Lookout! – Issue 15
21 December 2009
Guidance notice – Issue 17:
Long-range identification and tracking (LRIT) equipment testing
21 December 2009
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You can read stories about real accidents and the safety lessons to be learnt from them in Maritime New Zealand’s (MNZ) quarterly publication, Lookout! The stories are based on investigation reports - the aim is to prevent similar events happening again.
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(Lookout! Issue 7, December 2007)
Three people on board an aluminium pleasure boat were lucky to escape with their lives during a head-on collision with a commercial fishing vessel.
The skipper of the alloy boat had taken the vessel to a shoal patch about 1 mile off the coast so his two passengers could do some line fishing. He remained at the helm, occasionally running the outboard motor astern to keep the vessel in position. It was overcast with about 4 to 5 miles visibility in drizzle and light showers. There was a 1 to 2 m swell with about half a metre of chop on top.
The skipper first saw the fishing vessel when it was about 500 m away and heading towards his boat.
One of the passengers expressed concern about the approaching vessel, but the skipper said it must have seen them, and was probably just coming over for a chat. He kept an eye on it though, and when it was about 100 m away, noticed that it appeared to veer away to starboard as though it had seen them and would keep clear. However, it then veered back to port, heading directly towards them again.
When it was about 30 m away, the skipper could see that the person on watch was looking down at something. Realising they could not have seen them, the skipper screamed out and banged the throttle full astern.
As the two vessels collided, the bow of the fishing vessel struck the port bow of the pleasure boat. The bow caught on a corner of the square capping on the boat, turning it broadside onto the fishing
vessel.
Without reducing speed, the forefoot of the fishing vessel rode over the port and starboard pontoons of the boat, pinning the skipper and one of the passengers to the bottom of the boat. The other passenger had jumped clear just before the collision.
As the pleasure boat started to fill with water, the fishing vessel finally reduced speed and as it was put astern, the boat bobbed up clear of the bow. After the skipper and two passengers were rescued, the boat was taken in tow back to port.
Before the impact, the skipper of the fishing vessel had been sitting on the helm chair on the starboard side of the wheelhouse with his feet on the forward dash. The vessel was in automatic steering. The crewmember was lying down on a settee on the other side. The vessel had been heading to a fishing spot at about 8 knots.
The two clear view screens were both running, as spray was being shipped over the bow. The skipper stated that the daylight viewing radar was in operation and that the screen was visible from where he was sitting.
The skipper never saw the pleasure boat, either visually or on radar, and when the impact occurred, his first thought was that they had struck a log. It was only after he had reduced speed and gone astern that he realised what had happened.
