Burnt out boat on 1st trip with new owner?

[dickh]

Anybody know any more about the burnt out motor catamaran on BBC East last night? Apparently they had just bought the boat and were on their first trip and she caught fire. Both rescued, so no loss of life, she was well ablaze from the aerial picture we saw.

<hr width=100% size=1>dickh
I'd rather be sailing... /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[pvb]

Links...

See . And <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/news/NewsStory.asp?Brand=EADOnline&Category=News&ItemId=IPED08+Sep+2003+16:47:52:700>East Anglian Daily Times story.

Irony is, the owner is a retired fireman.

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[Aeolus_IV]

Maiden Voyages.

Why do so many maiden voyages seem to end with a disaster? Are people blind to the risks involved in boating in general?

Jeff.

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[squidge]

A lucky escape. But i cannot help thinking that this could have been avoided.They had only purchased the boat the day before and although not an ocean passage their trip was a long one in a new boat.I wonder what started the fire and if a couple of short sea tests would have shown something up.Did the last owner point out ALL the boats faults?Survey?
I think we all can learn from this.

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[steve_cronin]

Re: Maiden Voyages.

You have statistics on this then?

Steve cRonin

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[Mirelle]

I\'ve heard of a busman\'s holiday.....

but this was overdoing it a bit!

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[phanakapan]

We listened to it all on Ch16, and could smell the smoke from Brighton. I don't know how the fire started, but they were well prepared safety wise (were wearing lifejackets, used correct Mayday procedures, kept remarkably calm, used liferaft sensibly, informed coastguard of fuel left on board, flares, gas bottles etc)

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[jamesjermain]

Re: Maiden Voyages.

I think the remarkable thing about this story is how well prepared, equipped and trained this couple were.

Clearly there was an unfortunate accident, which may have been due to poor maintenance (burst fuel line?). The fact that this was a maiden voyage and the new owners might not have been entirely familiar with the boat and maintenance routines, and may not have checked every small detail, should not detract from their competence in dealing with the crisis when it arose.

<hr width=100% size=1>JJ

 

[Aeolus_IV]

Re: Maiden Voyages.

No I don't - its probably just a result that a disaster on somebodies first voyage with a new boat is simply more news worthy than "Boat burns and sinks on owners 147th voyage" headline. As a result of this you rarely hear about equally sad but possibly more common misfortunes.

But having said this, it does seem to me that your first voyage on a new boat is likely to be "higher risk" than somebody elses 147th (hense the need for a "shake down" before undertaking a serious passage). We certainly fell foul of this last year, (luckily just terminal engine death as it refused to run), but looking back this could have happened to us - all it would have taken was an un-noticed waterpump failure. We may not have handled it half so well at the time - sobering thought.

Jeff.


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