Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

You probably know South Carolina got hammered with rain over the weekend. I recorded over 15" in 24 hours in my yard. I live on a narrow, stream fed cove on Lake Murray near Columbia, SC. I was sleeping on my porch overlooking the cove Sunday morning about 4:30 AM when I was awakened by a loud metallic "clunk." I figured a tree from across the cove hit my boat or maybe a log impacted it. I couldn't see anything down at the shore because it was raining so hard and the screen was soaked. So I drifted back to sleep in my hanging day bed.

The house furthest up the cove is right near a usually docile stream. But with that much rain in such a short period of time, the stream turned into an angry waterfall with about a Class IV rapid. At first light, I discovered my neighbor's deck boat was ripped loose from his dock, collected the pontoon boat next door, and proceeded to collect my pontoon AND dock and wash them away.

The cluster ended up a couple of hundreds yards down stream. My boat and dock were wedged in with another neighbor's pontoon and dock. The other pontoon that hit mine was nowhere to be found. The owner later found it about a mile away. Unfortunately, the deck boat sunk in the cove.

Here's the aftermath. My boat has the blue cover and it was floating over the sunken deck boat.



Here's the raging waterfall well after the crest of the flash flood. A witness said the deck boat actually rode over top of the fixed dock in the foreground before hitting the pontoon next door.



Miraculously, I can't find any damage to my boat. I untied it from my dock, re-positioned my boat, re-tied it to the dock and dragged the dock back home. I will have to spend about $250 repairing my dock, but I am so very fortunate. They're reporting 11 fatalities (so far), the entire area, probably a million people, are on a boil water advisory that may last more then a week, 10 dams have collapsed so far and hundreds of roads are impassable.

The power of Mother Nature is unbelievable.

wow are you lucky! in a way....prayers to everyone in that area!

DANG.... Sure glad that it was not any worce...

People have insurance on their boats, but they don't necessarily have liability and personal damage insurance coverage on their floating docks. And those floaters can also do damage to other's belongings--other boats and docks.

You are so fortunate not to have experienced damage on your boat. It's nice that you'll never undergo such weather conditions again.

I'm fortunate to have my fixed boathouse insured--like a separate garage.

Wow! thats some water! Glad things didn't get any worse for you and keeping all the SC folks in my thoughts and prayers.

Glad to see you boat came through undamaged.

I feel for you and the high water. We just went through that earlier this year in Oklahoma. We were fortunate to just sustain some damage to our dock that could be repaired -- we spent about $4K to get things fixed. Much better than some others on the lake that completely lost their docks. And in Oklahoma, they'll only insure docks as "out buildings" which are not covered under water damage -- only tornados or damaging winds. So we couldn't turn in any of our damage to insurance. Even spoke with an insurance adjuster that lives across the cove from us. He confirmed the way we have our dock insured is the only way in Oklahoma (he's with a different insurance agency). He knows first-hand about coverages on docks because his was one of the docks that got totally destroyed in the high water -- and he can't claim any of it. The worst part is if the dock is considered "totaled", then the Corps will not let them be repaired. They must be replaced with all new material.

Yeah, that some serious suckage right there.

Luckily, with our high water this year, it only affected our dock ramp boards that needed to be replaced anyways.

Our dock is insured as a personal property rider. It started out as an outbuilding, but gradually, they backed off since it floats and is more susceptible to heavy snows.

Wow! You guys really got hammered! I watched a lot of the coverage on CNN and TWC. Glad your outcome wasn't worse than it was. You really scored high on the Luck board in this one! The poor deckboat owner has to be grumbling. I couldn't imagine he sight of seeing it happen. Good luck to everyone involved in the clean up and rebuilding. And really glad your porch wasn't swept away while you were napping!

I was browsing CL and saw this:


http://columbia.craigslist.org/boa/5257258799.html
97 Regal Deck Boat Salvage - $1500 (Chapin)

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length overall (LOA): 21
make / manufacturer: Regal
propulsion type: power

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I have a boat that sank over the weekend from the flood. It does not have a hole in it but was turned on its side from the current from our creek and sank in 6' of water in Lake Murray. It was lifted out of Lake Murray by barge/crane today. It is a 21' center console deck boat. The trailer is good. The boat could be good for the right person. It has a 5.7 liter Volvo Penta with cobra outdrive. The boat is on the trailer at Agnew, but I will have it back tomorrow. I do have clear title; not sure how that will work if it is salvaged. Please contact me if interested. I has a nice bimini top that stayed above water

crspang wrote:I was browsing CL and saw this:

....

Please contact me if interested. I has a nice bimini top that stayed above water

Sorry to hear about the rain damage! It sounds like you got off pretty easily compared to the deckboat guy and others. I visit the Columbia/Chapin area at least once a year for a buying show in the area (Ellett Brothers based out of Chapin). Hopefully you guys get dried up soon.

crspang wrote:I was browsing CL and saw this:


http://columbia.craigslist.org/boa/5257258799.html
97 Regal Deck Boat Salvage - $1500 (Chapin)

Yep. That's my neighbor's boat.

I was on my way to Pa. Sunday morning via 95 when we got turned around because of it closing. Went west on 26 to Columbia, then north on 77. If you saw the white pickup on the news that a passer by went to the rescue of I was two cars behind that guy when he decided to go down the ramp. I could not believe anyone was that nuts. The water was raging down the road .

Glad to hear you are OK. My prayers go out to all of S.C.



JD

Wow, after seeing the marina where I kept my toon go under water (including the dry storage areas), I'm kinda glad I am boatless for the time being!

So Sunedog, did you get your boat and dock back?

Folks down there sure work quick if your neighbor already got his sunk boat out already.

That is some crazy stuff! Glad you are OK. Spent some time on Lake Murray and was talking to a friend about looking for some property there just yesterday. We just sold our house in North Charleston, right off the Ashley River the day before all the rain hit. We haven't heard anything from the owner about any damage. All in all glad you are OK and not to sure I could have slept outside during all of that!