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Now this is just plain reckless I think!


sealegs

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:think: I dont suppose any fizz boat drivers who read this article would consider it very important doing the appropriate boating courses even after this disaster. The driver clearly had no idea of the terrain he was entering and doing so at what must have been a very high speed of knots :wtf: :crazy: :shock: ....... he is lucky to be alive including his crew.

I reckon he should be charged for endangering his and his crews lives..or for being just plain stupid ! :thumbdown:

 

There were plenty of rocks in the Bay of Islands to hit and travelling at the appropriate speed, especially at night, was an important safety tip,

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=11176968

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The impact launched the 7-metre Powercat high and dry onto more rocks.

There's even a frickin' sectored light to keep you off those rocks. Maybe this would-be Darwin candidate thought it was a Christmas display... :roll:

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:think: I dont suppose any fizz boat drivers who read this article would consider it very important doing the appropriate boating courses even after this disaster. The driver clearly had no idea of the terrain he was entering and doing so at what must have been a very high speed of knots :wtf: :crazy: :shock: ....... he is lucky to be alive including his crew.

I reckon he should be charged for endangering his and his crews lives..or for being just plain stupid ! :thumbdown:

 

There were plenty of rocks in the Bay of Islands to hit and travelling at the appropriate speed, especially at night, was an important safety tip,

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=11176968

 

I read the article but hard to know what lead to them hitting the rocks - do you know more details? How is this any different to Ashley's little mishap with Strider exactly? Cos she was driving a 4kSB? not a fizzy? Sorry to bring you up Ashley but we know nothing about both incidents (except that they hit rocks) but this guy is incredibly stupid and in need of education apparently....

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I read the article but hard to know what lead to them hitting the rocks
- do you know more details? How is this any different to Ashley's little mishap with Strider exactly? Cos she was driving a 4kSB? not a fizzy? Sorry to bring you up Ashley but we know nothing about both incidents (except that they hit rocks) but this guy is incredibly stupid and in need of education apparently....

 

 

I read the article but hard to know what lead to them hitting the rocks

 

thats not hard to figure for any trained skipper /seaman worth his salt. :idea:

 

There are very clear navigation lights beaming out from the waitangi grounds day and night clearly indicating the danger area to incoming vessels and the safe pathway to follow in (even at high speed in such a small vessel.) :thumbup:

 

The incident occurred about 11.30pm on Saturday when the boat was on the way back from a fishing and diving trip

 

so we 've established that it was indeed dark. :thumbup:

Did the skipper understand the red,white and green lights beaming right at him as he entered the area? apparently not because he cut the corner closer to the well known rocky shore on a direct collision course with those rocks (clearly indicated on charts )

 

The impact launched the 7-metre Powercat high and dry onto more rocks.

 

how fast do you need to go in such a vessel to launch yourself into, up and over onto the next set of rocks? :think:

would the damage and injuries be less severe if he was travelling with extreme caution in unknown waters in the dark at say...5 knots or less? :think:

 

Pilot Russell Procter said a spotlight from the aircraft focused on the action below but there was plenty of moonlight and sea conditions were calm

 

So even in the moonlight he chose to come in closer to the rocky shore ? :think:

 

Northland Regional Council harbourmaster Jim Lyall said he would liaise with Maritime NZ and an investigation would follow.

 

There were plenty of rocks in the Bay of Islands to hit and travelling at the appropriate speed, especially at night, was an important safety tip, Mr Lyall said.

 

Big hint there from the harbour master on the possible cause of the incident would'nt you think? :think:

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The impact launched the 7-metre Powercat high and dry onto more rocks.

There's even a frickin' sectored light to keep you off those rocks. Maybe this would-be Darwin candidate thought it was a Christmas display... :roll:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

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So you guys have never hit anything then? I don't know the story, and am not familiar with the area. Lights are sometimes hard to pick up if there is background lighting, work lights or other interference. Consequences on a fast vessel are always worse.

Yes, if he was not certain, he should have been going slower.

But I always think reading these things, "there but for the grace of God go I"

Be safe this season everyone....

Merry Christmas!

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That particular area is lit like a christmas tree... The point in question even has its own light. Can only assume complete ignorance or alcohol. Running aground I can understand... but ramming at sufficient speed to become airborne would take some work.

 

Unless of course... he positively understood himself to be somewhere else, e.g. GPS/map datum cockup.

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I am not familiar with the particular lights in question - I have only sailed around there in daylight. But I have been on a boat where the skipper was seeing white on the sector light entering Raglan, in spite of my indicating to him that both the plotter and my phone plotter were telling us we were several hundred meters to starboard of where the sector light should have placed us. Eventually I decided that what we were in did not feel like the entrance to me - based on what of the town lights I could not see at the time. I took over, turned hard to port, and soon the sector light turned green. Not red.... turned white again after travelling a bit further and then I could see what I expected to see in the town.

 

So the skipper - who is experienced, and careful, not to mention he had not long since done the coastguard Raglan entrance refresher course, was fooled by the sector light displaying white outside of its green limit. He has always been taught to not follow the GPS if there is lighting to follow - as we all know, there have been plenty of GPS assisted groundings.

 

Maybe the light in question also displays this behaviour also - that you don't have to be very many degrees off course to see white?

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As I remember it there is no white outside the red or green sectors with the B.o.I. sector light. One thing though would be that from where he was the sector light wouldn't have been open to him. It is there for cruise liners and their ilk and the red cuts off well clear of Tarpeka point. Casual attitude, ignorance, inexperience, gps error, booze, background lights, + + +, any or all of the above.

I have seen an experienced sailor in broad daylight in the "heat" of a race dump his boat on flat rock causing considerable damage to the boat and himself while thinking himself safe.

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Having been in a similar sector light reading near large clusterfuck situation, should that have been part of the cause, I'm going to chuck in colour blindness. Having read some reports I'm also going to chuck in, he could simply have been using a phone as a navigation device, knot a real navigation device. The possible reasons are wild, varied and to all of us all here they are also unknown.

 

Hence I'm also chucking in a +1 for Island Times comment.

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