Horrible boating accident

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William_H

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On Sunday night on Koombana Bay, Busselton, West Oz a runabout colides with a catamaran. Driver died and passenger has serious head injuries.
From pictures the runabout boat is fibreglass about 15ft with large O/B.Good for 25 knots with forward steering wheel control and windscreen. The runabout hit the large sailing cat inside of one hull. The cat was anchored.
One news item mention the very experienced boaty was returning home after a dinner. Presuambly across the bay. (several miles)
We can guess that he may have been travelling by boat to avoid driving after drinking. Apparently very fast. Driver did not see the cat and went under the bridge deck. The runabout hull did not seem to be badly damaged.
There was no mention of whether the cat had an anchor light.

I suspect this is another case of drink and water don't mix.

ollewill
 
Yes I agre entirely about the libel laws and speculation. The problem is that if you wait for the inquest results any value as an educational exercise is lost in the passage of time. So yes my speculation may be very wrong and I wouldd be quick to appologise to all affected however there must be a message about drinking even if it is not applicable in this case. olewill
 
Agreed, its approaching national disaster proportions this side of the 'oggin' especially among some of the young eg. 12 + - still with 24 hour opening - things can only get better!!!
 
"Coming back after dinner" when drunk is one of those excuses which I'd have to defend, as my boating experiences would be a lot poorer without it.

Although I don't even have a beer when sailing then once anchored or moored, I'm afraid I have no inhibitions about drinking including going ashore and coming back in the dinghy. However I think there is something to be said for a small rib with a 4 hp engine rather than driving something more powerful. Chug chug - oops and a soft bounce-off is the worst that is likely to happen.

I wouldn't be the same with children in the dinghy but I wouldn't have a really boozy night ashore with children either.

On the anchor-light note - if it's at the top of the mast then the chances are it won't have been seen anyway, and there's a lot to be said for leaving a cabin light on if you're just away for the evening.
 
Actually I rate rowing back along an unlit creek as one of the most illuminating ways of finding out how bad your reflexes deteriorate. Especially when it was in an inflatable and one of the oars broke. It didn't take long for the two of us paddling "canoe style" in the bows, one with a broken oar and one with a full length one, to start humming the tune to Hawaii-five-0. And in case anyone thinks it was irresponsible: it was, but it wasn't dangerous.
I agree about the anchor light as well, ours is usually a hurricane lamp halfway up the forestay, to be supplemented next year by a solar garden light from B&Q on the pulpit, but they are all difficult to spot against a backdrop of shore lights.
 
Whether tanked up or not, the trouble is that plenty of people think that its safe to drive mobos at fairly high speed at night. I just can't think how anyone does not consider that sooner of later it will result in a collision with either a marker buoy someone fishing in a small dinghy or a usually poorly lit moored craft.

A year or 2 back we had a particularly horrible one with some kids in a high powered rib hit a large mooring buoy in Southampton Water.

On my boat I keep to 5 kt at night, in any sort of restricted water.

Around our area in the Solent more and more Ribs are to be seen blasting along at night...only a matter of time before there are more of these type of accidents.

Nick
 
These accidents are becoming more and more common, and they werent exactly kids in the RIB that hit the buoy in Soton, however I do believe that the driver was cleared of having been drinking. A case of an accident at speed without intoxication.......proving the risks to those who have been drinking! We all love a tipple, however even in a small/slow tender you are at risk...how many of you bother to wear a lifejacket when returning from the pub! I speak from first han experience of knowing someone who used to row back to his boat after the pub, it was not long till one day they found him washed up in the morning!

Having a few and being pissed are a bit different.

If at anchor and the wind picks up and you start dragging etc... are you and/or the crew gonna be in a fit state to sort it out!
 
I was skippering some corporates on the night of the Soton crash - Cowes fireworks and half the fleet zooming back across the Solent as soon as the show was over. The rest hung back a little to let some of the mayhem subside.

I suspect that if you're used to high speeds and line-of-sight driving in a rib in narrow waters then motoring at night is probably very disorientating. I certainly had to concentrate with all the traffic obscuring buoys and lights.

Re: being p**d or just having had a few drinks, I know what you mean and have had to sober up once when the anchor dragged, but still can't imagine deliberately limiting drinks when I'm expecting a quiet and secure night.
 
Very early to deduce that it was the evil drink that was responsible for the accident.

It's nice and easy to blame everything on alcohol, but it isn't always the cause, even if drink is involved. How many of you never drink and drive, but regualry break the speed limit in your cars? Do you know how much speed effects your ability to react vs alcohol? What is the issue with drinking and driving, reaction time? If you knew that driving at 10 miles an hour over the speed limit reduced your ability to react more than being twice over the leagal limit, would you see driving at 10 miles an hour over the speed liimit as socially unacceptable as being twice over the limit? Didn't think so.

Soon we'll all be banned from having a swift half at anchor, and sentenced to life in Guantanamo if caught. But I'm sure it will still be perfectly acceptable to do 30k at night the first time you touch a boat.
 
Re speed at night I understand that for local waters there is a speed limit of 8knots at night and of course 4 knots in a mooring area. There can be little doubt speed was involved.
Incidentaly according to the news report there were 2 people asleep on board but they were un hurt and the cat was not badly damaged.
Here in WA this kind of boat particularly the Aluminium (Tinnie) with mid sized O/b is very popular and represent the majority of the registered boats. This has been the real impetus to bring in Skipper's Licence for pleasure boats. I calculated there is one registered boat for every 20 of population and yes we have a lot of boating tragedies. olewill
 
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