Lawyer: Boat might not have been overloaded

Posted on 09 July 2012

The 34-foot Silverton convertible that capsized July 4 on Long Island Sound with 27 people aboard, leaving three children dead, was not necessarily overloaded, an attorney for the boat’s owner said.

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No criminal charges in Silverton capsize

The lawyer noted, in a New York Times story, that at least 10 of the passengers were children and that no calculation of the group’s total weight had been made. He suggested that the combined wakes of passing boats could have been big enough to capsize the 28-year-old Silverton.

“They were out there for hours before, during and after the fireworks, and there was no incident, no problem; the vessel handled fine,” attorney James Mercante told the New York Times. “You get two or three big boats when they’re together, you get a wake becoming 6 to 8 feet. Any boat could get rolled over with a trough like that.”

Click here for the full report.

Mercante also speculated whether something mechanical caused the accident — “if something gave way.” He is quoted in a Washington Post report.

Mercante also was critical of reports saying there was an insufficient number of life jackets on the boat, noting that the three children who died were in the cabin, where no PFDs were required by law.

Not surprisingly, much of the focus is on the “overloaded” theory, with a number of safety experts pointing to the number of passengers.

“In the simplest terms, the degree to which a vessel is seaworthy is a function of its ability to 1) stay afloat by keeping the ocean out of the hull and 2) stay upright with a positive range of stability, determined by its hull shape-driven center of buoyancy (CB) and its variable center of gravity (CG) creating a restoring righting arm (RA),” said Soundings technical writer Eric Sorensen, who is a consultant to boatbuilders, owners and the government.

“In my opinion, this Silverton 34 with 27 people on board had no chance of remaining upright when exposed to any significant combination of a weight shift, course change or passing wake,” says Sorensen, who was founding director of the J.D. Power and Associates marine practice and is the author of “Sorensen’s Guide to Powerboats: How to Evaluate Design, Construction and Performance.”

“It is a tender boat to start with, with its high cockpit deck, foredeck and bridge above CG, and lightweight engines below. Since even the cockpit deck is likely above the unloaded boat’s CG, each of those 27 people on board, except for the children in the cabin, below CG, made the boat incrementally less stable, diminishing RA.”

On Friday, a line was tied from police boats to the Silverton so it won’t drift before investigators can raise it. The boat is reported to be in water around 60 feet deep.

Comments

i wonder how many folks, when cramming on board, second-guessed themselves. of course, the "group think" phenomenon often plays into such tragedies when individual thinking is set aside in order for group harmony to rule the day; so maybe not many :-(.

If there were at least 27 properly sized PFDs aboard, I doubt that they could be considered "readily accessable" with 27 persons aboard......no room to get at the PFDs! Thety were probably under the V-berth, stuffed in a locker and/or still in plastic wrappers.

This guy Mercante sounds like another "know-nothing" bottom feeder looking for someone to sue. I owned a Silverton 34C for 10 Yrs, and have traveled in all sorts of weather. With the proper number of people aboard, (Certainly NOT 27!) and with PRUDENT SEAMANSHIP, it isn't likely that this tragic "accident" could have occurred.
The boat DEFINATELY AND DECIDEDLY was over capacity.
I think this clown said in another thread that they had enough PFDs (life jackets) aboard for MORE than 27 people. Really? With that many PFDs aboard, there wouldn't be any ROOM for 27 people.
Tragic event, compounded by incredible stupidity by some of te comments seen after the fact.
The captain is responsible for EVERYTHING that takes place aboard his vessel. This is a staple of Admiralty Law which goes back centuries. Too bad so many unskilled, uneducated "Boaters" don't know this, and this is an example of a TERRIBLE way to learn of it.

Captain T quote, "First of all because of it's size that boat will not have a capacity plate, not required. I owned that same boat for 4 years and ran it in all kinds of conditions, never with more than 8 people aboard."

Aha! Now what if it did have a capacity plate, would that have helped the owner determine a maximum load? Not every boat owner gets the chance or luck to run their boats frequently enough to gain experience in lieu of a set or suggested capacity. Because luck shouldn't be a factor in safety, it's the kind of thing that should be well tested and documented before the design goes to market. That way you don't have people overloading AND you don't have people underloading unnecessarily.

