So what happens to the ferry Capt.

Guy's kinda lucky it wasn't a USN vessel too big to turn away.

After a few toots on their horn to warn him off they may have started jumping to conclusions about who was running the boat and why....

 

The ferry T-boned the stand on vessel, so it was clearly the fault of the stand on vessel in your world?

 

The ferry seems to have stopped. Sadly the guy on the sh*tter did not even acknowledge the alarm signal until he knocked himself off the sh*tter.

 

gCaptain article and video​

 

Long video, and he repeated things many times, but it's about what I thought the first time I watched the ferry crash video.

It was interesting so many people thought the camera was located in a different place, or that the ferry was stopped at the time.

I've been on those ferries so often, and boated around them for decades, so staying out of their way is second nature, you don't even think about it.

 

Now archived for posterity on FailArmy at 3:00

 

Maybe the same idea will work.

 

If you watch the video carefully you will see that the ferry is slowing (relative motion to Vashon Island in the back ground). But the person shooting the video starts moving aft which makes it look like the ferry is still moving forward. As the boat strikes the ferry his camera view tilts down and all that white water you see is the ferry's propellers in full reverse. Yes the rec boat hit the ferry, but it hit the ferry with it's bow on the Ferry's starboard quarter. I've done a lot of collision investigations between rec boats (never done one between a ferry and a rec boat, although I know of at least two) and this is pretty clear who was at fault. But I will say the testimony at the hearing should be interesting.

Me too. It's best to stay away from all commercial traffic. It's the old right of weight rule. A ditty I think we all learned as beginners "he was right, dead right as he sailed along, but he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong."

By the way, that helm seat idea is a good one for single handed boats. You should patent that.

That's a lot more common than you might think. On the lake where I fish I have seen that done many times, and the guys doing it don't seem to care. Of course back when I was doing boating accident investigations we used to see it too. The coroners report would say something to the effect, "the body was found on the bottom. The subjects fly was open" In other words they were doing it over the side or stern and fell overboard and drowned.

 

For the ferry movement I'm watching the water and position of the other boat. If the ferry wasn't moving the boat would have passed in front of it, by watching the water and the boat's heading it shows the ferry was moving forward. It wasn't until a split second before the collision that the ferry tried to come to a stop, but if you watch the water churning the ferry is still moving forward at the time of impact.

I’m not paying any attention to the camera movement.

 

http://m.imgur.com/gallery/zxZmAkY

Best comment: captain's log

 

In my home waters, which are somewhat more restricted than those of this incident, you have to give way to vessels, restricted in manouvering by their size or draft.

My only comment on the video is that it appears the ferry skipper was late in throwing everything into reverse. He was probably expecting the motorboat to keep clear like everyone else and the skipper of the motorboat would have done had he been on deck.

 

Ironically, had the MB guy been on the other poop deck....

 

Ike,

As I view it the ferry struck the MY about a third of the way back with its bow. I just can't see how you could drive a MV sideways.

To be clear, I am not defending the MY. Leaving the healm was stupid for any number of reasons, but as I watch the video the primary fault is the give way vessel (ferry) for failing to give way.


But even if you are correct that the MY struck the ferry, the ferry was still the give way vessel and failed to do so as evidenced by the fact that stand on vessel made no course or speed corrections (probably because to skipper was on the shitter) and the vessels still collided. Had the ferry given way properly there would have been no collision.


This is what I can't figure out about this entire issue. One boat is clearly the stand on vessel, one boat is clearly the give way vessel. A collision occurred. And yet everyone seems to want to heap fault on the stand on vessel.


The Q,

If the ferry was claiming to be restricted or constrained then it would change who was the give way vessel. But the ferries are not restricted or constrained in those waters. And size by itself does not effect rights or obligations the vessel in question has to claim those rights in part by flying the day shape/lights of a vessel so impaired.

 

Not quite, an approaching vessel has to give the give way vessel time to manouver, if it is large it can take some considerable time and it does not have to display any additional shapes or flags.
The extreme stupid example would be a yacht tacking towards a super tanker and then expecting it to avoid a collision

However as you say in those waters the ferry is not restricted in the waters and as I said the ferry was late in altering course / reversing engines.
So both are at fault the Skipper of the ferry for failing to avoid a collision, the motorboat for failing to keep a look out and failing to avoid a collision (he could not have avoided a collision had he been give way vessel).

 

An update on what happened to the captain.

http://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news...buted-crash-between-ferry-powerboat/98497218/