Capsize of an open speedboat with loss of 3 lives
Location: Off Lowestoft, England.
Accident Investigation Report 28/2014
Investigation report into marine accident including what happened and safety lessons:
(3,401.84 kb)
Summary
On the morning of 10 March 2014 three men set out from Great Yarmouth, England in a 5.7m Bayliner Capri speedboat with a deteriorating weather forecast to recover fishing gear they had laid on the previous day.
The men were recreational fishermen but had little recent experience of operating a boat at sea. The boat was not equipped with a VHF radio or distress flares and the men were not wearing lifejackets or thermal flotation suits. The boat had a low freeboard at the stern (36cm) and there was an opening for engine control cables 26cm above the waterline. While the men were recovering the gear the propeller became fouled by rope and in worsening conditions water probably entered the boat, which led to its capsize. The sea temperature was 6ºC.
The alarm was raised when debris was seen off the coast near Lowestoft and despite an extensive sea, air and shoreline search only the body of one of the men, who had been the only one wearing a buoyancy aid, was recovered.
Safety lessons
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the men were not sufficiently experienced for the deteriorating weather conditions encountered, and had probably not studied the forecast
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the boat had a low freeboard at its stern making it vulnerable to swamping when its propeller became fouled
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the boat had no VHF radio, no distress flares and apart from the men’s mobile phones, there was no means of raising the alarm as the situation deteriorated
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the men were not wearing lifejackets or thermal flotation suits and did not have personal locator beacons. Only one of the men wore a buoyancy aid, which, unlike a lifejacket, was not able to turn him face-up and keep his mouth clear once he entered the water
Recommendations
No recommendations have been made in this report, but the Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents has written to the editors of major sea angling publications inviting them to bring the safety lessons identified in this report to the attention of their readers.
Published: 8 October 2014