CS34 Grounding

After moving the boat again to Trident Yacht Club for the summer, we were thoroughly enjoying all that the Thousand Islands has to offer.

This all changed on Saturday August 9, 2025.

We were on a ball overnight on the north side of Camelot Island.

We left the ball at 09:49am (start of track).

Our destination was Endymion Island just around the corner.

Conditions were light winds 6-8 knots.

Sunny and hot.

We ran aground just off Netley Island:

Here is the view from deep water:

We were travelling from left to right in this photo.

The private ROCKS warning buoy was about 50ft to our port.

No sails up, motoring at approximately 5.5 knots, to a dead stop.

Time was approximately 11am.

Here is the track from later when we took the photo:

The private ROCKS buoy was approximately on the lowest + symbol above. 

Four people on board:

• Bart (wheel)
• Rita (below by v-birth)
• Andrew (port cockpit)
• Janette (starboard cockpit)
• Shadow (dog)

No injuries.

I was thrown into the steering wheel and have some abrasions on my shins

Rita was thrown into the v-birth.

Andrew & Janette pushed forward into the blue fold up chairs leaning up against the bulkhead.

The dog was with Janette.

 

We were able to back off the rock.

 

Some of the floor boards had lifted (even though they were screwed down).

The companionway steps had come loose bending the fasteners.

 

After ensuring everyone was OK, and the boat was in safe water, I put Andrew on the wheel and went below to see if there was any internal damage and if we were sinking.

No water intrusion.

Moved the companionway steps (engine cover) back in place, and put the one floor board back down.

The impact had cracked the fiberglass structural grid in several places.

We decided to motor over to some friends who were anchored about 2 miles away.

They had snorkeling gear.

We dove several times to assess the damage.

Big impact crater on the front of the keel:

The keel was also separating at the rear of the keel:

We did not see any fiberglass hull damage on the bottom of the keel.

The impact forced the rear of the keel up, the hull flexed cracking the internal  fiberglass structure supporting the keel.

There are 13 keel bolts; don’t see any water coming in from them.

We motored over to Mulcaster Island and anchored for the night.

The following day (Sunday) we returned our guests to their car at Trident.

We anchored at Lindsay Island the next two nights with another boat from Whitby.

We contacted the insurance company on the Saturday, leaving a voice message.

They called back on Monday, we decided to head back to Whitby for repairs after filling in an online damage report.

The boat was motor sailed from Trident Yacht Club to Whitby Yacht Club (130 nautical miles).

We did the inside route stopping at Picton overnight, then at the west end of the Murray Canal.

Every couple of hours I would vacuum out the keep sump to see if the water intrusion had increased.   The sump would have about ¼” of water in the keel sump in 30 minutes.

Arrived at the Whitby Yacht Club on Friday at about 4:30pm.

Saturday, removed EVERYTHING from the inside of the boat.

Sunday, dopped the mast.

Monday, August 18, the boat was hauled out at Port Whitby at 10am