Cowes Yacht / Ferry crash

[solent clown]

I know someone who has direct experience of driving this exact ferry, and it sisters for decades.
His take on this was as follows
"with a crossing spring tide it always was an awkward harbour to enter. The problem with fog is it is difficult to detect or observe. You can know the tide is across the harbour mouth but that is different from seeing it. Most appy suck it and see, and hope for the best." With their voith schneider downward pointing blades they would have caused maximum damage. Hey ho sad for the captain..."
There was further conversation along the lines of liability and where the buck will stop I will not publish on here...

 

[LittleSister]

The ferries haven't changed, fog hasn't changed, it can't all be down to equipment failures - which should be allowed for anyway - so I'd suspect operating procedures ( very likely with an accountant on the end ).

The ferries have changed: they're much larger than they used to be. Whether that has any bearing on this particular accident I wouldn't know, but I would imagine that the larger the ferry the more room it needs (or to look at it the other way around, once it gets its course out of shape, the sooner it comes into contact with something). It also puts the radar higher up, though that may be mitigated to some extent by the lower (forward facing only?) radar scanners someone mentioned.

The size the ferries are now presumably means they become quite a handful in any serious wind, though that doesn't appear to be a factor in this latest accident.

 

[Seajet]

Standard practice on every car ferry I have been on so everyone is in the cars ready to unload as soon as the ramp is down.

Yes it is all about quick turn around.

Just the same as the last few cars to load, the boat is on it's way before you are off the car deck.

So what if the bloke in front of you stalls or breaks down then ? I can't quite believe that.

I maintain that having people in vehicles on a ferry - any size inc Torpoint or much worse lower Dartmouth - is a very nasty accident waiting to happen.

 

[Seajet]

The ferries have changed: they're much larger than they used to be. Whether that has any bearing on this particular accident I wouldn't know, but I would imagine that the larger the ferry the more room it needs (or to look at it the other way around, once it gets its course out of shape, the sooner it comes into contact with something). It also puts the radar higher up, though that may be mitigated to some extent by the lower (forward facing only?) radar scanners someone mentioned.

The size the ferries are now presumably means they become quite a handful in any serious wind, though that doesn't appear to be a factor in this latest accident.

They haven't changed over the last few weeks !

 

[dancrane]

dayboat class 'Contender 32'

Thanks Andy, a Contessa it was, and Contessa I intended it to be.

Anyone would think I haven't graduated to big boats, yet. :hopeless:

Rotten business for Greylag's owner.

 

[Seajet]

Dan,

no probs I thought there might be a new class, I don't keep up with the trendies.

Not as rotten as if he and his family had been in their sleeping bags.

Andy

 

[sailorman]

Dan,

no probs I thought there might be a new class, I don't keep up with the trendies.

Not as rotten as if he and his family had been in their sleeping bags.

Andy

As happened on the Medway ,what 3 yrs ago when a dredger left Chatham in thick fog

 

[Seajet]

As happened on the Medway ,what 3 yrs ago when a dredger left Chatham in thick fog

Sailorman,

I've heard about that but not details - was anyone hurt ?

 

[ProDave]

Thanks Andy, a Contessa it was, and Contessa I intended it to be.

Anyone would think I haven't graduated to big boats, yet. :hopeless:

Rotten business for Greylag's owner.

What a very sad end to a yacht, but as stated also a very good job indeed nobody was hurt or killed.

 

[prv]

Just the same as the last few cars to load, the boat is on it's way before you are off the car deck.

So what if the bloke in front of you stalls or breaks down then?

What if he does?

At worst, there might be a delay getting off at the other end, but practically all ferries are at least two lanes wide so you can just go round the stuck car. I fail utterly to see why you think it’s a yet another source of terrible danger.

Pete

 

[Seajet]

What a very sad end to a yacht, but as stated also a very good job indeed nobody was hurt or killed.

Now seeing the pictures I'm reminded of those of ' Morning Cloud ' - but at least she was torn apart by nature, not some silly human cockup - or chain of smaller cockups, as accidents usually are.

