Vestas Grounding - Link to Independent Report

[Glsssbead 2]

Here's the press release and full report.  The report is a quite interesting read:

 

thttp://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/presszone/en/2618_Vestas-Wind-grounding-report-Why-And-what-next.html

 

http://www.volvooceanrace.com/static/assets/content_v2/media/files/m36616_team-vestas-wind-inquiry-report-released-on-9-march-2015.pdf

 

I'm posting this on a new "general" thread as opposed to the existing older VOR/Vestas thread, since I'm thinking this has broader interest, but am fine if it gets moved to the existing thread.

[Island Time 1,246]

Here is the document directly;

team-vestas-wind-inquiry-report-released-on-9-march-2015.pdf

[John B 106]

Page 32 is the analysis.

 

Still a ridiculous incident in this day and age regardless of all the reasonable talk about charts and 'lawyers speak' disclaimers about not for navigation. I was interested to speak to a couple of qualified superyacht people this christmas about vestas and how it happened and their views, made my joke about the skipper telling the crew to put a reef in and the crew misunderstood.

 

 What I was surprised to hear was the reliance placed on machines and waypoints in their passage planning and blank looks when I suggested that the first thing you do is look at a large scale chart and track down along the seamounts to look for the places where they stick up out of the water, or come close. Vestas T boned one that is 25 miles wide and you can see it from space / google earth. Great Barrier island is 20.

 

 Mind you , having said that I was at the Volvo shed this weekend and looked with interest at the B and G display. I even went up to their new chartplotter and zoomed it in on Rangi, which then turned into some sort of yellow polygon with no resolution or detail whatsoever. I commented to the guy next door that if Vestas was using that stuff, then no wonder they hit the reef, they probably thought it was Homer Simpson and he couldn't be there so carried on.....

 Which is really my way of asking why would  companies  like B and G and C map 'display' and 'promote' their products in such an inferior way.? Unbelievable also.

[Island Time 1,246]

John, firstly, I've been manning the B&G stand a bit - I'll be back there on Saturday. The reason you saw no data on there  is that there is no chart cartridge installed. This is done as the cartridge is installed from the front, and people steal them at shows. I assure you that there is proper coverage - with the cartridge installed!!

 

2ndly, I've read the whole Vestas report. It comes down to this. NEVER trust one source of data. 

 

For a professional mariner to see depths come up from over 1000m to 40 or even 20 on the large scale chart, darker blue surrounds AND economic zone 12nm rings around them, and not to investigate further is almost unbelievable. As in the document, if he had looked on the B&G chart plotter (even without the charts!) it showed the reef. So it did on the cmap charts - even on the 2nd pc they had that had only the worldwide data, as they had not bought the licence..... Yes, it could be improved, but it's there!

 

I do not agree with the report re the broadband radar. They were in restricted visibility (night), and had the ability to have guard zones and alarms set. They chose not to. In the report it says that's ok. I don't agree. The report also says it would likely have given them 3-4 miles warning (probably right). Personally I run radar all night (and most days!!), with a 4nm guard zone, connected to the pc speaker system (USB). The alarm is VERY loud, (recording of an attack sub alarm). It would have been heard if used. But it wasn't. I'm not certain that proper loud alarms are even set up - they require some additional hardware. The standard buzzer is not loud enough.

 

On my boat I find that the electronics often, or even usually, see other vessels and obstacles before a crew on watch does.

 

Matt