Builder guilty of manslaughter

[MikeJohns]

Perhaps in portent of things to come we will see an increased awareness of the judicial system that designers and builders are culpable of manslaughter.

In this case in Australia the principal of the building yard has been found guilty and the way is now clear for civil action for damages from the relatives of the deceased. The verdict is to be appealed and there is as yet no indication of the likely sentence.
This will be a wake-up call to some of the builders out there who are not building to any class with the resultant supervision (and transfer of liability).

Article follows:
Excalibur builder guilty

http://images.brisbanetimes.com.au/2009/04/02/447365/N_CITADINNI-420x0.jpg Alex Cittadini Photo: Jon Reid

Sushi Das

April 2, 2009
IT TOOK just 30 seconds for the ocean racing yacht Excalibur to flip over in the Pacific when its keel snapped off, leading to the death of four of the six Melbourne crew.
Somebody had cut the 2½ metre stainless steel keel while the boat was being built, and then rewelded it back together so badly it had no chance of withstanding the weather conditions that night which, in sailing terms, were very challenging, but not extreme. That was seven years ago.
Yesterday, Alex Cittadini, the director and engineer of Applied Alloy Yachts, the now-defunct company that built the yacht, was found guilty on four counts of manslaughter in the NSW District Court.
The jury found Cittadini either knew about the cut and reweld, or should have.
Adrian Presland, the man who built the keel under Cittadini's supervision, was acquitted of manslaughter charges earlier this week.
But while a guilty verdict has brought closure for those racked by the tragedy, it does not provide answers to burning questions. Who cut the keel? And why?
The $1 million, 15-metre yacht capsized at 9pm on September 16, 2002, 40 nautical miles off Port Stephens on the NSW mid-North Coast. It had been returning to Melbourne from Coffs Harbour after taking part in the annual Hamilton Island race.
The two survivors, skipper Brian McDermott, of Elwood, and fellow yachtsman John Rogers, of Greenvale, suffered a seven-hour ordeal in chilly waters before being rescued by the Filipino crew of a bulk carrier.
They believe they will never know the exact circumstances that led to the deaths of their friends and fellow crew: Christopher Heyes, 51, a semi-retired company director, whose body was found still attached to the boat; Annmaree Pope, 30, a radiographer; Tracey Luke, 32, an accountant; and marine engineer Peter McLeod, 51. Their bodies were never found.
Mr McDermott yesterday described the verdict as "fantastic", but added that despite a coronial inquest and a trial, some facts remained a mystery. "All we really wanted was for justice to occur, and this is a better outcome than we could have hoped for. It really gives complete closure for everyone," he said, speaking from India, where he is on a work-related assignment.
"It's just been really hard to extract the truth out of the people who built the boat. We still do not know the truth as to who did it (cut the keel) and why. I guess now we'll never know, but at least someone has been held accountable."
Fellow survivor Mr Rogers said those who had been involved in the manufacture of the boat had, in evidence given during the court cases, denied any knowledge of the keel being cut and rewelded.
In 2002, two metallurgists told the coroner's inquest a forensic examination of the remaining stump of the keel showed it had been cut on both sides and welded together again, very poorly.
"Who cut it? It's the burning question that everyone wants to know," said Mr Rogers. "Unless someone has a major guilt complex and comes forward, none of us are really going to know the answer."
But at least the verdict would make other builders "think twice before doing any shoddy workmanship", he said.
Excalibur's owner, Alan Saunders, of Vermont South, who commissioned its construction by Cittadini, said the verdict had provoked mixed emotions including relief, surprise and frustration over unanswered questions.
His wife and co-owner of the yacht, Auriol Saunders, said outside the court that she was astounded that were still no minimum standards on the construction of racing yacht keels.
The couple plan to seek the support of friends and colleagues to launch a campaign to lobby for minimum standards and regulations to ensure safety standards were met.
Outside court, Christine Heyes and David Heyes, wife and brother of Christopher Heyes, who died, said they were relieved by the verdict. When asked if he wanted to see Cittadini go to jail, David Heyes replied: "Why not?
"At the end of the day four very precious lives have died as a result of this …
"This man needs to sit in a box and reflect on his actions, and the lives that have been taken."
Cittadini intends to appeal the verdict.




