Pick your crew with care!

[Caer Urfa]

This is unbelievable ! I would not leave a dog to drown.

http://www.pbo.co.uk/news/534533/crew-take-four-hours-to-report-man-overboard

We all know how difficult it is to recover anyone back on board but there was two of them still left aboard, Whatever the outcome they have no excuse for not sending out a 'Mayday' as their radio was working nearly four hours later when they used it to call the marina for a berth, even then reports say they did not inform anyone until they went ashore.

Update:

http://www.pbo.co.uk/news/534549/body-found-believed-to-be-missing-french-yachtsman

I wonder if they will attend this poor guys funeral, that is if they don't get charged with manslaughter first.

Mike

 

[CPD]

Very very strange. Tantamount to manslaughter ?

 

[Graham Pearson]

Hi Mike,

More like "Pick your skipper with care" as the MOB was crew. French newspaper reported that failure of skipper to put out a call on vhf (despite perfect working order of set) was due to his "lack of familiarity with english" which was apparently much more important than getting his crew recovered! A word like MAYDAY is so difficult to pronounce!

French have a criminal and often used law "Non assistance à person en danger" so matter now with public prosecutor in Brittany.

 

[trapezeartist]

A word like MAYDAY is so difficult to pronounce!

Especially for a Frenchman!

If he couldn't manage to splutter out "M'aidée", it makes you wonder how he managed to request the berth in Guernsey.

 

[savageseadog]

Maybe he'd sha**ed all their wives?

 

[philwebb]

I find the skipper's excuse completely unbelieveable. Most boats now have DSC radios so that all you need to do to send a MAYDAY is to lift the cover and press the red button. Also there would have been somebody at the coastguard station (Jersey Radio?) who could speak enough French. The marina staff in the Channel Islands certainly
appear to speak French. The French coastguard CROSS Corsen may have been able to pick him up on VHF even at that distance, as they probably have the best gear and a high mast. Why didn't he do a Mayday in French so that another boat could relay it?

 

[Woodlouse]

Maybe they were all in shock. People who have been sufficiently rattled by an experience do not always behave rationally afterwards.

 

[ukmctc]

lets wait and see, interesting though it is we know nothing yet except pure fiction from various sources......

 

[Eric79]

Its a very strange story hard to find any justification for just leaving him and not raising the alarm.