Ship to shore: accessibility challenges
A few weeks ago I fell out of a power chair descending a gangway to a fast ferry. This started me thinking about improvements to link-span or gangway design. Read on for some simple suggestions.
Fatalities in falls between quay and vessels: urgent standardisation of recovery equipment needed.
It’s time to standardise the external operation of equipment for recovering man overboard casualties during mooring operations. Otherwise we will continue to see accident reports where casualties are recovered alongside alive – but succumb before they can be brought to deck level.
Are you safe to be sleeping aboard?
A screaming horn breaks through the night. Startled awake the crews of a bank of moored yachts blearily being to think. There’s a wild, deep thrashing and screaming resonating in the hull. Sinister and so very different from the utterly regular Thump, Flump, Thump, of a freighter in the channel. Before sea-boots can be reached … Read more
High speed pass: fatal disaster
On the evening of 25 May 2019, at sea in the vicinity of Cannes, the Yacht Vision was under the command of an unqualified master who was a regular, if moderate, of cannabis. Influenced by charter party requests, he attempted a very high speed pass of the anchored yacht Minx. The attempt failed, and Vision … Read more
Leisure drowning incidents involve alcohol in one third of cases – on average.
In my blog relating the Norwegian experiences of fatal casualties in recreational marine incidents, Investigators highlighted an association between drowning and ‘inebriation’. On average, across more than 70 studies, alcohol was involved in 28% of fatal and 35% of non fatal leisure drownings.
Want to stay alive? Wear a PFD / Lifejacket.
Wear a lifejacket (PFD). It’s a marine safety mantra. Yet people still opt out. A study of six years of RNLI incident data shows that in all inshore, coastal and near water activity wearing a lifejacket is indisputably the dominant factor in survival when things go wrong.
Holy angels on the loose
The Christmas story is full of Angels. Not nice metaphorical angels, but fearful bearers of the news of heaven, breaking into the both ordered and hardscrabble human life. As we live through the Third Lockdown of Coronatide, God’s holy angels who announced the birth of the Christ in Bethlehem, are still on the loose. These … Read more
Fatal casualties in recreational marine incidents. A Norwegian perspective
In a scoping study of recreational marine accidents in Norway 2008-2018 the Norwegian marine incident branch collated information about recreational fatalities, and incidents. Half the fatalities were attributable to drowning, associated with capsize especially in the context of small vessels, falling overboard, or falling between jetty and vessel. Due to collection methods the most reliable … Read more
Five lessons from fatalities in the Jackson Pond Marina fire.
At the start of 2020, a massive fire at Jackson Pond in Ohio, a lakeside marina, led to eight fatalities. The details of the NTSB report offer insights that could prevent future deaths in the event of a serious fire developing in a UK or European marina. An electrical fault on one of the boats … Read more
Abandoned ordnance still hazards fishermen
Shortly before Christmas 2020 the 12m fishing boat Galwad-Y-Mor was hauling her gear when an underwater explosion occurred. The ships company of 7 were all injured, some in life changing ways. The boat was heavily damaged and but for the good practice of the crew would have sunk. The presumption at this stage is that … Read more