're bringing out the Columbia (for a dry dock inspection)," Simiele said.
Simiele said the only way the tour boats can capsize is if water comes over the side. He wondered whether the Ethan Allen, which had 47 passengers, rode much lower in the water than either the 49-passenger Stroller or the Columbia, which can seat about 140.
"I can't imagine anything, except a structural failure," Simiele said of the Ethan Allen sinking.
He added that even that is hard to imagine because the regulations and inspections are so stringent.
"When they figure out the problem, it will probably mean some code changes for all of us," he said.
Robert Pfuntner, president of Pembrook Pines Media that operates the Keuka Maid on Keuka Lake, also said he's curious to see what happened.
"They say it was a wake from a larger boat," he said of the accident. "... There aren't any boats larger than the Keuka Maid on our lake."
The Keuka Maid - with three decks, 107 feet long and room for 500 people - is built like a houseboat, he said, adding that probably the only thing that could sink it would be weather.
And in the 10-plus years the Keuka Maid has chugged up the lake from Hammondsport, its pilots have kept a close watch on weather conditions, Pfuntner said.
"We never run that risk," he said.
October 4, 2005 2:36 PM | Category: Boats