Bourbon Dolphin capsizes

The captain got on the ship approx 30 april, less than 2 weeks before the accident, he was given 1,5 hours to make himself accuainted with the ship, before it sailed out from Shetland. The crew were not given the opportunity to drill/practice on the task ahead, even if it were considered complicated...

DNV get some pepper, as they approved the ship....
Same does the the manufacturer(yard) of the ship...
The rig gets mentioned as beeing uniterested/ passive in the problems the crew of Bourbon Dolphin experienced...

No single person seem to get blame, the company get the blame, don't know if they'll accept the fine though.

You've probably seen this:
http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/nyheter/spill/verdi/47575

 

5,000,000 kroner is not going to hurt Bourbon, its a few days hire money for an anchor handler.
No doubt, there will be civil actions brought against Bourbon by the families of the crew, which no dount will for considerably higher sums.
What will hurt Bourbon is the poor press they have received since the incident.
I very much doubt that at the end of the day anyone is going to receive jail time

 

They have one week to accept or not accept.

There will probably follow civil law suits from the families of the crew. That'll never bring back the crew...

 

Bourbon is not having a good time right now,
From Associated Press:
"Pirates hijacked a French boat (during the night of Sat 3 to Sunday 4) and took its nine crew members hostage in the latest attack in some of the world's most dangerous waters off oil-rich southern Nigeria, the boat's owner said Monday.
The captain of the Bourbon Leda was able to speak with the boat's owners Sunday and said that all nine crew members were unharmed, according to a statement by the company, Bourbon, which provides specialist boats for the oil and gas industry. It said in the statement Monday that it was working to free the crew.
"It was hijacked by gunmen in about five speedboats. The vessel lost contact with the control room around the Okwori oilfield area near Bonny," the source, a private security contractor working in the oil industry, told Reuters.
It was the second time in just more than two months that a boat owned by Bourbon was attacked and those aboard taken hostage.

 

Just going back to the subject of stability booklets.
I'm up in Norway at the moment, on sea trials with the new boat, and have just this evening gotten hold of the preliminary stability book from the yard.
Its blatently obvious that since the BD incident, the auther of the book has gone to town on a CYA exercise.
From the old days of a couple of lines in the Notes to Master, we now have a couple dozen pages, covering towing, anchor handling, deck cargo, water on deck, water entrapment, and icing.
The section on icing is really interesting, paragraghs on how stability is reduced as the vessel ices up, and how important it is that ice is removed. It then goes on to say that the crew need to wear warm clothes, especially gloves to avoid frost bite while clearing ice. And, in the extreme event that the vessel is likely to capsize, then to abandon ship. Also, pack a bag of warm clothes for all the crew, and remember to bail out the lifeboat or liferaft. What on earth this advice regarding frostbite has to do with stability is beyond me.
It was also interesting to note that the area given in which icing will occur is stated as north of 6N, and south of 6S, obviously the book has been written by a mathematician and not a seaman.
In the sections on deck cargo, it stipulates that certain ballast tanks MUST be used, when in fact other DB tanks could be used at no loss in stability.
Finally it says that no matter what is written in the book, if it all goes pear shape, its the Masters fault.

safe sailing
Nigel

 

I think people do EVERYTHING to cover there own rear, I must be careful out there, at 27s, there may be ice, although have not seen it , as yet

 

That's a typo. It's 60 N and 60 S (Well, you know that better than me)

Aren't we, NAs, great?

Best.

 

nigel

thanks for the links few months back for my sons abt officers school, looked into it and they do not have the math skills, pity
regards
Stuart

 

Hey Guillermo thats what I like about NA's their ability to write several pages of rubbish about nothing in particular and make it look like it's your fault! Happy New Year to you my Celtic friend! (talking of which I see Pete and the 'Mystery - local boat - are doing well!)

 

Hey Mike! Happy New Year to you too!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b38woxy6IRc&feature=related