Source: The Age (http://www.theage.com.au/)

[Landlubber]

Yeah, well, if shoddy work really was the result, the person should be charged and so on.

There are way too many people working on boats that are both unqualified and incompetant. There are also many incompetant , yet qualified.

I have worked on boats all my life (I am 60), so have seen and witnessed many bad things done, some of them have resulted in sinkings and loss of lives too........my comments to workers doing this shoddy work was, why.....yet they believed they were doing the right thing.

I guess a qualification for work is a good starting point, unfortunately true competancy is a matter of experience, and experience takes time.

The new Boatbuilding (Trade) courses teach far less than the old schools used to do, they need more "tradesmen", so they rush them through...it still takes about 4 to 10 years to be a reasonablly competant worker.

Bad welding, on the other hand is known both to the welder and the observer, very few bad welds are any good, but most good welds are as they appear. Work hidden onder protective coatings is invisible, so we expect people to do the best world standard practices....this is however not always the norm.

[Guest20100203]

Bad welds are usually pretty easy to see. Meaning more then one person was likely involved. Someone cut the keel, someone attempted to hide this mistake with a crappy weld, someone filled the weld, someone faired the filler, someone applied paint on the area. Lots of people in that yard know what happened and I suspect it will eventually come down to someone wanting to stay out of jail for the deeds of someone else. I've been in both situations and I knew damn well what was going on, even if it was being covered up by a few boneheads hoping not to get yelled at or worse.

[Frosty]

I would suggest that it was probably due to transportation, A quick way out, awhh just get it welded mate.

However the owner should be responsable. I dont think regulation and licensing is the answer, it just puts costs up.

The owner of the yard should know what he is about and employ others who do.

You don't need to be licensed to work in a car factory --just trained with supervision which was obviously lacking in the boat keel case as no one seems to even know who did it,--hard to beleive,--but if he wants to take the wrap, so be it.

[Willallison]

News just in...

Boat builder wins Excalibur Manslaughter Appeal



An Australian boatbuilder has won his appeal against a manslaughter conviction over the deaths of four people when their yacht lost its keel and capsized at sea.

Melbourne boat builder Alex Cittadini 51, was sentenced in July 2009 by the NSW Supreme Court over the deaths of Christopher Heyes, 51, Peter McLeod, Anne-Maree Pope, 30 and Tracey Luke, 32.

The Alan Saunders owned 15 metre yacht Excalibur after competing in regattas at both Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island. There had been some concerns about the boat's appendages at Hamilton Island and she was lifted from the water there. She began showing signs of keel problems near Seal Rocks off the NSW mid-north coast, on its way back from the Whitsundays in September 2002,

The crew reduced sail and began heading to Port Stephens, but the keel and bulb broke away completely and the yacht capsized. Four of the crew were drowned.

Excalibur's skipper, Brian McDermott, and crew John Rogers were the only survivors of the capsize.

The two sailors spent seven hours clinging together in heavy seas before being rescued by a bulk carrier after setting off a personal Epirb. The 60,000 tonne carried was directed to their GPS position by AMSA and nearly ran the pair down.

When the yacht was salvaged it was found that the 2.5m keel had been cut horizontally and re-welded during its construction, which dramatically reduced its strength. The cut had been rendered less visible with having been polished across the weld line.

The Excalibur was built at the Applied Alloy Yachts factory in Bayswater, Melbourne, where Cittadini was both a co-director and supervising engineer.

In April 2009, Adrian Presland, the welder in charge of the keel construction was acquitted from the same manslaughter charges. Prosecutors failed to prove that he was responsible beyond a reasonable doubt for the work on the Excalibur.

In the subsequent case the Crown alleged his employer Alex Cittadini had been criminally negligent in allowing the delivery of the yacht with a major fault. It had been launched just four months before the fatal incident.

Cittadini, was found guilty of manslaughter and was sentenced to three years' jail with an 18 months non-parole period.



Handing down his sentence, Judge Stephen Norrish had said: 'The degree of negligence was serious. As the manager of the business he was under a duty (to provide) proper quality control.' The Judge said he was not convinced that Cittadini knew about the shoddy workmanship. 'There's no suggestion he did the welding,' said Norrish. 'The person who did it may have hid it from the accused.'

