Tag: UK MCA

Guilty to using unsafe commercial yachts At Southampton Crown Court on Friday 4th February 2011, two commercial yacht operators pleaded guilty to using unsafe commercial yachts on trans-Atlantic voyages when carrying students signed up for RYA training courses.Two separate operators, George Haworth of In2Sail Ltd and Colin Thomas of Straits Sailing had taken advantage of the growth in demand for trans-Atlantic sail training. Both used the internet to sell training courses for those wanting to go from novice to Yachtmaster Ocean. They ran inclusive costly courses but did not have vessels equipped to the minimum levels of lifesaving equipment. It was shown that George Haworth had sent students on a voyage from Cowes to St Lucia with a skipper that was not properly qualified on a yacht that had only the basic equipment to operate no more than 60 miles from a safe haven. The yacht Quay Three had only one valais liferaft stowed in a locker and the only means of distress alerting was by a VHF radio (of limited range) and an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon). The vessel had no qualified mate. Events on the voyage included a collision with a whale and defective steering. The ...

Crew of Sinking Fishing Vessel Rescued Off Portland At 3:15pm, Portland Coastguard received a routine telephone call from a member of the public advising the Coastguard that he had received a phone call from the skipper of the 11 metre Fishing Vessel Purbeck Isle, reporting they were taking water. The informant was unsure how many people were on board, the position was vague, but somewhere off Chesil Beach, west of Portland.Portland Coastguard immediately tasked the Weymouth RNLI all weather lifeboat and the Coastguard Rescue Helicopter R-106.Three further telephone calls were received at Portland Coastguard: from a parent of one of the crew; the owner of the vessel; and an off-duty lifeboatman. No one on board thought to report their predicament to the Coastguard using either their mobile phones, the VHF radio, or any other modern technological methods available to commercial mariners.Three other fishing vessels, including the Gordeano Star and the Swordfish all responded to the Coastguard broadcast and were tasked.The Coastguard Rescue Helicopter arrived on scene at 3:30pm and lowered their winch-man onto the deck of the stricken fishing vessel to find there were three people on board.The fishing vessel was indeed taking on water so the Rescue Helicopter lowered ...