Medway boats damaged in fog 28/09/14

xyachtdave

xyachtdave

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Following on from our discussion about relying on modern nav aids to find our way in fog, this morning a dredger hit and dismasted at least 10 of the MYC boats.

I'll upload some pictures shortly (if photobucket will work...) but an unbelievable amount of damage - you'll be shocked.

Thoughts to the owners concerned but luckily it appears no one on board the boats at the time.

ce04f68bbf384a004f6c8407553926ee.jpg
 
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I've added a few pictures above.

Forum member Chrisbitz was first on the scene and set to work securing the boats no longer attached to their moorings. We've contacted the owners we know and the useful members of the club but in reality the moorings are all dislodged and masts in the mud etc so not a lot 2 blokes in a dinghy can do.

A real mess to sort out and I'd assume needing heavy cutting and lifting gear.
 
That's terrible! But, the dredgers like the Arco Avon and the Sand thingy are all obliged to use transmit AIS, so presumably the skipper will be identified and prosecuted, and the company will have to pay?
Condolences to the victims, I would go ballistic if some so-called professional smashed my yacht.
 
That's awful. Which side of the river suffered the damage? I wonder how it happened - visibility by itself is no excuse in this electronic age.

Do you know which dredger it was?
 
This was the North shore.

The first boat was hit directly outside MYC and dismasted and another badly damaged then it appeared to hit the boats on the outer moorings about 100 m from the club.

I was told it was the Arco, which passed us about 6.30.
 
Arco have a few dredgers. The Avon looks as though she was in Chatham at the time. Just been looking at the Arco Arun tracks on AIS....
 
It's too late to breathalise the master, sadly. Damaging one yacht I can understand, but ten has to be neglectful at least. Let's hope he loses his ticket.
 
Terrible thing to happen, thank goodness nobody was hurt.
Can only hope the insurance situation gets quickly resolved, but that's the least of it.
 
Gladys said:
Oh my goodness, I hope it all gets sorted out... I wonder if the MAIB will become involved
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One would expect them to be investigating already
What a mess, the only consolation ( if there is one ) is the season is ending for many during October anyway. I hope the claims go smoothly at least it obvious who`s fault it was.
The red Sadler could have been Mike Nunn`s ( Seamark Nunn)old boat i used to race against
 
sailorman said:
One would expect them to be investigating already
What a mess, the only consolation ( if there is one ) is the season is ending for many during October anyway. I hope the claims go smoothly at least it obvious who`s fault it was
Click to expand...

I understand one of the boats with less damage has already contacted Fox's.

Lots of moorings are out of action as the ground chains have all been dragged off station - a real mess!
 
I was there at the time with xyachtdave. It was the Arco Arun. He radioed Medway VTS and mentioned he'd had contact "with a couple of yachts"(!) it seems in the incredibly dense fog this morning, he didn't realise the carnage, and just thought he'd bashed a couple or something...

After we discovered it, we radioed Medway VTS and told them it was significantly worse and about 10 boats were involved, so I would hope that would be enough to trigger any time-sensitive action?
 
Slightly worrying later today was the comment a boat was not accounted for and nobody was sure if it had been sunk or had disappeared with the tide.

It turned up somewhere down the river apparently.
 
Arco Arun track

Arco Arun track cropped.jpg
MarineTraffic.com shows the track of the Arco Arun goining downstream at 6.6 knots just after 6.30 BST this morning. The vessel appears to have swung to the north side of the channel as it passed Medway Yacht Club.
 
xyachtdave said:
Slightly worrying later today was the comment a boat was not accounted for and nobody was sure if it had been sunk or had disappeared with the tide.

It turned up somewhere down the river apparently.
Click to expand...

wow! that's crazy - we went down to the end of the trot looking for any stragglers, and found none - Maybe it had been snagged and towed along with the dredger?
 
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