The Dark Side of working on Yachts

[Uricanejack]

They was a tragic accident a few days ago. I will leave it there.

Today I noticed two other articles popped up on the side through YBW. Detailing an other incredibly sad case of a young man Cornwall working on a superyacht. Who's life has been changed forever, and another go fund me. And another case involving a Hungarian crewmember on another super yacht.

The articles don't give time frames. I suppose they just pop up because on the internet things just pop up. If they are similar. So How often do accidents happen on superyachts? There is no info.

I just notice I felt like responding to two go fund me in a week. Not to long ago I couldn't have told you what a go fund me is. Which means nothing more than its just become often enough for me to notice.

A lot of these Supper Yachts, Have some kind of funny Red Ensign. A lot have other Ensigns altogether. Which may make a considerable difference.

UK, American, Canadian(I just mention Can) H&S rules may seem like a PAI. But these Kids are being recruited to work in an "industry" which lacks a few of the protections most of us are so used to we take for granted.

Working on a Supper yacht sounds really cool. If I was a few decades younger. A fast track course in the use of a chamois and the lure of exotic destinations might appeal to me.
It might appeal to my son. Right now I would not feel like encouraging him. To work on a Supper yacht. In fact I would discourage him. Unless I was pretty sure. The Vessel was under a respectable flag, with respectable laws to ensure, he had safe work place. With respectable cover if something bad were to happen.

When I was my sons age I wouldn't have been worried about any of that. The availability of new horizons, beer, cubla libra and the hope to meat a senyorita. Would have been much more important.

I must be getting old.

Or maybe its not just me.

 

[webcraft]

.
Super yachts are owned by very rich old men. The welfare of young folk is not usually their first priority.

- W

 

[lw395]

It's not always the Rich Old Men who decide the safety. Most of them have hired staff to run their boat for them.
Most of the staffed yachts I've known, cash has not been a problem, employee benefits were good.

 

[Norman_E]

I doubt any lack of regulations caused the tragedy the OP is obviously referring to, and the flag state of the vessel probably has no bearing on the issue other that about which country has a duty to investigate the tragedy. Such accidents are really about working practices and awareness of risk. I regularly see riggers go up masts on a single halyard, with no additional safety line. That is something I would never do, but which appears to be common practice .

 

[KINGFISHER 9]

Last sailing boat I had the rigger nipped out to his van, collected an old fashioned pair of wellies, put them on and shinned up the mast ... frightened the life out of me!

 

[Motor_Sailor]

The whole of the yachting industry works outside the 'norms' of usual workplace health and safety. Contrary to popular perception, the H&S Executive is happy for businesses to 'self regulate' without outside interference until the statistics make legislative interference unavoidable.

The Working at Height protocols as required pretty much everywhere else would bring the yacht maintenance world to a halt. Even boats on the hard would have to have staging all round and working aloft would probably have to be from a cherry picker only.

But as the industry is dominated by small businesses and one man bands, very little statistical safety data is compiled. Especially as everyone knows it would be a disaster if anyone looked too closely. Hoever major accidents and deaths will force the powers that be to wonder what is going on. So I am constantly amazed that with so much to lose, so many boat workers have a really cavalier attitude to any safe working practices. I regularly see people working aloft operating entirely on their own or those using mast climbing aids who have no idea what would happen if they became incapacitated when aloft.

To compound this you have the professional crew world dominated by young people in holiday mode with a high percentage of potential 'love mates' who need impressing. "Look at me" is far more important than the old maxim of one hand for the ship, one hand for me.

Sometime soon the whole yacht work industry is going to come under the spot light, and the effect will be more restrictive work practices which means even higher costs for boat owners.

 

[Keen_Ed]

Just wondering- there seems to be plenty of work for rope access window cleaners etc. Don't see why the same H&S protocols couldn't apply to going up the rig?

 

[Motor_Sailor]

Just wondering- there seems to be plenty of work for rope access window cleaners etc. Don't see why the same H&S protocols couldn't apply to going up the rig?

You need a tested and approved anchor point at the top and any roped access crew has to be at least 2 people, one of whom is a Level 3 with the ability to rescue the other from a separate system if something goes wrong.

Providing all that is cheap compared to the other options for cleaning high rise windows, etc, but quite complicated and expensive compared to a monkey shimming up your mast as at the moment.

 

[lw395]

Last sailing boat I had the rigger nipped out to his van, collected an old fashioned pair of wellies, put them on and shinned up the mast ... frightened the life out of me!

