Incident No. 7 - Anything but plain sailing!

1:56 AM Tue 18 Aug 2009 GMT

'CO2 bottle missing' .

Judgment is for God, but the best mistakes to learn by are other people's.

In this anecdote, the seventh of a series, we present a real sailing situation which was investigated by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), and FIVE lessons deduced. Can you identify the lessons?

(Find the answers at the end of the story)

A lone sailor set off early in the morning in his 22ft yacht, which he had caringly restored and had sailed during the summer months over the previous 4 years. This was his first trip of the season in the boat. The intended passage to a nearby yacht haven about 15 miles away required him to cross a narrow channel frequently used by large ships. The sailor wore a lifejacket, but did not carry either flares or a VHF radio.

As the yacht approached the narrow channel, her skipper saw a large ship leaving the port about 2 miles away. The wind was north-west at 20 knots, and the yacht was on a close haul, heading in a westerly direction. The skipper was aware that local regulations required him to keep out of the way of the outbound ship. To comply, he adjusted
course to the south-west, which brought the yacht onto a beam reach and increased her speed to about 6 knots.

By this time, the yacht had been spotted by the pilot of the outbound ship, which was constrained by her draught. He was content that the yacht would remain clear of the ship providing the yacht's heading was maintained. However, as a precaution he asked the escorting harbour launch to proceed to the yacht and advise her skipper to keep going towards the south-west. This message was passed by the harbour launch by a loud hailer. The skipper heard the loud hailer but, although the launch was very close, he did not understand the message. Nevertheless, he assumed that the launch would only contact him if it wasn't content with the avoiding action he was taking. Consequently, he decided to tack, and head to the north of the channel. As he did this, he stalled into wind, and lost all headway.

The pilot of the outbound ship, which was now halfway through a 135? to port turn towards the yacht, saw what had happened, and increased the ship's rate of turn to try and avoid her.

The two vessels were now extremely close and the pilot lost sight of the yacht under the bow. The yachtsman decided that collision was imminent, and dived off the yacht. He passed down the port side of the ship and was then recovered by the harbour launch. The yacht passed down the ship's starboard side before being swamped by her wash and foundering. The yachtsman's lifejacket did not inflate because it was not fitted with a CO2 bottle.

Click here for the answers.

Sail-World Cruising is grateful to MAIB for its permission to use these incidents

by MAIB/Sail-World Cruising

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Incident No. 7 - Anything but plain sailing!

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