Judge Norrish told the court there was an 'element of inexperience' in Cittadini's employees when it came to making yachts. 'I am satisfied he would have rectified the fault if he knew,' the judge said. 'This case would appear to be a case of manslaughter by omission.'

After the case Judge Norrish granted Cittadini bail pending an appeal over his conviction on the condition he report to Melbourne’s Box Hill police station daily, and that a surety of $50,000 be deposited on his behalf.

Today the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal has today overturned the conviction of Alex Cittadini.

The court had heard the Melbourne boat builder was unaware that the keel of the million-dollar yacht had been cut and re-welded.

Outside the court, Cittadini welcomed a decision and expressed his sympathy for the families of the victims.

[sabahcat]

The new Boatbuilding (Trade) courses teach far less than the old schools used to do, they need more "tradesmen", so they rush them through...it still takes about 4 to 10 years to be a reasonablly competant worker.

Bad welding, on the other hand is known both to the welder and the observer, very few bad welds are any good, but most good welds are as they appear. Work hidden onder protective coatings is invisible, so we expect people to do the best world standard practices....this is however not always the norm.

I did my time at LLoyds Ships in Alloy

The boat builders didn't do the welding, that was a boilermakers job.

Have things changed?

[whoosh]

I did my time at LLoyds Ships in Alloy

The boat builders didn't do the welding, that was a boilermakers job.

Have things changed?

in NZ boatbuilders in Alloy take the weld tickets, we pretty much do all, , forming, shaping, stretching, but in some bigger yards there are guys who can only weld Aussie (boilermakers) that is a very lose term there for fabricator, even if he/she only fabricates straight sections, like RSJ, UB etc, most (boilermakers) have never seen a cylinder or boiler end flange let alone make one
We covered this case and keels in depth before, so wont go there. glad the court saw sense really, as this country is litigation mad,officially worse than USA

[Wynand N]

The boat builders didn't do the welding, that was a boilermakers job.

Have things changed?

A Boilermaker is not a welder - period.

I been a qualified boilermaker since 1978 and done my apprenticeship and worked in a fuel refinery, as well as construction of coal firing power stations etc, done all types of steel fabrication and construction. Whenever you assembled something there you had a qualified welder tacking it together with the correct welding procedure in place for the job.

All that said, most boilermakers can weld and do so regularly, myself included, but welding should best be left for a qualified welder, especially non ferrous alloys such as aluminum and or "difficult" steels.

In fact, In my country you either pass a boilermaker trade test or welders trade test after completing an apprenticeship in the specific discipline to be tested for at the state trade testing facilities...

[whoosh]

A Boilermaker is not a welder - period.

I been a qualified boilermaker since 1978 and done my apprenticeship and worked in a fuel refinery, as well as construction of coal firing power stations etc, done all types of steel fabrication and construction. Whenever you assembled something there you had a qualified welder tacking it together with the correct welding procedure in place for the job.

All that said, most boilermakers can weld and do so regularly, myself included, but welding should best be left for a qualified welder, especially non ferrous alloys such as aluminum and or "difficult" steels.

In fact, In my country you either pass a boilermaker trade test or welders trade test after completing an apprenticeship in the specific discipline to be tested for at the state trade testing facilities...

happy Christmas Wynn:)) where have you been ?

[Wynand N]

Happy and blessed festive season to you and family as well Stuart:cool: .

Looking at my avatar you will notice that I am now retired officially from steel boat building and that is final. Otherwise I am still running my small retail boat shop and doing GRP repairs to stinkpots.
Will soon be shutting that down as well and will specialize (with my son) in abrasives and related products as a distributor. As a sideline I am going to sell cars as well and hopefully I will be more successful with this than with boats - financially that is.

Otherwise I mostly spent my time now on my custom fitted 17ft fishing cabin cruiser called "Fish Tales" chasing the big ones that got away and enjoying the gift of life....

[DGreenwood]

It would have been just as easy to hide the screw up from the inspector as it was from the owners representative...probably easier.

If the builder so lacked integrity as to risk peoples lives that way, then why would he do it for the sake of a regulation buried in a government manual?

It was a really stupid move on his part and I think he is going to end up paying for it, as he should.

A keel is nothing to mess with on race boats. The margins are close and the engineering specs need to be followed to the letter!

I have seen such work before and I would not keep my mouth shut. If I think it is dangerous for the users I raise hell and document my protestation.