Atalanta Skipper Guilty

[Pete7]

The skipper of Atalanta that crashed into the Hanne Knutsen has been found guilty, fined £3000 with £100,000 costs.

BBC News - Roland Wilson: Cowes Week yacht crash skipper guilty

[Paul L]

Not good for the career.

[ontherocks83]

Good. If you can't figure out that big ship will squash little ship then please stay off of the water.....oh wait I forgot he was sailing so he must of had the right of way

[carstenb]

100,000 pounds in costs -- ouch!

He'll spend the rest of his life paying that off

[bbowers2004]

Bad Dig there.

[JazzyO]

Originally Posted by carstenb

100,000 pounds in costs -- ouch!

He'll spend the rest of his life paying that off

You don't know that.


Onno

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by JazzyO

You don't know that.


Onno

Of course I don't - but he's been a naval officer (they make tons of money), and now he's an inflatable boat designer (hmmmmm- oh they makes tons of money).

But you're right - he could be independently wealthy. What do I know?

[estarzinger]

This

MCA youtube

of the AIS tracks with a video overlay is interesting. I can understand how this skipper got into trouble. He was fixated on #1 believing that the ship was/must being going to turn to starboard (as they normally do in this spot and as the ship made sound signals they were in fact going to do), and #2 on the 'proper' port to port passing, and #3 not giving up 'unnecessary' racing distance.

(all times before collision)
4:41 Yacht makes gybe to pass normal ship track port to port. The Ships normally starts turn to starboard shortly after passing the "precautionary area" boundary. The yacht gybe here 'should have been a reasonable move, passing right close behind the ship's stern and giving up minimal racing distance and speed. A sharper turn to starboard, giving a greater CPA to the ship's expected track, would have been more 'prudent', but the yacht is racing and that would have given up 'unnecessary' distance if the ship had turned as normal and expected.


2:03 Patrol boat guiding ship makes turn to starboard. Sometime just before this the ship made a sound signal that they were going to turn to starboard. But then was blocked from making their turn by a small disabled power boat. This screws up the yacht's plan.

1:39 Patrol boat identifies risk of collision and changes course toward yacht.

1:27 Yacht identifies risk of collision and comes up to starboard to (a) pass port to port) and (b) to avoid "normal" course of ship. The Yacht is still expecting the ship to turn to starboard and still trying to pass port to port. The yacht is already a bit screwed here 1:27 before the actual collision - a turn to port puts right in the 'expected path/turn of the ship and a turn to starboard puts it in the current path of the ship. Some communication here between the yacht and the ship/patrol boat would have been really really useful, so that the yacht knew which way the ship was going to go. Short of that a drastic maneuver by the yacht was required - blow the chute, start the engine and turn 100 degrees one way or the other but it would still have been hard to decide which way to turn.


0:18 Yacht comes up as close as possible, losing their spinnaker trim, still trying to pass port to post and avoid the ship's normal turn. At some point between 1:27 and 0:18 it should have been obvious the ship was just continuing on in a straight path and a crash gybe to port would have been smarter than continuing to try to make a port to port passing.

0:00 Collision. Interesting to note that the AIS gps antennae must be aft on the ship because the video shows the collision at this time but the AIS plot still shows separation.

[Jolly Roger]

This just goes to show what I have always maintained and which many RN officers agree—privately of course.
There are two things with which you should never ever go to sea on a small boat. One is a wheelbarrow and the other a British Naval Officer.
And by the way, I knew a lot of them.