I was going to make a smart arse comment here, and yes the headline made me click, but if you're 'run aground' is bailing a saucepan at a time really keeping you 'afloat'?

"Mr Watson resourcefully used a saucepan for almost three hours to bail out water to help keep his 10m vessel afloat." - umm... but wasn't it already touching the 'ground' (btw...low tide at 1:30am)

www.news.com.au/national/south-australia/boatie-uses-saucepan-to-keep-yacht-afloat-off-the-coast-of-adelaide/news-story/04dc3f93a55a5f67667a0b3f463ee63b

So it made me question - at what water level is a boat classified as 'sunk', if it can't sink any deeper due to it being 'aground'?

It's like saying "they had a near miss".. Well if they nearly missed they must've hit right

But in any case, if you've run aground, surely you can't sink. Well not until the tide comes back up, but then you won't be aground

Or, when you do sink and it reaches the bottom in 50 fathoms, is it now aground?

Yes I wondered about this too. It seems he really was bailing so I'm wondering how the water got in. Did he rip the keel or rudder off? Also got me thinking whether all keelboats are capable of being careened and then self floating on the next tide or whether perhaps with a large companionway hatch or offset deck catch the boat would flood before the point of maximum beam gave enough flotation to bring it upright. I guess on a bar you might have to suffer a number of hours with waves crashing onto the companionway hatch before the next tide.