LADY3

[macnorton]

“We find it very hard to believe anyone would put to sea in a small motor cruiser, so poorly prepared, with little sea going knowledge, in the dead of night in such conditions and with the weather forecast to get worse. My Watch team and I do not think that they realise how dangerous the situation was that they were in."

“At one stage it seemed so unbelievable I thought we were dealing with a hoax!"


see

http://nds.coi.gov.uk/Content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=409796&SubjectId=2

Sorry if you have seen this before!

 

[CPD]

ooooer !!!!. Each to his own in terms of risk they are prepared to take however the obvious over-reliance on HMCG is the worrying bit. If I was running HMCG I would be inclined to make a charge depending upon the preparedeness of the vessel. If all reasonable measures had been taken, then no charge. In cases such as this, then it would surely have to be cheque book time.

 

[FullCircle]

Alls well that ends well. They need the practice.
We get loads of boats straying out of the Crouch trying to go to Southend or Bradwell for the day without the first clue. They certainly couldnt imagine no water a couple of miles off shore....
One of them 2 years ago got so frightened, when we got him back to Rice & Coles pontoon, he tied it up with bit of string, gave the keys to Simon and bolted, never to be seen again.

 

[Leighb]

To me, the strangest thing in the report was the owners remark that the VHF radio would not work because "the main batteries were frozen"

I can't imagine batteries freezing in the likely temperatures experienced off the UK coast. In any case if they were "frozen", how had they managed to start the engine in the first place

It was obviously mad for them to have put to sea under the circumstances and they were extremely lucky to have been rescued.

 

[Wunja]

“They basically failed to heed the excellent safety messages contained in the MCA calendar 2010 for the months of Jan/Feb/Mar/Apr/May/Jun/Sep and Oct. Some still available from most Coastguard Stations!"

Do they know something about the weather in spring and early summer that we don't?

 

[DavidTav]

I find it interesting that the MCA report in the link makes a criticism of the fact that the vessel didn't have any flares. I was under the impression that the MCA view is that flares have had their day, or have they changed their minds again?