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JFS
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Robertas Scuba Shack
Catamaran and dive boat collide.
- Thread starter JFS
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La Nina. I dove with some divers that were on that boat. They were geared up about to hit the water with the captain and DM helping them. The DM looked around and saw the cat getting very near and began yelling and waving arms. It kept coming and he told everyone get in the water and get away or descent. The cat hit the boat ten seconds after divers left it. The center console and canopy was destroyed. If the divers had still been on the boat there likely would have been severe injuries.
Wow!
As I wrote earlier, a boat that has limited ability to move because it is loading or unloading freight or passengers always has the right of way. This is different from the rules for boats that are operating.
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Regardless of right-away, it should not have happened. The cat captain should have done whatever it would take to avoid the dive boat. I do hope that he never gets his license back.
It's hard for me to imagine how this could have happened unless no one was at the helm of the Fury. Right of way is not an issue if one boat is under way and the other is not; the moving boat is at fault.
I've sailed for 40 years. I always keep an air horn near the helm. In my experience, yelling and screaming doesn't work so well when you have a party boat bearing down on you with their music blasting. If the dive boat captain didn't have anyone in the water I wonder why he didn't try to maneuver to avoid collision (recognising that he was not responsible for causing the accident). Assuming that another boat, on a collision course, has, or will, see you and correct their course vs taking matters into your own hands can lead exactly to something like this. Of course, the dive boat captain could easily have been preoccupied with getting his divers on the right part of the reef and did not notice the approaching boat until it was too late. To be absolutely clear, I'm not blaming the dive boat captain - it is 100% the fault of the fury's captain.
The blue and white international maritime flag A/Alpha/Alfa means "diver down; keep clear" under the rules of the road. A vessel flying that flag would generally have the right of way over all other vessels including those operating under sail power. However, in my experience many dive boats are sloppy about flying the proper flag (general comment only, I don't know what happened in this incident).
The red and white dive flag is more informal and generally has no legal significance in most jurisdictions. But there are a few places that do require it.
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