RIB fatality in Tobermory

A French RIB came to grief off the Roches Douvres this Sunday as well. 3 rescued by local life boat having been located by CI air search, one still missing I am afraid. Doomed I would have thought....
 
All four men are described as tourists in their 40's and all were wearing dry suits. They had left Tobermory at around 2330.
 
Very similar to the accident at Tarbet Loch Fyne a couple of years back....High speed, and dark hitting well charted rocks!! One has to wonder once again if drink was involved.....whatever the cause very sad.
 
Boat is still on the rocks- went out this morning for a look. I don't know what they were doing- it was not an isolated rock; Calve Island is about a mile long.
Just looked out the window- there is another rib out there, with three chaps on shore investigating.
Rumour has it they were divers- if so, that is the fourth fatality this month in the Sound of Mull.
 
Blue RIB? I'm assuming that it was a visiting boat and not one of the local commercial jobs. Regardless, what a bloody awful thing to happen.

Once again, we don't really know what happened here, and it would be wrong to speculate, but the speeds that some of these boats go at in the dark really give me the willies. These are very highly powered craft, and I have no idea how much of their surrounding environment the crew are aware of.

The loss of four divers within less than a handful of weeks, at the beginning of the season, does not augur well.
 
MAIB chaps just finished measuring and photographing the boat. It's believed the divers were returning to Lochaline- a tragic mess, anyway.
 
Do you notice the way all the reports emphisise that the crew were not wearing life jackets? Would anybody care to speculate how a life jacket would have prevented these head injuries? Same simplistic reporting rules when cyclists are killed. An HGV might have driven over your abdomen, but the report of your demise will still read "Dead cyclist was not wearing helmet".
 
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Do you notice the way all the reports emphisise that the crew were not wearing life jackets? Would anybody care to speculate how a life jacket would have prevented these head injuries?

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Well said!

All of them were wearing Drysuits which IMHO would be far more useful in UK waters this time of year.
 
Sail around the Solent area and with the number of RIB's and speed they travel further accidents and dare I say deaths are inevatable. Sad as I am not sure further regulations on licencing, qulaifications etc would help. Mind you only last weekend a right jolly lot with kids as well piled into a huge RIB obviously for a quick blast around the solent and then lunch in Cowes (alcohol no doubt involved) set off out of Hamble at high speed driven by the look of it by some City high flyer who doen't know the difference between one end of a boat to the other.....sorry if I sound a bit bitter....
 
There certainly seems to be a culture of having to go at high speed all the time. When did you last see a RIB travelling in dosplacement mode more than 50 yards from a dock. 40 knots in open water in good visibility is fine. In the dark, 6 knots would make a lot more sense but impatience prevails.

I had a nasty accident a few years ago when entering a strange marina after dark in a dinghy. A boat was moored stern-to with an anchor out from a high bow roller and i drove into it at about 3 knots. The cable caught my crew at head level and he got a nasty bruise. At planing speed that would have been fatal.
 
Can't ignore this one.

So one RIB offends you because the driver looks like a city high flyer (whatever they look like). Therefore all RIB drivers are mad drunken fools who have no sea awareness, intelligence or training. Well shoot the lot of them.

I'll bet they all cycle on the pavement too, and drive at more than 20mph past schools in their huge 4x4s.

Sorry to burst your pretentious bubble but there are many rib and sports boat owners (you forgot to have a pop at them) who have years and years of experience and have managed to do so for all those years without killing people or damaging property.

High horse and holier than thou attitudes do not help.

Or is it all because they look to be having fun, what a terrible concept.

Rant over.
 
I agree its wrong to speculate.... here's a recount of something that I did many years ago now....

I was working during a University summer break for a waterski centre, driving a top spec tournament ski boat (A Mastercraft for anyone interested) and was invited back for Fireworks night when a large display was organised, including on-the-water displays...

I was asked to drive one of the ski boats round from behind an island just offshore, and then parallel along the shoreline, pulling a single skier, who was holding a lit red flare....

The night of the display came along, and it was rather foggy..... rather than cancel the display, it was decided to go ahead.... my route round from the back of the island including clearing a 500yd long unlit spit that had been built out using large lumps of rock.... as the visibility was so poor, a lorry was placed on the end of the spit with its lights on as a reference point for me.

We eventually set off in pitch darkness, and I aimed to clear the lorry lights by some margin... when hell broke loose, and we hit the spit at 24mph almost head on, only avoiding a full frontal colission as i'd swerved to avoid it having seen it at the last minute..... we hit it hard enough to rip the bow out of the boat, and it sank almost immediately underneath us.... fortunately no one was hurt, other than a few bruises, a bit wet, and bloody cold....

The cause?

Someone had unknowingly moved the lorry 200yds back up the spit to avoid the scene being unsightly..

Mistakes aren't always the fault of the boat driver....
 
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Very similar to the accident at Tarbet Loch Fyne a couple of years back....High speed, and dark hitting well charted rocks!! One has to wonder once again if drink was involved.....whatever the cause very sad.

[/ QUOTE ]The authorities may well try to make this a drink issue, but at this stage there's nothing reported to support that view. See comments from witnesses in the P&J article ...

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1223515?UserKey=
 
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The authorities may well try to make this a drink issue, but at this stage there's nothing reported to support that view. See comments from witnesses in the P&J article ...

[/ QUOTE ] No? Reading the article, I find that [ QUOTE ]
Calum MacLachlainn, owner of MacGochans, said: “They came in for a meal and a few beers and left at about 11pm. I spoke to my bar staff who served them, and they had three or four pints with their meal.

“It wasn’t a big drinking session . . .

[/ QUOTE ] Three or four pints is well over the DD limit, possibly double it - so I don't see how this can fail to become viewed as a drink-related incident, with all the associated fallout.

- W
 
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Three or four pints is well over the DD limit, possibly double it - so I don't see how this can fail to become viewed as a drink-related incident, with all the associated fallout.

[/ QUOTE ] That was my view as well but, since I'm a moboer, I've been waiting for a raggie to say it first /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif. Mind you, I think we should reserve judgement until an MAIB enquiry has been held and the facts are clear - for all we know, there could have been a designated driver who was on orange juice all night.....

Very sad for all concerned, whatever the circumstances.
 
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