MAIB report: Celtic Pioneer

[Polwart]

The following report should be of interest to anyone operating ribs in rough water or at high speed. Especially those who do it commercially (oh, and Dr Ullman!)

http://www.maib.gov.uk/cms_resources...eer_Report.pdf

[C2 RIBS]

The report has some very interesting conclusions as well as some areas we all need to address, most of us have similar seating and hand rails. I will be reviewing again my safety briefings and also health and safety docs despite only updating them at beginning on May this year.
I will read it more thoroughly first but we all need to gain significant info from these reports

JK should this be in Commercial section?

[Polwart]

Ian,

I figured it would be just as relevant to the non-commercial users and actually I think most people read both sections (or at least the titles in both!).

Neil

[Grasshopper]

The extent of the injuries from landing heavily is a bit of an eye opener and it would be easy to write this off, as a one off event but this preliminary report would suggest otherwise.
http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/completed_preliminary_examinations/completed_preliminary_examinations_2009/ocean_ranger.cfm

This also may be of interest, apologise if this is old news to you.
http://www.maib.gov.uk/cms_resources...aft%5F09%2Epdf

[stevelondon79]

All interesting, if a little scary reading! It just shows how in depth every action we take is investigated when things go wrong and probably acts as a bit of a warning to slow up every now and then. Trouble is remembering this when you're having fun bouncing around in the waves!

[SeaSkills]

Originally Posted by stevelondon79

Trouble is remembering this when you're having fun bouncing around in the waves!

Speaking as someone who has lost 2 discs over the years, I don't have any trouble remembering!

[chewy]

I think sometimes the helms position is the most comfortable and hence the passengers or crew take a beating.
I personally have no problem in telling the helm if he/she's too enthusiastic.

[havener]

Two things I found really worrying in that report - one was the length of time from reaching a safe haven to an ambulance attending (around 1 hour), but the other was the total disregard both owner and skipper had for their own operating procedures immediately after the incident. ANY spinal injury causing extreme pain to the casualty is at minimum a case for a pan call - mayday if severe pain around the upper back or neck. But a mobile phone call bypassing the Coastguard totally - I notice in the MAIBs usual coded language they raise the possibility of this being due to the company not wanting adverse publicity. For the MAIB to even raise this "possibility" usually means they're pretty damn certain that was the reason!
There was no excuse in this case - the company couldn't even say the skipper (who appeared woefully underqualified) ignored procedures - the boss was on board!
Given the amount of these injuries on this type of boat, there is a very strong case for a specific "fast passenger craft" coding annexe, part of which I believe should be for the boat first aid kit to include O2 and at the very least a KED (short spinal board) and crew training to use both - a one day course usually.
Shock absorbing seating is a desirable, but not something you're going to achieve without pricing a lot of operators out of the business.

[codprawn]

Well there was a doctor on board so maybe that was another factor?

Why don't the skippers insist on older/fragile looking people sit further back? Less motion there of course.

Most skippers insist passengers remain seated at all times - no wonder people's backs suffer - the legs are pretty good shock absorbers.

[havener]

Interesting point that, about having a doctor on board.

I instruct my crews it makes no difference - in such an example, which we ran through at this mornings meeting, the procedure is exactly the same - pan call, head for nominated landing point. The only difference is you mention to CG that a doctor is attending, after all a doctor on a boat can only do a limited amount without backup, and for spinal cases early immobilsation is the key.