Boat falls off cradle killing owner at Weymouth

oldharry said:
The crushed support pictured looks as though it had corroded through and was an accident waiting to happen.
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The coroner accepted the view of an unnamed expert witness that the cradle was "found to have been fit for purpose but it was lowering the props without providing additional support which was the problem".

Very sad.
 
oldharry said:
Seems it was a home made cradle 20 years old. The crushed support pictured looks as though it had corroded through and was an accident waiting to happen.
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I don't think so. Home-made cradles often tend to be over-engineered. The crushed support was at the forward starboard side of the boat. I imagine the owner wound the support pad away from the boat so he could antifoul under it, leaving the boat unstable. If a gust of wind then started to topple the boat, it would have hit the support pad with enough force to buckle the tubular pole. Sad, but any boater should know that you don't take cradle pads off without arranging sturdy alternatives.
 
pvb said:
I imagine the owner wound the support pad away from the boat so he could antifoul under it, leaving the boat unstable.
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The article confirms that:

"Mr Keeler, an electronics engineer and company director, made it unstable after he lowered one of the cradle's supporting props to allow him to paint the bottom of the hull."
 
pvb said:
I don't think so. Home-made cradles often tend to be over-engineered.
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And that looks like an Acrow prop, which should have been well up to the job of balancing a four ton boat, but not the sideways load when the boat started falling and spinning.
 
oldharry said:
, Yep, read the article it concludes the accident happened April 16th last year.

Seems it was a home made cradle 20 years old. The crushed support pictured looks as though it had corroded through and was an accident waiting to happen.
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Nothing to do with the cradle being 20 year old, read the report again, slowly!
 
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Sandy said:
How are they going to enforce that?
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That doesn’t really matter - in the event of an accident after an owner has disobeyed then they are in the clear and can probably claim from the owner or the owner’s insurance for any losses the yard suffered.
 
RupertW said:
That doesn’t really matter - in the event of an accident after an owner has disobeyed then they are in the clear and can probably claim from the owner or the owner’s insurance for any losses the yard suffered.
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Yes, it sounds like an insurance-based instruction.
 
RivalRedwing said:
only a few weeks ago a set of stickers were place on every cradle in our marina forbidding owners from playing with the cradle....
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Yep, same at my Marina
Every cradle now has a laminate A4 saying not to adjust it.
Can't say I blame them. where's there's blame, there's a claim......
 
Oscar24 said:
Yep, same at my Marina
Every cradle now has a laminate A4 saying not to adjust it.
Can't say I blame them. where's there's blame, there's a claim......
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Why does it need a notice? It was on of the conditions of having your boat ashore at James Watt Dock Marina - the boat had to be in an approved (mostly marina provided) cradle, and ALL propping etc. had to be done by the marina. This was well known, and was on the (short) list of T&Cs that was on your berthing contract.
 
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