Tragic drowning of three children in France

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dom

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According to Figaro this morning, a tragedy unfolded in France yesterday where three children were drowned following the capsize of a boat just off Agon-Coutainvilleas (Normandy). A quote attributed to the SNSM described the rescue operation as a nightmare, “According to Figaro a SNSM rescuer commented, "It was very fast and at the same time nightmarish, the time to set up a rescue vessel is 15 minutes, we did it as fast as we could. In these cases, it seems that time is stopping. It's dramatic, we're deeply affected and we'll be scarred for life,"

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-fr...e-qui-a-coute-la-vie-a-trois-enfants-20190813
 
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Tragic. For those of us that don't read French too well, does the report give more details about type of boat and what caused the capsize?
 
It was a small 4-5m cabin cruiser with an outboard which broke down while returning to the beach. The waves were 1-1.5m which started to break closer to the beach. It seems like the engine broke down, the boat turned sideways and was soon rolled. The 3 poor children - all wearing life jackets - took shelter in the cabin and were tragically trapped there.

Try Google translate; it’s really not bad.
 
"On the boat were three children and three adults. The minors, two girls of 9 and 13 years old and a boy of 7 years old from the Orne and Mayenne are drowned. Adults are uninjured or slightly injured."

Tragic. As an adult, how can one ever come to terms with that? I suspect that one never does. :(

Richard
 
Terrible. Must be devastating for the adults having believed they had placed the kids in the safest place.

There was a similar case a few years ago of a woman who drowned when trapped below decks wearing a life jacket and another accident when a couple of chaps drowned on tethers when a yacht rolled trying to get into closed port (Peniche?) but a guy not clipped on survived.
 
An appalling outcome in relatively innocuous circumstances, made worse by all parties doing their utmost to prevent such a tragedy.

Graham376 said:
and another accident when a couple of chaps drowned on tethers when a yacht rolled trying to get into closed port (Peniche?) but a guy not clipped on survived.
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Povoa Varzim
 
LadyInBed said:
Anyone know what a Star is?
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The original French word was Vedette which has numerous meanings in French.

In the nautical sense it can be anything from an inter-island ferry to a military craft.

In this case it’s the rescue boat.
 
How tragic.

I wonder if it all happened so quick that they did not get chance to deploy an anchor or if the understandable panic meant that they focused on trying to restart the engine. Maybe be a lesson to us all, loose steerage close to land, get an anchor out quick.
 
Dutch01527 said:
How tragic.

I wonder if it all happened so quick that they did not get chance to deploy an anchor or if the understandable panic meant that they focused on trying to restart the engine. Maybe be a lesson to us all, loose steerage close to land, get an anchor out quick.
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The poor father was trying to smash the windows with the anchor.
 
XDC said:
The poor father was trying to smash the windows with the anchor.
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That is very sad. Must have been really close to the beach and not had time to deploy the anchor before the capsize. Seems like they were responsible people caught up in a tragic situation.
 
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