Horrible.

 

[Seajet]

What if he does?

At worst, there might be a delay getting off at the other end, but practically all ferries are at least two lanes wide so you can just go round the stuck car. I fail utterly to see why you think it’s a yet another source of terrible danger.

Pete

Pete,

I always had you down as one of the sensible ones on here...

ProDave is saying the ferry is leaving as the last few cars disembark - which I said I can't believe, but what if the vehicle in front stopped,- when I've been on these things both lanes are full - presumably one's going back to ' England ' as the Islanders call the mainland, or try a 007 style jump

 

[Tomahawk]

I know someone who has direct experience of driving this exact ferry, and it sisters for decades.
His take on this was as follows
"with a crossing spring tide it always was an awkward harbour to enter. The problem with fog is it is difficult to detect or observe. You can know the tide is across the harbour mouth but that is different from seeing it. Most appy suck it and see, and hope for the best." With their voith schneider downward pointing blades they would have caused maximum damage. Hey ho sad for the captain..."
There was further conversation along the lines of liability and where the buck will stop I will not publish on here...

If it's got voith schneiders, baring mechanical failure there is no excuse. You can do anything with those... except verticle take off.

 

[Concerto]

There is a different photo of the Contessa 32 being lifted in this link.
https://www.islandecho.co.uk/yacht-...-in-red-funnel-collision-raised-from-the-sea/

A very sad sight and I feel for the owner as it is definitely a total right off.

 

[dancrane]

Yes, grim picture.

I was surprised by the harbour master interviewed on the BBC news, who described that:

"the yacht appears to have been fairly badly damaged...ingress of water was probably quite quick".

Fairly badly? Probably quite quick?

 

[grumpy_o_g]

With Radar, in that close quarter situation, anything of use would be either in the radar shadow of the superstructure or in the noise clutter of the immediate vicinity of the aerial. The minimum range specification in Solas is 40 metres

A long time back but I was told that, if caught out and having to pilot in effectively zero viz then radar should be the primary tool to fix position/track (or course over ground or whatever incorrect name it's been given now) and compass for heading. That was a former RN Coxswain's advice (he was technically known as Dad to my Brother and I). As my Heron dinghy was singularly lacking in radar and had a compass that had zero error at 3 mostly random points the first time I got try this was in a Shackleton where it worked very well if you ignore the confusion between Bruggen and Laarbuch

 

[Seven Spades]

I am surprised to see the boat "chopped" like that. I would have expected a low speed impact to have pushed the boat out of the way and for it to run down one side of the ferry. I wonder what the speed of impact was, it honestly looks reckless to me but I could be wrong, I usually am.

 

[Tomahawk]

The ferry had voith schneiders's.
Vertical blades that rotate round a hub.

If the ferry ran over the back of the yacht pushing it under into the path of the blades, they would be acting like chopping knives.

 

[sailorman]

Re: Whitelink ran around

Maybe like a car accident where you are told not to apologise because of the implied admission of guilt!

Mike.

I have read somewhere the RF CEO phoned the Co32 owner

 

[Lightwave395]

It's the 'North Island', not the mainland...!
I'm a regular on these ferries, most cars are on the upper deck, which has only a single lane exit ramp. The lower 'main' deck is mostly trucks, motor caravans, high roofed Chelsea tractors and motorbikes. There is a two lane ramp for the lower deck but in my experience (as a biker) most vehicles seem to leave in single file.
The ferry does sometimes leave when the last few passengers are still 'disembarking' from their cars, clearly not when the last few cars are disembarking from the ferry...
As regards a further comment comment further down the thread, although it was still some way off springs, the new breakwater has done some weird things to the tides in and around the harbour but even so, outside of genuine equipment failure I still struggle to see any mitigating circumstances in defence of the ferry in this issue.

See this for tidal notes: http://www.cowesharbourcommission.co.uk/local_notice_to_mariners_no_06_of_2018