Catamaran and dive boat collide.

[boulderjohn]

Over the years on ScubaBoard, I have read enough stories about careless boat operators running over (and even killing) divers in the water despite their boat crews doing everything they could to prevent it.

Years ago in South Florida I boarded our boat after a drift dive to hear quite a tail. A solitary hunter had surfaced far from both his boat and his flag (which he had attached to the reef). The boat drew did not have a radio on, so our crew went to them to tell them where their diver was. They went to pick him up and then went to pick up his flag, which they believed they had to rip off the reef by gunning their engine. As they did that, they still did not have a radio on, and they ignored the horns, sirens, and loudspeaker from our boat telling them they had taken the wrong flag.

Well, that explained what happened to the flag I was towing.

 

[ggunn]

Over the years on ScubaBoard, I have read enough stories about careless boat operators running over (and even killing) divers in the water despite their boat crews going everything they could to prevent it.

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[Nemrod]

We came along minutes after it happened. The top structure of the dive panga was severely mangled. Weather was clear and while there were plenty fo boats out it was not terribly crowded but it was a busy area the collision occurred in.

 

[Nemrod]

I never said that a boat under sail has the right of way over a boat under power.... I was just answering the question of when was the last time you saw a cat under sail instead of under power.

As a boat owner, I know the ROW rules.

I have never seen these Coz party tour cats under actual sail, they are running under power with the sail up for decoration and perhaps sometimes a little boost. Good point that the sail would also dampen roll though those huge cats are not exactly rolly pollies like the little pangas.

The small pangas are usually crewed by a deck hand and the captain. There is usually a DM aboard also. They were in the process of getting their divers off both sides, the captain would have been calling the entries and the deck hand assisting the guests into the back roll with all of their equipment on and a final valve check, the DM would likely already be in the water having done a site/current check. If there was an issue the captain would attend along with the deck crew and DM and thus he was possibly not immediately available to the helm or able to manuver. Dive flags out or not, these operators know full well what is going on so there is no excuse to run over a dive boat preparing to drop or in the process of dropping divers.

 

[ggunn]

The small pangas are usually crewed by a deck hand and the captain. There is usually a DM aboard also.

FWIW, the small Cozumel dive boats on which I have been out diving are crewed by only the DM and captain. When they are prepping divers the DM and the captain are both in the stern of the boat moving all the equipment forward gearing up divers, and then the DM is first in the water leaving only the captain aboard to finish getting the divers wet. During this time a dive boat is pretty much helpless to get out of the way of another boat bent on ramming it.

 

[ReefHound]

Same as above. Captain and DM. People are usually geared up by both then DM enters to verify current and location. Sometimes he calls for boat to be moved. When DM signals OK the captain controls the entries so divers aren't rolling on top of each other. The only exception is sometimes one or more of the divers will have a private DM or instructor along and these guys will assist with deckhand duties.