Destination, Crab Boat Sank in Bering Sea, Feb. 11, 2017, USCG Findings, Photography by: Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Dog Maritime Marketing, Marine Traffic Source, We have the pulse!
Destination, a Seattle based crab boat and a ship canal staple, went down early Saturday morning, Feb. 11, 2017, taking the lives of all six of the crew. Captain Jeff Hathaway, at 60 years old was one of the most seasoned and salty, experienced captains of his generation. He’s known for the transition from a fiercely competitive race for the crab to a new era and new blood that began in 2005, when each boat was assigned a share of the total Alaska harvest, a major game changer at sea.
Destination, Seattle Based Crab Boat, Crab Boat Sank in Bering Sea, Feb. 11, 2017, USCG Findings, Photography by: Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Dog Maritime Marketing, Marine Traffic Source
USCG, Coast Guard analysis, used computer modeling to show that long before the winter storm, the Destination’s margin of safety had been eroded by changes to the vessel and gear. By the time the crew set out on its final voyage, according to the analysis, the heavily loaded boat failed to meet minimum stability standards called for by a 1988 act of Congress. Ice, fully loaded and and a massive storm took down the Destination with little to no warning.
Destination, the Seattle-based crab boat that went down early Saturday morning, Feb. 11, 2017, taking the lives of all six of the crew, RIP Destination and the Souls on board!
USCG findings of the sunken crab boat: Coast Guard Marine Safety Center study would later come to a strikingly different conclusion. The Destination had significant stability problems before it left Dutch Harbor, according to the 18-page report, based on computer modeling.
Destination, the Seattle-based crab boat that went down early Saturday morning, Feb. 11, 2017, taking the lives of all six of the crew, RIP Destination and the Souls on board, NOT FAIR! Photography by: Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Dog Maritime Marketing, Marine Traffic Source
USCG, Investigators questioned basic assumptions made in the stability booklet, which put each crab pot’s weight at 700 pounds. That might have been true once. But not by the time the boat departed from Dutch Harbor almost a quarter-century later. A Destination pot, the only one retrieved from the sea floor the summer after the boat sank, weighed in at 840 pounds.
Destination, Seattle Based Crab Boat Sank, used to always be seen in the canal east of the Ballard Bridge and near the F/V Southern Wind, Trident Seafoods Old Yard, Photography by: Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Dog Maritime Marketing, Marine Traffic Source, RIP Destination
The Coast Guard analysis assigned that weight to each pot on deck for the boat’s last voyage. The report concluded the Destination had too big a load to meet federal stability regulations developed for a landmark 1988 commercial fishing safety law – add in ice and a massive storm, this brings the Destination to a very sad conclusion.
Destination, AK Crab Boat Sank Feb. 11, 2017, Missing this fun Crew in out Ship Canal, a Seattle Staple Crab Boat, Photography by: Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Dog Maritime Marketing, Marine Traffic Source, RIP Destination, PNW to AK
The sound that send shock waves through the fleet down to us in the lower 48: Captain Bill Prout was enjoying a cup of coffee as per usual – in the wheelhouse of the F/V Silver Spray at the tail end of his winter season catching snow crab off Alaska. At 6:15 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017, the Bering Sea sunrise was still more than two hours away. Over the VHF radio came a Coast Guard call out: A distress signal had just been picked up from the Destination. Nearly 30 hours prior, the Destination had left the Aleutian Island port of Dutch Harbor. The goal was to reach the Pribilof Island of St. Paul, drop off a load of bait, then begin the snow-crab harvest.
Off the Pribilof Island is where the vanishing began and shock waves and a spooked fleet was in deep prayer for the Destination, we fast forward to current time, RIP Destination. God bless these 6 amazing men lost into the Bering Sea in Feb. of 2017. Their lasting legacy will always be in all our hearts, soul and prayers.
Destination, Crab Boat Sank off Pribilof Island of St. Paul, RIP Destination, God Bless, Photography by: Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Dog Maritime Marketing, Marine Traffic Source, RIP Destination, PNW to AK – In our prayers Always!
Destination, was sun a Seattle staple always zipping by in the Canal, tons of touch and goes at Fishermen’s Terminal, on the move fast and steady. God Bless all out fishermen and fisherwomen on land and at sea. RIP Destination!!!
