
DATE: Wednesday, October 15, 1997           TAG: 9710150506

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  107 lines

CITY ON TRIAL OVER WRECKED BOAT A JUDGE WILL DECIDE IF WARNINGS OF RUDEE INLET'S HAZARDS WERE ADEQUATE.

For 29 years, Rudee Inlet has bedeviled boaters and embarrassed engineers.

Despite man's best efforts, the narrow Oceanfront inlet clogs constantly. The biggest dredges cannot always keep up, and the best local captains cannot always navigate it.

This week, a federal judge will decide whether Virginia Beach has done enough to warn boaters of Rudee Inlet's dangers.

The trial, expected to last two days, could cost taxpayers up to $1.5 million in damages and could force city officials to re-evaluate how they maintain the inlet. It is scheduled to start this morning in Norfolk's federal court.

At issue: Who is responsible for a $1.5 million yacht that ran aground in Rudee Inlet in February 1996, on its maiden voyage from New Jersey? The yacht remained stuck in the inlet for three days and was wrecked by waves.

Virginia Beach says the captain is to blame. City officials say a sign at the inlet's mouth explicitly warned ``DANGER SHOALING IN CHANNEL'' and a Coast Guard notice told boaters that Rudee was only 2 feet deep in some spots.

``We think there was adequate notice given by the city through the Coast Guard and the sign that was posted,'' Deputy City Attorney Richard J. Beaver said.

The yacht owner, however, says Virginia Beach distributed a faulty map of the inlet 10 days before the accident and did not dredge the inlet's mouth for six weeks before the accident. ``It's not that the problem can't be rectified. It's simply a matter of priorities,'' said the yacht owner's attorney, Edward J. Powers of Norfolk.

The 66-foot boat, owned by Yacht Sales International of Miami Beach, was on its way from a New Jersey factory to the Miami Boat Show in Florida when it ran aground.

The captain, Joe Walker of New Jersey, was a licensed master with more than 15 years of experience. He had passed through Rudee Inlet 15 to 20 times without a problem.

On Feb. 8, 1996, after a day of sailing from New Jersey, Walker planned to stop inside Rudee Inlet to get fuel and provisions and spend the night. He knew the inlet was subject to shoaling, so he called ahead to the Virginia Beach Fishing Center, inside the inlet, for advice.

Based on a city-issued map, fishing center manager John Crowling told Walker to enter Rudee Inlet on the south side of the channel, where the water was deeper.

Walker entered the inlet at 6 knots and stayed on the south side. At the inlet's mouth, the yacht ran aground. Walker says the city map shows a depth of 9.4 feet at that point. The boat had a draft of 5 feet.

Walker tried to back off the shoal, but couldn't. The engines stalled, and waves pounded the yacht. It took on water. One hour later, Walker abandoned the boat. It stayed stuck for three days. By then, it was a near-total wreck.

In court papers, the yacht owner says Virginia Beach failed to dredge the inlet's entrance from Dec. 28 to Feb. 8 and failed to mark the shoal with buoys or other navigational aids.

The owner also says Virginia Beach intentionally skimps on dredging the inlet. Before 1989, the city Erosion Commission spent more than $2 million a year maintaining Rudee Inlet. In 1989, the city Public Works Department took over the job and now spends $689,000 a year on the same job.

But the city says it could not dredge the inlet's mouth after Dec. 28 because of dangerous seas and weather. Then, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 9, the city says, it could not dredge because of a mechanical breakdown and a snowstorm on Feb. 3 and 4, which delayed repairs.

Finally, the city says it warned boaters of Rudee's condition in several ways. First, the city posted a 3-foot-by-3-foot sign at the inlet's entrance saying ``DANGER SHOALING IN CHANNEL.'' Then, the city published a Notice to Mariners through the Coast Guard every week from Dec. 19 to Feb. 6, warning that shoaling had reduced Rudee's depth to 2 feet in places.

The city says the yacht's captain ``disregarded the specific warnings given mariners'' and instead relied upon information from the private fishing center. But the yacht owner says Capt. Walker ``did exactly what the city expected of a transient boater entering Rudee Inlet.''

In a pretrial order last month, Judge Robert G. Doumar narrowed the issues in dispute to five: whether the city's notice to boaters was adequate; the exact spot where the yacht ran aground; the water depth at that spot; whether the captain was reasonable in handling his boat; and how to apportion damages if both parties are at fault.

In this case, there will be no jury, only a judge.

This will be the third Rudee Inlet case resolved this year. Earlier this month, the city agreed to pay $10,000 to the owner of a charter dive boat that ran aground last year. In March, the city paid $55,000 to a boat owner who ran aground in 1995.

Also, the city has suffered two adverse federal rulings since opening Rudee Inlet in 1968. In 1971, a judge found Virginia Beach negligent after a charter fishing boat ran aground at the inlet and hit a stone jetty. In 1995, another judge found the city liable for not dredging the inlet where another boat ran aground. That ruling cost the city $7,877 in damages. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

L. TODD SPENCER

On Feb. 8, 1996, this new 66-foot yacht valued at $1.5 million ran

aground and was swamped in Rudee Inlet, then was wrecked by waves.

Graphic

THE TRIAL IS EXPECTED TO

LAST TWO DAYS, AND COULD

COST TAXPAYERS $1.5 MILLION

IN DAMAGES IF VA. BEACH LOSES.

AT ISSUE: WHO IS RESPONSIBLE

FOR A YACHT THAT RAN AGROUND

IN RUDEE INLET IN 1996?

THE CITY SAYS: THERE IS A