Beyond the tragedy, the really sickening thing among the comments is how boaters are so quick to turn on other boaters the moment something goes wrong. So long as America keeps eating its own, people won't want to have anything to do with boating and activities that carry a legal risk that could make them the next subject of a hanging mob. They'll just stick their heads in the safety of their tablets and let the wolves kill each other off while the country turns itself into indoor myopic mush.

Someone needs to educate this Lawyer about safe loading! It doesn't matter if the entire load is small children, if a boat is rated for X persons or Y lbs, if EITHER figure is exceeded, the boat is OVERLOADED! I still can not imagine how one could even FIT 27 persons on a 34' Silverton....., I guess everyone was standing up, further raising a Center of Gravity that was already too high due to the weight of 27 persons aboard. Plus, that much weight would lower the freeboard and possibly place the scuppers underwater, potentially leading to an inflow of water adding more to the overloaded weight.
Again (I realize that boats over 20' are not required to have capacity plates, but COMMONSENSE should still rule out carrying 27 persons on a 34' boat like this Silverton), if a boat rated for 5 people or 1000# is loaded with more than 5 persons (no matter what size!) or more that 1000#, she is most definitely OVERLOADED. 27 persons, even when 10 of those are children, are too many to put on a 34' boat!

I don't know this boat, but someone should evaluate it against ISO 12217-1 Small craft - Stability & buoyancy, which would give the Design Category (sea state and wind speed) for which it is suitable, and the maximum safe number of persons that should be carried.
All boats should have a maximum safe capacity plate, and PFDs for all on board. The safe sea state/wind speed limits should be known to the user.
(I am convenor of ISO/TC188/WG22 which developed ISO 12217)

No one has mentioned anything about the soon to be "other" 26 attorneys representing the rest of the passengers. I am sure they will have something different to say.

A very sad preventable situation!

I can just see the lawyer sitting around with his pals saying, "Boy am I good. A client with a 34 boat that had 27 people on it capsizes and kills three kids and I get him off with the old, 'There was a 6 foot wake! It could've happened to anybody!' defense. I'm tellin' y'a boys, you gotta be good to get away with shit like that. Real good!"
I'm reminded of Richard Gere's famous quote from the movie: Primal Fear - "If you want justice, go to a whorehouse. If you want to get f***ed... go to court."

This calculation of length by width is garbage. The Silverton 34 is an older boat which I've been on and with eight other adult men the boat was rocking uncomfortably and this was without even jumping around. I find it funny anyone who says it was fine. They have probably never been on this boat or any boat. But to say the captian should of known how many people is not his job it's the owners who should shoulder the blame.
One last thing is this boat flipped at the Dock. It never got going it was so over crowded. Please.....

I remember many years ago coming back from a NY area fireworks display. It was mayhem. Everyone was trying to get home and there were boats of all sizes passing each other with little regard for each other. The one thing that stands out was how the 33' boat I was operating kept rounding up from all the confused wakes. For those of you who don't know what rounding up means it's usually when a wave/wake overtakes a displacing hull, it loses helm speed and sharply turns to one side. When rounding up occurs it can throw people, gear, fuel, water etc to the opposite side of the uncontrolled turn. Make you wonder.............

Folks there we're 27 people onboard And xI'll bet 10 of them were up in the bridge. How come no one has asked that question. That alone would put her over !

First of all because of it's size that boat will not have a capacity plate, not required. I owned that same boat for 4 years and ran it in all kinds of conditions, never with more than 8 people aboard. And it handled it all with no problem, with less than 8 people aboard. This guys was dreaming that he could take all those people out safely under any conditions, and when all is said and done his insurance will pay dearly for his mistake, just as the families of those children are. Also someone please tell his lawyer that PFDs for every passenger in the proper type and size must be on board, regardless of where on the boat those passengers are.

Not Overloaded??????
I would not let 27 people (child or adult does not matter) on that boat if it was sitting in the showroom on blocks and twice the recommened number of boat stands.

