Boat Tragedy

[sanctuary]

Seems that we small dingy fishermen will be blamed regardless of the obvious dangers of high speed ferries in confind areas http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/lancashi...TOPNEWS0ZM.html . How often does this have to happen before action is taken or will they continue to blame the victims. They have erected signs warning of the dangers of "freak waves" along the beeches in several areas so they know it is a real and present danger. This is happening all over the country many anglers have been killed so when does it stop?

[gonefishing]

4.6m is one hell of a dingy...must have been quite a wave.

 

theres a nasty (well its suprising) wash that comes off the cat ferry going into poole...they slow down far out but if your fishing at swanage you can expect a wash 10 mins after its passed if your sitting near the waters edge on the beach. A few miles seems like a long way for a wave to travel, but the cat has to be at least 1-2 miles away when it passes.

 

On a still day ive seen our boat wake go for 10 mins after we've done a ski run down the beach...dont know what the speed of a wake is but thats still quite a distance over that time.

 

Surely they can just speed trap and fine them?

[Chris Goddard]

AS the report mentions a wash It's shame that the real "Wash" was not officially blamed, Which wash?? The bloody whitewash that the gent so aptly describes!!!

You do not need to be Scientist to predict what happens when a vessel of a couple of thousand tons passes a 6.4M boat in a channel!!! It's totallt obvious what ruddy happens and IMHO the act committed here was MURDER!! The act was pre-conceived and therefore has to be investigated as Murder!!!

Or are they saying that no-one was actually at the helm?? they have no radar aboard?? Total bloody whitewash!!

 

 

Chris

[argyll]

Sorry guys I cant agree. I wouldn't want to fish inshore 'five up' in a 14' speedboat with only three lifejackets. A speedboat is not a stable fishing platform particularly with five people aboard. If some of the bouyancy had been removed then that may well have contributed to the 'overload' factor I have a custom built 14'6" fishing semi V used in freshwater and would consider having five people on a fishing party on the river to be dangerous, let alone in the salt. That doesn't let the ferry skipper entirely off the hook but a boat properly designed for inshore fishing with the correct level of bouyancy in place may well have weathered the wave. I'm more concerned with how the emergency services would appear to have dropped a serious ricket in this case.

 

[ 13. May 2004, 01:19 AM: Message edited by: argyll ]

[Elton]

Imagine you'd caused that much damage to a road surface and somebody had died as a consequence...

[spasor]

I`d like to agree with the victims, but I can`t.

Sorry, you shouldn`t fish from small boats in sea-lanes!!

Was the small boat big enough to show up on the ferries radar? Did the small boat have a radar reflector?

I think the answer will be no?

 

As much as some folk like the idea of owning a small boat for fishing. There are some very basic rules you have to stick to.

1. Never fish in a shipping lane. Even if its` only the occasional ferry.

2. Your craft must be able to show itself to larger craft! If that means a radar reflector. Then that`s what it takes.

 

It`s no good saying "They must have seen us"! Large vessels have a very large turning circle. Maybe the ferry saw them at the last moment and took avoiding action?

 

I`m not appointing blame to anyone. But let this be a warning to other small boat users!!

Just because you can see them, doesn`t mean they`ve spotted you!!

Stay out of the shipping channels!

Just wish I`d never had to say this.

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

 

I agree with your rules Paul but there is one small problem.. Loch Ryan is like most Scottish Lochs, long and narrow. So in reality you can fish well away from the shipping lane but still get the full force of the wash. This has been well documented by the Shore anglers fishing the Loch, quite a few of them have had close calls due to the ferry wash.

 

As for the boat.. what's the problem, if as they say it was rated for 6 people it wasnt over loaded. It was being used on a shelterd sea loch which is smaller than most fresh water Lochs up here. Their only downfall was not to have enough life jackets on board and the fact that the helicopter was searching the wrong area.

 

in short the report is a whitewash, covering up for the ferry's just because of the economic value to the local area.

[Ian Burrett]

Loch Ryan is a sheltered sea loch 9 miles long and 2-3 miles wide and has been used by locals for recreational purposes way before the high speed ferries turned up,

The ferries cruise at 30 knots in the open sea and are supposed to reduce to 12 knots when entering the loch but with tight schedules often exceed this.

It is impossible to avoid the wake as even at 12 knots the ferries will create a metre high wash that crashes on the banks either side.

 

A mate of mine hired out the engine the coastguards used to test the boat. They went to sea with the appropiate number of people on board. The unofficial line at the time was they were suprised how buoyant the boat was.

 

This is not an islated incident as three people have been washed off the rocks that i know off resulting in one drowning a few years ago. and a few local lads have been swamped launching and recovering.

 

On this occasion radar reflectors which they may or may not have had, would not have made any difference.

 

The local feeling is that it's just a matter of time before it happens again

 

To me the question is, Should high speed Ferries be allowed to operate in narrow Sheltered inshore waters?

[JONNYX]

here on the lizard we often see bow waves crashing on the shore while the vessel that created it is out of sight over the horizon heading up the channel at full speed. scary stuff.

[Jim Roper]

Area Map

 

edit note - only made the looonnnnggggg map link shorter to keep the thread from being so wide. Newt

 

[ 14. May 2004, 11:39 PM: Message edited by: Newt ]