Quote:
Originally Posted by upthesaukee
I heard a story quite a few years ago about someone running into an island (sober) and when the MP asked what happened, he said the island wasn't on his GPS map  . Not sure it is true, but makes for a good story. |
(... maybe we need a law banning GPSs to avoid this kind of dangerous accident
)
That jogged my memory too Upthesaukee... so, here it is from the forum archives:
Re: BIZER - GPS System
Posted By: Corning Benton
Date: Thursday, December 6, 2001 at 7:43 p.m.
In Response To: BIZER - GPS System (Woodsy)
A family of four from Wellesley Hills Massachusetts purchased a 27 ft. Rinker cruiser from Silver Sands Marina on a Saturday afternoon in July, 2000. They anchored off Ragged Island at dusk, planning to spend the night. At 0100 Sunday, a Marine Patrol officer woke them up, gave them a ticket for anchoring overnight, and told them that they would have to leave the area and spend the rest of the night on mainland. They did not own a navigation map, but they did have a GPS StreetPilot or equivalent instrument aboard loaded with automobile map software. Using GPS as the primary navigation aid, they set out for Silver Sands Marina, but apparently mistook Weirs Bay for Saunders Bay on the GPS display.
Unfortunately, Eagle Island is not represented on their automobile software and the driver, keeping his distance from Stonedam, Pitchwood, and Governors Islands, navigated traveling at a good clip right into our dock.
The cruiser struck the center of 21’ Slickcraft Caroling's transom and then ran over most of Caroling's superstructure, smashing the windshield frame and causing other extensive damage. Caroling was torn from her moorings and thrust into both the pontoon boat Big B and the Boston Whaler, damaging them slightly. The cruiser was virtually undamaged, losing only the port navigation light and the bow anchor support was twisted about 15 degrees.
The sound of the crash, about as loud as a thunderclap, woke us all up in the house. Daughter Lisa, in the attic dormer bedroom, saw Caroling's searchlight on, and realised something was amiss at the dock. The cruiser driver, still incredulous at his software's failure, said to me as we introduced ourselves,
"Your Island does not exist!" It was a very contemporary accident, in that the cruiser driver truly considered that the primary cause of the accident was incorrect software.
We contacted Marine Control after we had determined that there was no personal injury and had secured the boats. Marine Control promptly sent over three officers in one boat, and two more men came out with a pump when water leaking into Caroling through a ruptured transom seal was recognized.
Caroling was towed to Glendale Marine and put on the ground. She has been declared by the insurance examiner a total loss. Our replacement boat is a 1989 21’ SunBird from Glendale Marine. Its name is Carolingding.
This was written by Corning Benton, who then was the Eagle Island owner.
--end archive quote