Going Down with the Ship

[senile1]

I read an article yesterday in the Kansas City Star regarding the freezing rain, sleet, and 12 - 20 inches of snow that just passed through the middle of Missouri.  Numerous docks collapsed from the weight of the ice and the snow.  The paper described a $600,000 yacht that sunk and is now sitting in 52 feet of water.  A number of other boats sunk as well.  I found this link out on the web which contains some pictures of the damage at various marinas on Lake of the Ozarks.  I thought you all (especially you northerners) might find this interesting.  

www.1150krms.com/index.html?view=news

[BD]

Wow, we got 10 inches, but nothing fell because of it.

[Raul]

Man you really dump a brick when you go to the marina just to find out your 600 K yacht just sunk.

[Guest the_muddy_man]

Just hope no one got hurt

[justfishin]

Thanks for the link. Man, what a mess. I would bet the insurance companys are loving that situation. I feel for all those involved. I forget how much I dislike winter until it comes every year. Its cold and blowing up a storm here in Western Maryland tonight. I forgot to remember to add that to my list of dislikes in this post.

1. Braid fishing line.

2. Crankbaits.

3. Winter, cold and snow.

4. My X wife.

[CrazedL.IFisherman]

Man that shows the power of what mother nature is capable of, those pictures show it all, thanks for the links senile

[cart7t]

Click on that first link, the Lodge of the Four seasons one.  Not to get off topic but that point in the immediate background is a killer in the spring for jerkbaiting.  So is the one in the background behind that one.

Those links don't even include all the private docks that have come down either.  Apparently the water patrol has closed the lake to boat traffic as many of the docks are barely standing and any wave action at all would bring them down.

I seem to recall this happening several times in years past.  

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

Cart- In your opininion, why do you think all that damage happened?  are those covered docks just not made to hold snow/ice essentially?  If this has happened before, wouldn't they rebuild using thicker poles,etc?

[cart7t]

Cart- In your opininion, why do you think all that damage happened?  are those covered docks just not made to hold snow/ice essentially?  If this has happened before, wouldn't they rebuild using thicker poles,etc?

They're basically sheet metal roofs supported with aluminum or galvanized steel support braces.  In the case of these larger marina's, the roof height has to be radically higher so these monsterous boats, essentially designed to run on bigger waters than this lake, can get underneath them.  As the roof height goes up, the pole height does as well.  But that's not the whole equation.  As the ice and snow begins building, the weight starts settling the dock further into the water.  the open end of the docks have a distinct disadvantage to the side of the dock with the gangway that attach each slip so the open ends start settling further into the water faster because of less flotation on that end.  Now the load gets shifted more to the support posts on the outside and they start bending until the roof comes down on top of the boats.  The other failures are usually pure roof collapse due to the weight.  They can't increase the size of the support structure without increasing the overall amount of weight the flotation devices have to carry.  Add to this that a lot of these fancy pants marinas like to use concrete decking instead of wood or composites for esthetics and overall maintenance and you just can't add anything overhead that would increase the weight.

There were quite a few marina's on the Mississippi just north of St. Louis that suffered the same kind of damage that didn't recieve anywhere near the amount of ice and snow that got at LOZ.  

BTW,  those pictures are just a tiny number of all the large boats that are berthed at LOZ.  When those puppies get out on a summer weekend afternoon you can easily see why that lake is one of the most dangerous places in the country to run a boat on.  Too bad the fishing is so d**n good there.  

[senile1]

Another result of all of this is that fuel and oil has leaked from some of the sunken boats into the lake.  One large spill has been confirmed near Camdenton, MO.  

Cart7 stated:

When those puppies get out on a summer weekend afternoon you can easily see why that lake is one of the most dangerous places in the country to run a boat on.  Too bad the fishing is so d**n good there.

LOZ is a great fishing lake, ironically, because of all the docks that surround its perimeter.  When it was created in the 1930s, its main purpose was for power generation, and not much effort was put into making it a great fishery.  Almost all of the timber was removed from the lake.  The bass in the lake gravitate toward all of the docks and marinas for cover.  I only fish way up the arms of the lake now, due to the crazy traffic and the huge waves created by this traffic.  These big yachts don't belong on this lake, but money talks.

[Panamoka_Bassin]

Yikes, what a mess!  Weeks and weeks it will take to figure out all the damage, and then maybe longer, like when the spring thaw comes.

I worked at a marina that has a "high and dry" system, where basically when you're not using your boat, rather than keep it in the water, a forklift picks it up and put it in a rack.  Some years ago, in late March, we had a huge dumping of VERY wet snow.  Needless to say, the whole rack came down under the strain of the weight and about 25 boats were completely destroyed.  Those boats were a bit on the smaller side, no larger than 35 ft., but to see a big pile of boats like that boggles the imagination.

I hope everyone there is able to come out of this ok and hopefully they and the marinas have plenty of insurance.

[Bassinfreak2]

Not to make light of the loss of property but can you imagine all of the new bass cover in the water now? Might help the fishing in a year or so.

[405z06]

My Mother and her husband have a place at the lake and their dock sunk. He had a brand new Charger bass boat (purchased this past spring) plus a pleasure/ski boat go down. They are heading down from St Louis this morning to check out the damage.

[senile1]

My Mother and her husband have a place at the lake and their dock sunk. He had a brand new Charger bass boat (purchased this past spring) plus a pleasure/ski boat go down. They are heading down from St Louis this morning to check out the damage.

Wow, they've got to be bumming out.  I wish your family the best with this situation, 405z06.  Hopefully, their insurance will take care of everything.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

That is a really rough situation. Hopefully everything works out for them...

[RoLo]

Senile1, as an aside,

My friend and neighbor left Lake Wales, Florida about two months ago.

He and his wife moved back to Missouri to be closer to family.

He's an elderly fellow and has been hospitalized three times in Missouri

for "cold weather-induced" asthma! I have a hunch I'll be seeing Keith again,

because his house in Florida hasn't been sold yet

Roger

[Siebert Outdoors]

Yep it sucks. I had to hammer Ice off my steps because I couldnt get in or out of the house. Well I guess I could have gotten down the slope.

There are still people with out electric in the st louis area.

[fishingrulz]

Thats sad. I hate to see people's pride and joy get destroyed by something out of their control That sucks.

[llPa1nll]

These architects/engineers that are designing these structures might wanna take a look at how northerns deal with snow weight. Build a steeper roof.

[senile1]

Rolo, I feel for your friend.  It sounds like he played it smart with the house in Florida.  Living on the north side of Kansas City I was very fortunate.  We had a couple of inches of freezing rain and sleet but the snow only made it half-way across our metro area.  To the South and East of Kansas City, everybody got buried and the St Louis area, where GMAN and Cart7 are located, was nailed.  It makes me glad I keep my boat in a storage facility instead of a marina.  

[Guest the_muddy_man]

I think Monica Lewinsky misunderstood this thread

That was Ship not SKIP

[Bassinfreak2]

LOL! Muddy you crack me up!