jamie N
Well-Known Member
Last week, tied alongside in Ijmuiden, I was on a CTV at the end of a 6 week contract, where we'd been inspecting WTG jacket's on a couple of windfarms. We were demobbing our kit; in fact, just waiting for the lorry to put our container on. Quite a convivial chat with the the 2 crew, both the ROV folk and a couple of guy's from the office, general banter over coffee and tea, a nice day at the end of a trip.
Without any warning, the vessel was hit violently from astern, and moved around 30 metres along the quayside by a trawler that had been tied up astern of us. Total chaos for a couple of minutes of course; our Skipper went to the bridge and got the engines running, myself and the deckie went and retrieved our mooring lines, the office guy's became pale and and confused....!
The trawler was in the middle of several different actions during this incident. They'd one of the boom's on the quayside for maintenance, they'd some painting operations onboard and some engine maintenance also. The engineer's had started the engine for whatever reason, without realising that it was at full throttle, AND in gear.
The incident stopped, we put our newly knotted lines ashore, and everyone began to chat. Luckily no one was injured, although my tea was spilt. Fortunately, because a CTV is relatively light, with light lines, these broke fairly easily, and allowed the vessel to shift easily without having to absorb more energy than it did, with the result that only a handrail was stuffed, and the trawler (not in the 1st flush of youth), had an easily painted repair to its already challenged bow!
The boom had fallen into the water, and made a problem for them to retrieve it to deck as it was only attached by the gooseneck, and had in fact overturned a small fork-lift during the incident, as well as having broken all of her mooring lines also.
Offshore (oil & gas), this type of stuff doesn't tend to happen as there're procedure's to be followed, and a check list and so on, but with a single trawler, a lot of pressure perhaps to get it to sea, they'd maybe not had the luxury of double checking.
Or they were incompetent cowboys.
Without any warning, the vessel was hit violently from astern, and moved around 30 metres along the quayside by a trawler that had been tied up astern of us. Total chaos for a couple of minutes of course; our Skipper went to the bridge and got the engines running, myself and the deckie went and retrieved our mooring lines, the office guy's became pale and and confused....!
The trawler was in the middle of several different actions during this incident. They'd one of the boom's on the quayside for maintenance, they'd some painting operations onboard and some engine maintenance also. The engineer's had started the engine for whatever reason, without realising that it was at full throttle, AND in gear.
The incident stopped, we put our newly knotted lines ashore, and everyone began to chat. Luckily no one was injured, although my tea was spilt. Fortunately, because a CTV is relatively light, with light lines, these broke fairly easily, and allowed the vessel to shift easily without having to absorb more energy than it did, with the result that only a handrail was stuffed, and the trawler (not in the 1st flush of youth), had an easily painted repair to its already challenged bow!
The boom had fallen into the water, and made a problem for them to retrieve it to deck as it was only attached by the gooseneck, and had in fact overturned a small fork-lift during the incident, as well as having broken all of her mooring lines also.
Offshore (oil & gas), this type of stuff doesn't tend to happen as there're procedure's to be followed, and a check list and so on, but with a single trawler, a lot of pressure perhaps to get it to sea, they'd maybe not had the luxury of double checking.
Or they were incompetent cowboys.
