bertram31.com

Curiously I don't see much exhaust smoke. I think I would have broken the throttle lever off trying to get more power!!

I thought same thing, was almost like they were in neutral.

honestly my 31 bertram went throught the same ordeal two years ago . we were the only boat out there in gale warning approaching fire island inlet. fourtunally we had enourmous instant power to keep the bow up and with the waves . coast guard fire island was in contact by vhf . my greatest fear was i would never be able to get into a liferaft in that water.the water was blowing right into cockpit and you had to maintain enough speed and angle to let that water flow out scuppers. only two of the four cockpit bilge pumps came on so we really did not exceed 4" of water toward the stern of the bilge. kiss the ground when we came in to dock with wind blowing gust of 60mph.

bob,what were you doing out in that weather. If it was a gail you had proper warning. and fire Island inlet sucks from what my freinds that run it every weekend tell me. whats up....Russ

Gee...

It seems like only yesterday we were here discussing backing into a rough inlet!

Must be some big money fish to risk that.

we took a chance and everything was under control with weather out of the east we had 8' waves in a normal pattern following sea however we had to turn north to go into inlet . no way in hell with waves broard side certain death so i "tack" (sailboat term) port to starboard my boat can turn 90 degrees in it`s own axis (31') so i can actually turn to waves off port bow or starboard bow while down in trough .go over top and go opposite to keep straigh line going through narrow path between shoal up area outside and in inlet that shoaling is what causes the identical water in this vedeo to happen in FI.inlet .storm warnings tough, gale warnings it becomes insane.

why was i out there ----just plane stupid.without race car steering/huge rudders i would not be writing this post.

I don't know who to feel sorrier for, the guys running those boats or the cameraman who was shooting it.

9pm tonight on national geographic 31bertrams doing there thing!

the feds have no money in the til to dredge inlet some feel to far gone and cannot repair at reasonable cost. study to cut new inlet at robbins rest so for the meantime we have to cut a new path to get into atlantic ocean either moriches or state channel to jones inlet with million others using that inlet. inlet now has area 4' deep between can 4 and can 5 . any wave action will slam you into bottom and outside inlet 60' deep to 4' deep in narrow path is going to cause servere wave action just change of tides and water funnels into shoaled inlet.

Bob- I'm afraid it's going to take a loss of life before it gets a higher priority than it has now. They have no sympathy for boat guys who burn fuel to go out and have fun. Even Montauk inlet has shoaled up enough that the draggers etc have to come in on a high tide and nothing is moving to fix it.

walterk the mouth of the fire island inlet is over a mile wide and to gain entrance to the bay the underwater channel is reduced to about 40' wide at 4' deep between can 4 and 5 . even if you navigate at wot. 38mph trying to find a flat between two waves or a dead calm few minutes coming in would be reckless at best .the alternative is about 40 miles there and back with this years fuel prices going to be a bitch. the worst temptation is the annual sand worm hatching in the middle of bass migration. white water bass and bluefish attacking acres of worms with sardines the following weeks . this going on just outside the inlet. going to be a donnybrook of 15' boats trying to get out the inlet ,sombody is bound to get hurt trying to get in.

Walter & Bob

The loss of life still will not get it fixed. They screwed around with Barnegat for years. Boats rolled over, people lost lives.

They finally fixed it if that is what you want to call it. They still have to do maintence dredging every year. The fix screwed up some of the flats ans salt march and caused the start of the undermining of the light house. They increased the flow of water so much it started eroding everything. They had to put up Geo Tubes to save the Salt Marsh which is a prime breeding ground for just about everything that swims in the bay.

They need to keep Barnegat open due to all the commercial fishing boats plus if they close it the distance between inlets is just too dam far if someone is in trouble.

Our Gov at work. Got to love it.

Are there any Army Corps of Engineers success stories when it comes to marine inlet/beach/shoreline repairs? Everything I read seems like the things that they have done have made things worse.

my favorite is the santa barbara harbor. if they dont dredge it every day it shoals closed. i think it was built in 1910. engineers? right....look at westhampton.

