Our new reef, the 85’ tug “Hoss” arrived just before dawn today. As soon as she …

2020-09-25 20:08:06
Ocean City Reef Foundation

Our new reef, the 85’ tug “Hoss” arrived just before dawn today. As soon as she was on her mooring sink team Rob, Billy, Vic, Terry, & Tyler busted what few windows remained & made all doors and hatches open. The Hoss didn’t give in easily. Took 6 hours to put it on the bottom.
With her engines recently removed there’s an extraordinarily deep drop from her upper deck to engine room bilge.
Given a few years it’s going to be a very toggy place.
Not just about tog though, every temperate reef species common to our nearshore waters will do well there. Won’t be long.. Certainly a great addition to the Bass Grounds Reef.

In other news, got a call from Admiral Brian Tinkler at Sunset Marina; said they’d let us block the 50’ steel sail boat in their yard for a while—and not a long while!
The boat’s hull is quite sound. I intend to make a bunch of tog condos on her deck and below. Will use a 5 gallon kit of west-system epoxy with a hardware bonding mix (404? 403?)to make the cement units fast to her deck.
Will it work? I think so..
May even add a few pallets of free block just to ballast her a bit better. That extra weight and a two anchor mooring set ought to hold her just fine in hurricane weather.
“Hold her?” Most would think, ‘If a boat’s on the bottom why worry?’
Oh boy.. Storm forces, be they hurricane or not, transmit to the bottom even in 130 feet. I should think deeper still but haven’t observed evidence of it.
Florida sank a freighter a few years back; and, soon after, had a tropical depression. Divers sent to monitor the reef followed its trail—literally tracked it—a quarter mile inshore..
Similarly a storm soon after the 563 foot Radford had been sunk at DelJerseyLand Reef broke that monster ship into three pieces and separated the stern by 200 feet. A few years later Hurricane Sandy pushed the pieces back together so a diver could touch both parts..
While you could certainly call that a lucky break, it’s really important to keep reef material within the permitted site. When OCRF puts reef on the bottom I’ll spend the extra money to really anchor it well. I’ve had some of my work shift 150’ — swinging on anchor that far, but never a quarter mile.

Capt Monty Hawkins
Mhawkins@morningstarfishing.com

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