My heart goes out to the families of the children who were lost. This is an unfortunate situation that although tragic, may help reduce the number of this type of casualty. Boaters should all be more aware of the dangers of these practices. I'm happy for only one thing...that this is getting such publicity. I hope some good may come of the media coverage. Just lets not forget there are families suffering.

Capacity is length times width divided by 15: ((34x13.83)/15)=31.35 bodies.

I think we should put the lawyer and 26 of his smallest lawyer friends on a 34 Silverton 1984 w/o PFD's and send them out to sea for the day and then listen to his bull!!!

Clearly the operator of the vessel was (is) responsible for all aspects of the voyage including the loading and safety of all the passengers and the operation of the vessel. To place blame somewhere else (wakes from other boats, weather, etc.) is an incredible lack of respect for the families of the children lost as well as to all other responsible boaters who accept these responsibilities. Where does the buck stop with this boater? With James Mercante, the attorney hired to shift blame elsewhere. What a weasel!

I must agree wholeheartedly with Eric's assessment. A lightly built boat with shallow draft and a great amount of tophamper is not the most stable craft to begin with. Add 27 people, most of whom were above deck (only three children were apparently inside the cabin), and you have a recipe for disaster. As for many of the 27 being children, I must add that in an emergency children often require greater attention than adults. That the three victims in this incident were all younsgters tends to prove this. I can't tell you how many times I've had to tell charter groups that they had too many people for the boat only to get the response: "But x of them are kids!" Most folks don't seem to understand that when it comes to a boat's capacity, weight does count, but only to a small degree. Simple numbers can count more. And too many is too many regardless of their size and/or weight.

My advice is to get a lawyer who does not sound so obvious when he makes things up.

When you stick to what it says, the capacity plate is your best friend in the world. A rogue wave is bad luck; I sure hope the captain has the capacity plate in his favor for both legal and emotional reasons. In any case a sad, sad situation.

I am surprised it took this long to hear from the lawyers, it should really get interesting now!

So the lawyer says "“You get two or three big boats when they’re together, you get a wake becoming 6 to 8 feet", yeah right.

I run a 130 foot yacht that doesn't throw an 8 foot wake. How many yachts capable of an 8 foot wake does this lawyer think were in the area that night and ganged up on his poor client?

To improve on his ignorance, Mercante also was critical of reports saying there was an insufficient number of life jackets on the boat, noting that "the three children who died were in the cabin, where no PFDs were required by law".

Sorry Mr. Mercante, they ARE required by law they are not required to be WORNchildrenchildern when they are in the cabin.

Now Mr. Sorensen seems to think: "In my opinion, this Silverton 34 with 27 people on board had no chance of remaining upright" and “It is a tender boat to start with, with its high cockpit deck, foredeck and bridge above CG and lightweight engines below. Since even the cockpit deck is likely above the unloaded boat’s CG, each of those 27 people on board, except for the children in the cabin, below CG, made the boat incrementally less stable, diminishing RA.”.

But what does he know, he's only an expert. Certainly the lawyer who doesn't know the law is imminently more qualified to confuse the issue.

Regardless of what else may have contributed to this tragic incident, the boat was grossly overloaded by the owner and operator and they need to be held accountable for the loss of those children.

Too many people on the flybridge will increase any boat's roll moment. The engines in those boats are a bit light and we don't know what the fuel or water tanks contained. I have driven boats with a good number of people on them. Any significant number of people moving around has an adverse effect on handling especially at speed. I doubt this boat was able to go over hull speed with 27 people. It was probably sluggish and slow to respond to commands. Wakes hitting each other can combine and produce a doubling effect. I have actually looked for this in boat traffic to test adverse sea handling characteristics. Was alone at the time. Not a recommended maneuver.

Bullshat!!!!

Twenty-seven passengers on a 34 foot boat is way too many no matter how small or large the people are.

Twenty-seven Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz would have been too many passengers for that size boat.

The boat owner-operator should go to jail for allowing this to happen. Three children were killed for Christ's sake.

It might not have been the owner's fault? Typical attorney. The boat was overloaded and unstable. Period... And the rules state that there must be one PFD for each person aboard, whether the passengers are on-deck or below.

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