veshengro
Well-known member
An interesting report on the sad loss of a vessel and the two owners off the Canadian Coast.
SV Theros
- Thread starter veshengro
- Start date
dunedin
Well-known member
Very sad. So the most likely cause of the abandonment to the dinghy (not the liferaft) seems to be a serious fire - due to the dire damage to the “floatation suit” worn by one of the crew.
The assumption therefore that the fire was so serious as to prevent going below to get any grab back with communications equipment.
The liferaft was supposed to be able to self deploy, and boat had EPIRB which was not activated - both of which could have been damaged by fire before they were able to auto release (speculation, no report findings on this).
Reference to a DIY installed electric propulsion system with battery ex Nissan Leaf - but no evidence as to whether this was involved in the fire as boat lost so not able to perform investigation
Summary report here Marine transportation safety investigation M24A0262 - Transportation Safety Board of Canada
Very sad - if had been able to get a grab bag or carried PLBs on them they would probably have been rescued fairly quickly, not left to drift in dinghy for up to a month.
The assumption therefore that the fire was so serious as to prevent going below to get any grab back with communications equipment.
The liferaft was supposed to be able to self deploy, and boat had EPIRB which was not activated - both of which could have been damaged by fire before they were able to auto release (speculation, no report findings on this).
Reference to a DIY installed electric propulsion system with battery ex Nissan Leaf - but no evidence as to whether this was involved in the fire as boat lost so not able to perform investigation
Summary report here Marine transportation safety investigation M24A0262 - Transportation Safety Board of Canada
Very sad - if had been able to get a grab bag or carried PLBs on them they would probably have been rescued fairly quickly, not left to drift in dinghy for up to a month.
ylop
Well-known member
Slightly surprised that they didn't fly over the area of last known contact until the vessel was officially overdue at its destination - they had a garmin in reach and it stopped transmitting. They had AIS and it stopped transmitting. They didn't respond to attempts to contact them. The assumption seems to have been that if anything bad has happened the EPIRB would have gone off so they presumably aren't in distress. Perhaps 5 days (time from last garmin signal to CG being contacted) would already have been too late to help them anyway.
It would be easy to watch the video and think the lessons to be learned are don't put Lithium ion batteries on boats, but actually my lessons to learn would be (1) consider if you have a major fire in the cabin, can you ALWAYS access your distress equipment and (2) if you give tracking information to a shore contact make sure they know to act on it as soon as there is cause for concern AND define "expectations for communication from the crew" such that the absence of communication should be considered a concern.
It would be easy to watch the video and think the lessons to be learned are don't put Lithium ion batteries on boats, but actually my lessons to learn would be (1) consider if you have a major fire in the cabin, can you ALWAYS access your distress equipment and (2) if you give tracking information to a shore contact make sure they know to act on it as soon as there is cause for concern AND define "expectations for communication from the crew" such that the absence of communication should be considered a concern.
veshengro
Well-known member
Having been involved in a long distance rescue at sea, there are just a couple of comments I could add that may be of interest.
On my return to England having left my boat on a reef in the Bahamas, I called into HM Coast Guard JRCC at Pendennis Point Falmouth to say thank you and tie up the end of the story.
My practice before setting out on any foreign voyage was to write an itinerary, a simple, approximate one, EG: Gibraltar
late June, Spanish Med Coast until mid August, then bound East for Greece etc: I was told that this caused the Coastguard no extra problems as they simply entered the details on a computer and linked it to my Epirb identification number.
This procedure paid dividends when I did get wrecked, as on triggering my Epirb my location was confirmed with my submitted itinerary so reinforcing a genuine distress activation. The US Coast Guard told me later that the time between Epirb activation
and airborne in their Helicopter was 40 minutes, and in just over 2 hours I was safe ashore in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
HM Coast Guard did say that the number of accidental or malicious distress calls, not necessarily Epirbs, but alarms in general, severely tested their systems, and man power.. person power?
at times.
On my return to England having left my boat on a reef in the Bahamas, I called into HM Coast Guard JRCC at Pendennis Point Falmouth to say thank you and tie up the end of the story.
My practice before setting out on any foreign voyage was to write an itinerary, a simple, approximate one, EG: Gibraltar
late June, Spanish Med Coast until mid August, then bound East for Greece etc: I was told that this caused the Coastguard no extra problems as they simply entered the details on a computer and linked it to my Epirb identification number.
This procedure paid dividends when I did get wrecked, as on triggering my Epirb my location was confirmed with my submitted itinerary so reinforcing a genuine distress activation. The US Coast Guard told me later that the time between Epirb activation
and airborne in their Helicopter was 40 minutes, and in just over 2 hours I was safe ashore in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
HM Coast Guard did say that the number of accidental or malicious distress calls, not necessarily Epirbs, but alarms in general, severely tested their systems, and man power.. person power?
at times.