Hell Oregon Inlet is closing up by the minute. CG keeps saying they are going to close the inlet. Right now they say its closed to 80+' and 100Ton vessels. You go thru the bridge make a 90 degree turn to go around land then another 90 degree to go out the inlet. So bad that a bunch of the charter boats are securing back up dock space in Hatteras and Va Beach.

Bob growing up runing Fire Island I remember all the zig zaging to go out the inlet and that was 70 and 80's. Glad nothings changed.

yep capt. frank the run around west island is the same as the 60 era actually the bay has not changed much going west to fi inlet from points east. water is damm near perfect off fire island spotless .the bay has great tidal flow and very clean unfoutunately saline count increased and the famous blue point clams are far and few.scallops are extinct as well as oysters at one time in the 1880 my street was paved with them.

Entrance to my harbor was always good.
10' deep and nice N wide, two boats could pass with lots of room to spare.
Channel ran straight from harbor marker to range markers.

Army Core came in two years ago....

Now channel zig zags at the half way point, so narrow you need
To be carefully about oncoming and passing boats.

Low tide the Red Can sits high and dry on the beach...
Makes coming in after dark a real treat!!

And we pay for them to screw things up! Talk about governmental waste of our dollars. These guys must all come from some some landlocked area.

bob lico wrote:unfoutunately saline count increased and the famous blue point clams are far and few.scallops are extinct as well as oysters at one time in the 1880 my street was paved with them.

Bob

Just how old are you?

Walter

These guys can not figure out the simple parts that is the problem. About 30 years ago, my friends neighbor used to teach engineering. He said these kids can't figure out loads to save their lives. That's why all these new buildiings have issues with big snow loads. Same applies to the Corp. of Engineers.

tony i am 65 this year. i live in a old seaside town and the houses on this street we built 1790 to 1920 .

Bob

My grandfather and my great uncle fished the area. Pre WWII sexton islNd was directly north of the inlet with the light being on the eastern side. Captree state park was ocean front and western side of the inlet.

I have a chart from 1969 in my living room and the inlet was were the rock jettie on the bay side of demo is out to the ocean was the inlet no demo.

From 1940 to 1970 the inlet moved about 3 miles. If you think of the west bar running to cedar beach as an extension of demo and the inlet being a path carvered through what should be land.

wow that some shocking information "sexton island directly north of inlet" hard to believe but you have to realize years ago 1800 when they built fire island lighthouse ( thats the days of no computor wizard engineers) it was a few hundred feet from inlet now miles away a ship would turn into land using the lighthouse as navigation. go to maritime museun at end of golf course and check out the photo`s of steamships and sailing ships going aground on fire island. 1920`s rumrunners used to bring in canadian whiskey from offshore ships and race the coasties to shore in motified hacker style raceboats. the sayville opera house was a speak easy at night. great photo`s in town displayed at dry cleaner.

My point more being. We are trying to fight nature, barrier islands naturally shift and change, inlets close up and a storm opens a new one.

Between 1940 and 1970 the inlet moved 3 miles. From 1970 on it's moved less then 1/4 of a mile. Well not really, it's continued all the way to cedar beach another 3 miles we just keep cutting a hole through it.

We allowed people to destroy the water front for so long and now it seems like everyone wants it to stay exactly as it is.

Bob

I was just kidding. I am only 5 years behind you.

Peter

It is amazing what old charts show. The old Point Pleasant hardware store, (where JP lives) used to have a chart from the 1800's hanging ont he wall. It showed the inlet that was directly across from the Tom's River. I have heard stories over the years that if that had not closed up, Tom's River would have become the major shipping port and not NY.

While we are on the topic of inlets. Does anyone have more information on the "old inlet" that was west of oak island and east of cedar beach. There is an old boat grave yard. I believe it is directly south of the lindenhurst cut.

I don't have any details just know some old salts refer to it as the old inlet and it must predate the building of ocean parkway 1938. On that topic does anyone know when the bridge over to Robert Moses was built?

My earlier post that the inlet was right next to the lighthouse in 1940 maybe slightly off and it could have been earlier then that.

Doing some reading moriches and shinnecock inlets were created by a storm in 1931 and widened during the 1938 hurricane.

The bridge from West islip to captree was completed in 1954 and the Robert Moses bridge from captree down to the ocean in 1964

Sound right?