Power cat disaster in Hout Bay, South Africa

And how would you stop people fron getting up and going to have a look !! Like i pointed out the skipper is the person responcable for his boat . I take the same responsability when i go out in my boat . When ever any one is on board they wear a life jacket all the time . and yes i have a couple of kids jackets. I also know who ever is onboard is compitant in the water and who isnt ,the ones that are not are my primary concern !
My kids from a very early age could drive the boat and we used to play at throwing a 4 litre plastic bottle overboard while going 30 knots and having to spot it and not take your eyes off , slow the boat ,turn and go to and circle the bottle and bring them up on the driverside with the stern away and when alongside switch the motor off .
My daughter at 8 years old was the best of the 3 kids and could do it properly everytime. Same when trolling for fish and got a strick she could slow right to an idle and then out of gear when the fish was netted and in the boat and then resume trolling again with 3 or 4 people fishing at once and getting stricks all the time take lots of concentration and she was on the button 100% of the time .

 

Good question. How would the skipper stop his passengers from getting up and going to have a look, during what's billed as a sightseeing jaunt? And how many lashes do you think he should get for failing?

Which is to say I'm not sure what your point is....

 

With every disaster there a chain of events leading up to it !! how far back should you go to lay the blame !! IF IT DIDNT HAPPEN ON THAT DAY IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SOME OTHER DAY JUST WHEN !!. The skipper is a big part to blame but also the owner (if he wasnt the skipper ) and the crew member . Its like that post where all those kids were on that boat and it sunk , its a simular kind of thing !!

 

Amen brother

 

typical cat story, it has a huge deck area so you can fill it up and just tack a couple of outboards on the back and it will go.
In Australia this was all done 40 years ago
where's the CoG and CoB on a cat with a flooded deck and outboards????

 

attached a pic during the sinking, please note that only a few people were on the upper deck at the time of the accident, only when the boat started sinking did the people go upstairs. from the pic you can also see that the old engine vents are completely under water, same for the bilge pump outlet (not that at that stage the bilge pump could have done anything)

 

Frightening picture.
horrible to see the people still in the front inside

 

The SAMSA press release

• For UNKNOWN reasons stability information was not provided by owners or approved by SAMSA.

The vessels last stability book which was approved for the MIROSHGA’s previous configuration with inboard engines does not identify flood points as observed on the vessel.

 

lots of complications
adding the outboards was done in a haphazard fashion


The vessels last stability book which was approved for the MIROSHGA’s previous configuration with inboard engines does not identify flood points as observed on the vessel. These flood points are compartment vents for the previous engine arrangements which potentially allow substantial amounts of water to enter into the compartment during vessel operations.
This problem was known to owners and crew who managed the water ingress by routinely running bilge pumps during voyages. SAMSA was not made aware of this problem at any time.
It appears that at the time of replacing inboard engines with outboard engine propulsion, the watertight sub-division arrangements within the hull were compromised allowing sea water coming into the compartment to cross flood into adjacent compartments which included the battery compartment for the engines.
In addition, the crew identified that the starboard engine out-mount was not watertight and needed to be emptied daily. Operation of the vessel with the starboard out-mount filled or partially filled would have contributed to the aft trim of the vessel increasing the potential for water to flood through any openings.

 

wow and so the list gets longer of people to blame starting with the owner and progessing down to the cleaner if they had one !!

 

Is this that difficult. If the boat would not have sunk without passengers then the passengers were the reason. How many passengers is then the point of interest.

Therefore taking the boat out with too many passengers with or without a licence is the responsibility of the captain who should be aware of how many passengers makes the boat loose stability.

It is highly likely he knew the minute he sail sail but was thinking of profit and his own job hoping he would get back to shore.

Had he been more experienced and professional he would not have left dock.

There is a thing at sea where the captain takes full responsibility unless your Italian.

 

Like that spineless Italian skipper, there's no question the skipper for this boat was seriously lacking in the brain housing group. By all appearances this was a very typical CAT design. However, any reasonable CAT skipper knows these boats should not be overloaded or put in rough sea conditions. If they do happen to capsize due to overloading and/or sea conditions a catamaran will not automatically right itself. They are 100% dependent on a skipper with a brain.

All the fuss about the design is well taken, but should be applied to all CAT boats in general and their known operating limitations. In this case the owner and/or skipper should be tried for voluntary manslaughter or the functional equivalent in South Africa.

SA should adopt larger, improved CAT I Trimaran designs like those used in the UK. Those CATS are huge, stable & cruise above big waves....no question a lot safer.

 

I have read that report a couple of times
and what comes back to me over and again
surely a boat like that, for Houtbay, cant be licensed for 42+3 people?

the the other thorn in my behind is the fact that a lot of people were involved with the "modifications" - jeeeezez guys what were you lot thinking?

and the owner is going to hang for being "casual" about safety and maintenance issues

and finally for everybody here - as a company director I was the responsible person and safety officer for our company when we were mining chrome ore during 1990 to 2000 in the now famous Rustenburg. So been there and got the "T" shirt.

SAMSA I lay the blame at your door, you only have a handful of "tourist" pleasure boats in this country operating out of a handfull of harbors. It is not rocket science so to check them out properly is actually easy. And this I have to say in my mother tongue:-

SAMSA kry julle gat in rat, hou op om soos n dom volstruis met daardie kak houding van kop in die sand rond te loop. Julle is kak sleg en bliksems onnosel. Kry mense met die vermoee om te dink, julle kan ophou om te kom braai en suip by die Vaaldam in Februarie. Kry mense met ondervinding en verstand anders is die toeriste bedryf daarmee heen.

Sorry about the rant folks but our "officials" needs a wake up call.

 

anyone that races a cat knows they are easy to roll and there are plenty of shots in OZ of rescue cats rolling over after they have stopped to help someone

 

Amen, Manie!
Afrikaans has a certain eloquence which I particularly enjoy!
My question is, and maybe Taniwha can shed some light, is it possible that the owners might be in a position to hammer SAMSA for their ignorance or ineptitude?
As a case in point, a good buddy of mine who now wears four bars on his shoulders, was "overtaken", whilst a junior officer, by a person who became an Official, in the omnipotent SAMSA. My buddy the captain indicted this official as being only partially capable of playing with rubber ducks in his own bathtub if closely supervised...
These are the sorts of dashboard-mascots who decide, or rather rubberstamp, vessels' seaworthiness certification...
Sorry about the rant, but I see legislation being the death of boating, if used incorrectly!