I've done that mid race to be honest. Re-rove the spinny halyard on a 24ft boat.
Luckily not masthead rig.
Wellies grip really well on a varnished mast.

 

[25931]

When I was my sons age I wouldn't have been worried about any of that. The availability of new horizons, beer, cubla libra and the hope to meat a senyorita. Would have been much more important.

I must be getting old.

You've said it all. I'm probably older than you but I believe in letting people choose what risks they want to take.

 

[Tomahawk]

Petzl climbing harness,
Ascender
Gri Gri to go up and down
and Stop fall arrester on second halyard

Only go up on an internal halyard where it goes from outside to inside the mast. Even is the sheave breaks.. the rope is still held up at the top. My halyards are 10mm spectra.. even mostly broken they can carry my 90kg and still don't enjoy it..

 

[Uricanejack]

When I was my sons age I wouldn't have been worried about any of that. The availability of new horizons, beer, cubla libra and the hope to meat a senyorita. Would have been much more important.

I must be getting old.

You've said it all. I'm probably older than you but I believe in letting people choose what risks they want to take.

Fair enough in most cases. The risks you choose to take on your own boat are yours alone.

If you employ a someone on your boat and ask him or her to do something. You have a responsibility to make sure it is safe.

 

[Uricanejack]

I doubt any lack of regulations caused the tragedy the OP is obviously referring to, and the flag state of the vessel probably has no bearing on the issue other that about which country has a duty to investigate the tragedy. Such accidents are really about working practices and awareness of risk. I regularly see riggers go up masts on a single halyard, with no additional safety line. That is something I would never do, but which appears to be common practice .

Lack of regulation doesn't cause accidents. Accidents Cause regulation.
I wasn't wanting to get in to the specifics of a particular accident. One is isolated 3 not so much. Although 1 incident was about anchoring not falling. I do think its a shame 2 youngsters had accidents as a result of falls. Doing routine cleaning.
I quite agree about safe working practices.
The owners be they Millionaires or Billionaires, benevolent, or Heartless. Probably hire someone to take care of that. Giving it no more thought than the owner of a ship does with one of his deckhands.
So the questions would be about the safe working practices on some of these vessels. How much does the person hire to be in charge of this sort of thing actually understands about it. Before he or she sends someone up the mast or over the side. Or out onto the mooring deck.

I suppose the MCA keeps some kind of track of British ones. Or Incidents which happen in Britain. But since most are not British. Does anyone?

As for riggers. I very wary of some. Mostly because I built my own house and was my own contractor. The bank and insurance insisted I had proper worker compensation coverage. It was a learning experience. Particularly when the inspector explained my liability If I hired some clown. I fired the clown and contracted a company to hire other clowns.
I have the same policy for riggers.

 

[alant]

When I was my sons age I wouldn't have been worried about any of that. The availability of new horizons, beer, cubla libra and the hope to meat a senyorita. Would have been much more important.

I must be getting old.

You've said it all. I'm probably older than you but I believe in letting people choose what risks they want to take.

"meat a senyorita" sounds rude, I like it.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Super yachts are owned by very rich old men.

Some of them are owned by very unpleasant people. The Russian Mafia is not noted for its adherence to health and safety policies.

 

[NormanB]

I suppose Super Yacht owners give as much thought to Health and Safety as ordinary car owners do when they put their car in the garage for some work. I do not expect many of us ask to check their H&S policy, accident log and when their lift was last tested. The SY owner hires a Skipper (or other agent) to do that stuff for him (I accept he still has liability).

 

[BrianH]

Some of them are owned by very unpleasant people.

Very true. In his heyday, Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer, attended my wife's Swiss hospital department and was impressed by her competence. This resulted in the offer of a short-term contract for the medical operating-theatre section of his mega-yacht, the 86m Nabila (bought for $70 million, sold to Donald Trump for $30 million). Despite the fact she could have retired on the proceeds, she declined.



.

 

[GrahamM376]

Fair enough in most cases. The risks you choose to take on your own boat are yours alone..

No argument from me there except that in practice, others will stop you, quoting their (sometimes unfathomable) H & S rules. When we bought our present boat, I needed to fit a radar dome up the mast. The boat was on the hard, well supported and stable but, working on the mast from anything but a cherry picker was banned. However, the same yard manager was quite happy to lend a longish ladder for me to do the work once afloat in their marina, regardless of the added danger of rolling due to wash from passing boats.