CONTINUOUSWAVE

So over in Merry Old England on the Humber River (due north of London, due east of Liverpool if you look for it), there was a collision and sinking of [a vessel as a result of a collision in fog with a large ship]. The five [principals] involved were all very knowledgeable seamen with extensive experience in the area:

--vessel owner
--buyer's representative
--ship's master
--ship's chief officer
--VTS officer

The reckless acts of one were compounded by improper action by the rest. No injuries, just another sunken boat. The first link I found was from an iPad blurb on how the captain relied on the iPad for navigation but lost the compass without a wifi signal.

iPads used as navigation aids need to be connected to the internet OR need to be the cell chip version which include the GPS chip (cell service does not need to be active).

iPad story

UK Marine accident report

As is typical with USCG findings, everyone involved gets some blame. But the compounding of the events of the first person responsible makes for a bad day for everyone around him.

Interesting and thanks what a loss of a beautiful classic and glad the crew was OK

Thanks for the pointer to the British maritime accident report. I love reading maritime accident reports. They are filled with interesting observations and terrific (in hindsight) recommendations about what should have been done.

To attempt to navigate a recreational boat in dense fog and cross a busy commercial shipping lane while relying on an iPod navigation application using position finding via shore-based WiFi was really crazy. And now we have an account of what happens when you try it.

jimh wrote: I love reading maritime accident reports.

If you think marine accident reports are interesting, you should read a NIOSH firefighter fatality report.

The stowing of the mast and not using the GPS was stupid.

Transiting waters in darkness without all navigation lights working is stupid.

Transiting waters with large commercial traffic in dense fog without AIS and/or radar is asking for it.

The pilot deserves to loose his certificate. What a maroon!

Great write up. Very informative. They sure are unforgiving in their ruling. On lake Ontario I've been out in very heavy fog and even with the on board gps, a hand held gps and maps I was lost the whole time and just kept turning circles trying to get back to shore. Looks like the heavy fog caused a delay on my gps updating.

The accident report mentions that the doomed vessel had no compass; I wonder if one would have benefited them. Likewise, I wonder if user floater had a compass available when he "...just kept turning circles..."

Having experienced heavy fog on the Maine coast, I see there are two important elements.

You need to know where you are. This is obtained with radar or GPS.

You need to know where everyone else is. This is obtained via radar and to some degree AIS.

In my local waters in Casco Bay, Maine, some local fishermen and recreational boaters (me included) would use one of the commercial ferries (300 passengers) that ran to 9 of the larger islands in the bay as a guide boat when there was heavy fog.

I would plan my departure to coincide with their scheduled transit past the boat ramp. By following them at a safe distance you could get to a neighboring island close to your destination. The trip took significantly longer since you had to wait at each of their stops prior to your intended destination.

I have a Richie compass aboard my Whaler. Didn't help me at all. When the fog rolls in during the salmon derby there could be upwards of a hundred boats out there at any time of the week. You are so busy watching the fog for other boats, the rods and the electronics you loose track of the compass as it's the most forward on my cockpit. I go real slow and blow a whistle every few seconds.

I used to be somewhat skeptical about the value of RADAR on smaller recreational boasts. Then one morning on Lake Superior we awoke to a fog so thick you could barely see 20-feet ahead. Then the light went on, so to speak. If you are boating in an area where fog is common then RADAR seems like a good investment.

On the other hand, here on northern Lake Michigan I can recall only two foggy mornings in the last 30 Summers, so investing in RADAR is a low priority for me.

In our almost never foggy Northern Gulf Coast area we see a lot of boats, large and small, equipped with radar. It seems to be valued for it's ability to detect flocks of birds feeding on smaller fish driven to the surface by larger predators and to detect isolated storms in the area. The obvious benefits are to help catch more fish and to skirt storms.

I believe Sirius offers a subscription package enabling the display of live local weather on a subscribers MFD. This may negatively affect radar sales although offshore anglers seem to spare no expense to improve their chances to catch fish. Given the very high cost of purchasing and maintaining offshore capable fishing boats perhaps the cost of radar is a negligible part of the overall expense.