Catamaran and dive boat collide.

[T Scooter]

yup la Nina a ol blue bbl boat, thought she looked familiar.

 

[boulderjohn]

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.

I have a friend who is almost obsessive about his fishing, and he has regularly piloted his boat both in South Florida and Massachusetts for decades. I talked to him about this topic recently. He had no idea what that flag meant. I would imagine that is true of most such people at the helm of a pleasure boat.

 

[ChuckP]

Sad, Fury at legal fault but La Nina at moral fault. Can you say zero situational awarness?

One guy says they were on SI, here they say getting ready to get in the water which makes more sense as everyone got off....

How you not see that boat coming is beyond me, don't care what you were doing.

 

[JFS]

Too many catamarans around Cozumel now and all are travelling through areas where divers and snorkelers are. I was diving at cantaral and a windseeker catamaran came within 15 feet of us while we were on the surface ( dive boat was 20 feet away and we had surface buoys up). I gave the captain a WTF! look while they were serving drinks to their customers.... they have zero consideration to anyone that is in the water. Years ago I had a catamaran drive over my dive float that we were using for CESA. I had to surface to pull my float off the boat! I reported this and they said it was due to the currents that they hit my buoy ( I told them maybe the captain was blind)

 

[rongoodman]

The crew on my recent BVI trip referred to them as "credit card captains". I guess they're problem there too.

 

[ggunn]

Sad, Fury at legal fault but La Nina at moral fault. Can you say zero situational awarness?

I do not agree. When the divers are gearing up to get into the water, the dive boat is shut down and drifting; both the captain and DM are focused on getting the divers' equipment set up and on the divers. No one is at the helm who can start the motor up and move the boat, and with the amount of boat traffic in the mornings, boats are passing by all the time. If the captain was dealing with divers' equipment near the stern he likely would not have been able to get past the divers to the helm, start the motor(s), get all the divers to sit down, and move the boat by the time he could tell that the Fury was going to ram them.

The boat captains trust each other not to run them over when they are dead in the water.

 

[Nick_Radov]

I have a friend who is almost obsessive about his fishing, and he has regularly piloted his boat both in South Florida and Massachusetts for decades. I talked to him about this topic recently. He had no idea what that flag meant. I would imagine that is true of most such people at the helm of a pleasure boat.

Yep, which is why the dive boat crew also need to keep a close watch and be ready with VHF, horn, flares, deck gun...

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

When we the last time you saw a tourist catamaran actually under sail versus using the engines as primary source of propulsion?

If there is wind we were under sail.

 

[ggunn]

If there is wind we were under sail.

Yes, but a boat under sail does not have the "right of way" over a boat which is dead in the water. I put it in quotes because ROW doesn't really apply if both boats are not under way.

 

[Vicko]

Unfortunately the right of way is useful only in law proceedings. In reality the boat that is less likely to sink has the right of way.