how to get your rig under a bridge

[Billy]

don't have a drawbridge or mast tender.....

well look no further! Here is your answer!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGAzt-8minI

[crazycarl]

i've read about a service where they come out to your boat, load empty 55 gallon drums on one side, and then fill them with water to achieve the proper heel.  if memory serves me right, (and it rarely does) the cost was about $200.

[skip1930]

The vid of a river tow boat abeam of and slinking under a highway bridge that the water is lapping at it's underside is a neat trick as well.

skip.

[Billy]

The vid of a river tow boat abeam of and slinking under a highway bridge that the water is lapping at it's underside is a neat trick as well.

skip.

not sure I understand what you are saying.

[skip1930]

OK out their in U-Tube land is a video of a towboat in the neighborhood of about 1000 hp and it was going down a flooded river.
So flooded that the river was nearly flush with the road on the bridge. The bridge was not a draw bridge.
So the captain turned the towboat sideways to the bridge and let the towboat hit the bridge and the fast moving current pulled the towboat down under the water and under the bridge.
Once on the down stream side of the bridge the towboat popped up out of the water and motored down the river.

How cool is that? that is what I was saying Billy.

skip.

[Billy]

Ahhhh, sounds cool. And way braver than the guy with the bags of water!

[Damsel19]

That is the MV Cahaba getting sucked under the Rooster Bridge on the Tombigbee.
And just to be clear, it was not on purpose.  If you have ever messed around in really high river current this is the nightmare.
There is a really good account here http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/towboat.asp
And many stop action series on you tube from the photos taken by a bystander.