Collision between 115 and 1000 ft boats off Virginia

[culebra]

Per USCG press release I saw that on October 28, 2022 there was a collision between a 1000 foot container ship and a 115 foot fishing boat off the coast of Virginia. Sounds like there was no loss of life fortunately. Possibly too early in the investigation, but does anyone know if this was a a case of AIS not being turned on in one boat vs. someone not paying attention to an AIS impending collision signal/alarm?

[CaptTom]

It would be interesting to see the final report on this one. We'll probably have to wait a while.

I was once near the scene of a collision between a large steel fishing boat and a 50-ish foot fiberglass recreational boat. Visibility was good. I could only assume that neither had been maintaining any kind of watch. I suspect both had left port, flipped on the autopilot and went below to make coffee or sleep or whatever. I got to see the damage to the rec boat.

[Shrew]

Originally Posted by culebra

Per USCG press release I saw that on October 28, 2022 there was a collision between a 1000 foot container ship and a 115 foot fishing boat off the coast of Virginia. Sounds like there was no loss of life fortunately. Possibly too early in the investigation, but does anyone know if this was a a case of AIS not being turned on in one boat vs. someone not paying attention to an AIS impending collision signal/alarm?

It happened less than 48 hrs ago. It is too soon for the results of an investigation, but it would seem that "Yes, at least one party, possibly more were simply not paying attention."

https://www.marineinsight.com/videos...on-13-rescued/

[boatman61]

Over this side of the pond fishing boats are known to run dark and with AIS off... consequences can occasionally be disastrous as a result..

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Over this side of the pond fishing boats are known to run dark and with AIS off... consequences can occasionally be disastrous as a result..

Radar?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Radar?

The one that clobbered me was running dark and allegedly keeping AIS watch only despite having radar (90ft boat) with one crew on watch, the other 11 were below, speed 12kts.
I had lights but no AIS,. 4am F7, sea's 2.5-3metres, no moon decent visibilty, 1/3rd jib only with wind just abaft the beam, speed 5kts.

[nigel1]

Eyeball and radar would be the first choice to use for collision avoidance.
Looking on Marine Traffic, the "Tremont", the trawler involved, was last seen on Marine Traffic in October 2021.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by boatman61

The one that clobbered me was running dark and allegedly keeping AIS watch only despite having radar (90ft boat) with one crew on watch, the other 11 were below, speed 12kts.
I had lights but no AIS,. 4am F7, sea's 2.5-3metres, no moon decent visibilty, 1/3rd jib only with wind just abaft the beam, speed 5kts.

I was thinking more of the OP incident.

After my recent incident off the Ecuador coast I have decided that red and green sidelights just do not cut it.
I plan to festoon my boat in disco balls illuminated by high intensity LEDs.

[boatman61]

I decided to invest in a portable AIS transponder..

[dannc]

Originally Posted by nigel1

....
Looking on Marine Traffic, the "Tremont", the trawler involved, was last seen on Marine Traffic in October 2021.

Obviously, the Tremont had just escaped from the Devil's Triangle after one year of being trapped in that zone of mystery.

The report will be interesting to read. Glad everyone was saved.

Later,
Dan

[psk125]

Read about a French trawler that ran into a concrete pylon for a wind generator last week. May be something to do with the phase of the moon?

[HeywoodJ]

There are several Tremonts on Marinetraffic, looks like she had an MMSI change last year. The one under the new MMSI, with the same name and pictures https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...vessel:TREMONT was last reported a week ago at 37N 75W.

And it looks like whoever configured the AIS got the static data wrong, she is listed at 128m x 10m, while her old listing had her at 39m, 128'.

[Cthoops]

My money is on the fishing vessel not having its AIS or lights turned on. Of course he should have been showing up on radar, but I’ll bet he didn’t have lights or AIS on.

We were having the passage from hell off the New Jersey coast on our first overnight back in 2018. We had AIS receive only at the time (no radar), and had set it to trigger at five miles out. 2:00 am, crappy seas, no moon, cloudy skies, pitch black and our VHF AIS alarm goes off showing a vessel less than 1/2 mile away from us (remember, our alarm was set for five miles).

We hailed the guy, he said he didn’t see us, then he did and said he’d alter his course. He turned his lights on and suddenly a LARGE fishing trawler was within 100 yards of us and crossing our bow. If he hadn’t turned on his AIS when he did, we absolutely would have collided. He was running without ANY lights. They don’t want other fishing vessels to know where they are (except for via radar).

Needless to say, our jaws dropped and we didn’t get a wink of sleep for the rest of the night.

[DragonflyBob]

Originally Posted by Cthoops

My money is on the fishing vessel not having its AIS or lights turned on. Of course he should have been showing up on radar, but I’ll bet he didn’t have lights or AIS on.

We were having the passage from hell off the New Jersey coast on our first overnight back in 2018. We had AIS receive only at the time (no radar), and had set it to trigger at five miles out. 2:00 am, crappy seas, no moon, cloudy skies, pitch black and our VHF AIS alarm goes off showing a vessel less than 1/2 mile away from us (remember, our alarm was set for five miles).

We hailed the guy, he said he didn’t see us, then he did and said he’d alter his course. He turned his lights on and suddenly a LARGE fishing trawler was within 100 yards of us and crossing our bow. If he hadn’t turned on his AIS when he did, we absolutely would have collided. He was running without ANY lights. They don’t want other fishing vessels to know where they are (except for via radar).

Needless to say, our jaws dropped and we didn’t get a wink of sleep for the rest of the night.

What I learn from this is that I will upgrade our boat to have AIS transmit/receive. We have B&G VHF with AIS receive only too and B&G chart plotter which shows the AIS identified vessels so that combined with the AIS alarm should hopefully give plenty of warning plus hopefully the other vessel is seeing us too if we upgrade the VHF. But it’s scary to think about commercial (or any) vessels out there who knowingly operate without their lights or AIS on. Radar would be the only thing that can save your butt in that instance.