Drunk at the wheel

Read it this morning - it did strike me as odd that a company with a strict policy of "no alcohol on board at any time" would also have bonded stores on its ships!

Pete
 
Not uncommon that drunken Russian skippers cause trouble. The Danish island Bornholm in the Baltic sea appears to be one of the popular waypoints so when the drunken skipper is on autopilot, they tend to hit or go aground

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etc. ....
 
Up in this part of Scotland it is a fairly frequent occurrence for the helmsman to fall asleep and bump into a bit of the land - Juno on the Summer Isles in 2003; another boat went down the Sound of Jura, failed to turn to port and went into Northern Ireland; fishing boat on the NW corner of Rum........
 
With all the technology onboard, someone needs to invent 'land collision avoidance system' to sound siren when boat heading towards land?
 
With all the technology onboard, someone needs to invent 'land collision avoidance system' to sound siren when boat heading towards land?

It sounds like the ship had the tech on board, as the paper report says radar alarm went off at 02.12 hours and it was cancelled!
 
With all the technology onboard, someone needs to invent 'land collision avoidance system' to sound siren when boat heading towards land?

They had seveal such systems. Some hadn't been set up, the others were switched off.

The crew have eyes, and should be keeping a proper watch.

They were also switched off!
 
Read it this morning - it did strike me as odd that a company with a strict policy of "no alcohol on board at any time" would also have bonded stores on its ships!

Pete

This zero tolerance stuff does strike me as all a little prudish.

When I was at sea we had an officers smoke room (bar) which was only open when in port, however at the end of a watch quite normal to have a few tins of Tenants or Fosters, perhaps a few slugs of Mount Gay and Coke.

In port quite normal to order a bottle of Gordons, fifteen bob and half a dozen Schweppes tonics a pound every few days or so in order to be sociable if somebody dropped by.

Remember lying in berth close to USS Wasp in Sydney and some of their officers virtually lived in our bar and they were mortified when they were told we were sailing in two days, however just before we left the fast minelayer HMS Manxman berthed whilst on her paying off voyage back to the U.K. HMS Manxman was a free for all, Aussie customs went on board to seal their bonded store, 24 hours later they went ashore still smashed with ship stores still unsealed.

Happy days
 
This zero tolerance stuff does strike me as all a little prudish.

Me too, although you can see why they're going that way given the prevalence of (frankly, mostly Russian and Ukrainian) officers being completely trollied on watch. We only hear about the times they hit things - the majority of the time when there's either nothing to hit or they're just about alert enough to notice a bloody great mountain and miss it, the MAIB never gets to know.

It just seems very odd, if you are going to have an absolutely-no-drinking-at-sea-or-in-port rule, to then operate a bonded store and keep it replenished. One bit of the company not talking to another bit, I guess.

Pete
 
This is what happens when you try to drive a 129m cargo ship with half a bottle of rum in your system...
http://www.mby.com/news/maib-report-lysblink-seaways-skipper-drunk-49627
DFDS are keen to stress that this is a one-off, let's hope so!
Full MAIB report is here if you want the undigested version.


Constructive total loss.

Seems rather surprising as I would have thought it would have been relatively easy and chip to patch up the hull.

May be it was insured for a ridiculously low value?
 
The total loss was to do with the dry dock trying it on thinking they could make a killing so the insurer declared it a total loss so they didn't get the job anyway
I'm currently working on a project with the Svitzer guys who salved it & they wanted it to go to Liverpool but the mca wouldn't allow them to take it into open water
Boat was apparently in good order prior to the incident & quite fixable after
 
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