Memorial Day Weekend is one of the most popular weekends of the year for boaters. Unfortunately, when you get that many boats—especially powerboats—on the water, mishaps are bound to occur. Many of these accidents are caught on camera, and while they aren’t always tragic, some do have a certain “wow” factor. This was the case with a 41-second video that was captured last weekend by a security camera at a marina in Charleston, South Carolina.
Overlooking an expanse of boat slips, the security footage shows a large center-console boat attempting to leave the marina. But the boat operator fails to turn the boat sharp enough, and around the 20-second mark, he ends up drifting into some neighboring boats that are docked and tied off. A strong current appears to make this mistake even worse, and the operator loses his angle entirely as the stern of the boat catches one of the piers.
Around this time, a dockhand at the marina sees what’s happening and runs to assist. He’s entirely helpless, however, as the boat operator continues to make a bad mistake even worse.
Now way off kilter and trying to correct, the operator then reverses the boat and slams back into the main dock around the 30-second mark. This is when things get really ugly. Because while the operator is looking behind him toward the dock he’s about to hit, he loses control of the wheel and accidentally jams the boat into forward gear. The big motor revs up and sends the boat crashing into one of the docked vessels and onto another section of dock.
The security footage ends with the boat parked high-and-dry on the dock. The engine is revving and the propeller is spinning in midair while the dockhand runs up, waving his hands and shouting: “Hold the motor! Hold the motor! Hold the motor!”
The video, which was shared to the Charleston Talks page on Facebook, has been re-shared over six thousand times since it was posted on May 30.