Ouzo report and trial

[codprawn]

This tradgedy just goes on and on. The officer of the watch on the Pride of Bilbao was found not guilty I am pleased to say. Pleased as there was no evidence to say it was actually their ship that caused the ACCIDENT.

It seems the MCA haven't escaped blame either.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/h...re/7125755.stm

The Coastguard response to the tragedy was "seriously inadequate"

# Only beginning a helicopter search for other possible survivors after six hours.

# Failing to broadcast to other shipping in the area to join in a search effort for other possible survivors.

# At midnight they failed again to search for survivors after the girlfriend of Mr Meaby contacted MRCC Solent to express concern that he and his two friends had not arrived at their destination.

# Ignoring police advice that the discovery of the body suggested a yacht could have been sunk.

# Failing to instruct the fishing vessel that found Mr Meaby's body to pull him out of the water to see if there was any chance of resuscitation.

Very worrying.

The men had lifejackets on - useless with no means to communicate. You MUST have something attached to you at ALL TIMES - wether it be flares - a VHF or that thing that most people have in their pockets - a mobile phone. Yes I AM going to mention freezer bags again - 5p to possibly save a life. It may not have worked in this case - 7 miles out - but it might have!!!

[Rogue Wave]

Originally Posted by codprawn

The men had lifejackets on - useless with no means to communicate. You MUST have something attached to you at ALL TIMES - wether it be flares - a VHF or that thing that most people have in their pockets - a mobile phone. Yes I AM going to mention freezer bags again - 5p to possibly save a life. It may not have worked in this case - 7 miles out - but it might have!!!

Fair poit I think I maight stick my trump in my lifejacket

[Simon B]

Not to appealing if you have to manually top it up!

[Rogue Wave]

Originally Posted by Simon B

Not to appealing if you have to manually top it up!

http://www.bosuns.co.uk/store/showpa...NumberID=86370

[codprawn]

Wow that should put the wind up some old Grannies on the bus!!!

[havener]

As usual with these sorts of enquiries, more questions are asked than answered.

I think the verdict was the right one - from what I've read, there did seem to be very little substantial evidence to suggest the Bilbao was involved. The tanker might have a few more questions to answer though.

I haven't seen the ops room transcript from Solent MRCC so won't comment on their actions, but there are always lessons to be learnt after every incident.

To me, it reiterates one thing - I really do believe that for all boats based in UK ports it should be mandatory to carry a self-releasing EPIRB. I can't say with anything other than a gut feeling is that in this case, it may have saved lives.

The RYA also issued a statement that craft should look at the effectiveness of their nav lights. How true - belive me, from the bridge of a large vessel your average leisure boat nav lights are pisspoor.

Of course the best way to be seen in the first place is to fit a good radar, and have it running - I appreciate this would be outside many people's budgets to retrofit, but when you look at the costs of a new yacht or motorboat, a couple of grand on radar and EPIRB wouldn't make much of a difference.

The other main thing to remember though is three families have lost their loved ones. The best thing we could do for them is to learn the lessons, and help avoid other families being in the same position in future.

[C2 RIBS]

Good points well made, the best options must be personnal EPIRB and they start about £300, or a hand held waterproof VHF AND mini flares. All an option but worth your life

[codprawn]

I disagree with a self releasing EPIRB - they are great for a conventional sinking but aren't much good for a capsize which is what happens to most RIBs. A PLB is the obvious choice.

The same goes for liferafts - not much use in a capsize.

Thinking about it the tanker could well have been the culprit - it is almost impossible not to notice the Pride of Bilbao - it's lit up like a Christmas tree!!!

[havener]

My reservation about personal EPIRBs is that if something went wrong quicky on a lovely summers day, they would probably be in a locker not on the person needing them. Also, how do you ensure every crew member / passenger has one - would get expensive quickly.

Codders (if I may call you that ) not sure about the problem with self releasers -we've trialled them in all sorts of situations and trust me, they've released from ribs and pilot boats capsized on a crane strop without any problems, as they have on capsizes on ocean yacht races.

Still be better than nowt though!

[C2 RIBS]

So you would opt for a self release beacon on the boat and not carry EPIRB clipped to lifejacket