Dive Boat Sank???

[kwinter]

I just want to know if there will still be a new wreck to dive when my buddy goes to Coz next month.

 

[Mike]

OK Dave. I'm a long time auto mechanic & know a good bit about pumps so just how would I know that the boat I'm about to board has a pump in good working order?

Reputation.

I'm not going to inspect Aldora's boats for full O2, their marine radios to verify they function, check their fuel tank levels when they pick me up to make sure we have enough for a round trip, tap the hull to see if they have a glass bottom that was covered over...

There are different tiers of dive operations in Cozumel as anywhere. The ones charging at the top of the rate charts don't do so arbitrarily, they do so because they are good business persons and know they have to charge enough to be able to reinvest into their business, to maintain equipment, buy new equipment, avoiding having to rob Peter to pay Paul... this formula holds true in every dive destination I've been to. I have yet to experience a dive operation anywhere who charged more than others and then showed up with broken down equipment and unsafe boats, but I've witnessed it over and over again on the other end of the spectrum from the el cheapo operators, they operate on a shoe string and there is always a trade off, it's just a matter of hoping and praying you're not with them when their luck runs out.

Again - all you need to do is ask yourself, why is the harbor master in Cozumel so quick to ground the dive boat fleet? The harbor master knows the mixture of boats that are out there every day and realizes that some of them are going to be very dangerous in nothing less than ideal conditions.

 

[diver 85]

It's done a hundred times a day.

"Don't swim to the dive boat, the boat will come to you."

Yep........

---------- Post added February 15th, 2014 at 09:15 AM ----------

Mike if this is the case

,."Again - all you need to do is ask yourself, why is the harbor master in Cozumel so quick to ground the dive boat fleet? The harbor master knows the mixture of boats that are out there every day and realizes that some of them are going to be very dangerous in nothing less than ideal conditions.

"--- why doesn't the harbor master let some out (the 'safe' ones) & close the harbor for 'the unsafe' ones-----ie on windy days ???........

..................................just thinking out loud here....

 

[Carl_F]

Again - all you need to do is ask yourself, why is the harbor master in Cozumel so quick to ground the dive boat fleet? The harbor master knows the mixture of boats that are out there every day and realizes that some of them are going to be very dangerous in nothing less than ideal conditions.

I'm not going to ask myself that since it didn't happen. I dove with the same op that afternoon. Many boats were out. The fleet was not grounded.

 

[ggunn]

...why doesn't the harbor master let some out (the 'safe' ones) & close the harbor for 'the unsafe' ones-----ie on windy days ???........

..................................just thinking out loud here....

Because the harbor master would have to inspect and pass judgement on the safety of every boat in Cozumel. The HM does, though, sometimes open the harbor only to boats over 40+' long.

 

[cvchief]

Reputation.

The ones charging at the top of the rate charts don't do so arbitrarily, they do so because they are good business persons and know they have to charge enough to be able to reinvest into their business, to maintain equipment, buy new equipment, avoiding having to rob Peter to pay Paul... this formula holds true in every dive destination I've been to.

Which is it? Price or reputation?

I would think reputation might be best. Sure Aldora charges more and has a great reputation. In the middle ranks, similarly priced ops have different reputations, so to speak. Some cheaper ops in Coz seem to have great reputations as well.

I mean, sure, one would think surviving at a higher price would seem to be a marker of a quality op, but I wouldn't say it is entirely reliable...

 

[lionfish-eater]

So it appears that Thomas was not the captain at the time of the sinking.

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[TD="align: left"]It could be due to lack of "cunning" Captain[/TD]
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COZUMEL, February 14 -. The owner of the Harbor in the town, Alfonso Rodríguez Loaiza, said the cause of the sinking of the vessel "Three Brothers", in which 11 people were traveling was not yet determined, but hinted everything could be due to lack of "cunning" Captain and not a mechanical failure, so can not yet determine whether or not could be, any sanction pending the outcome of investigations.
Asked the owner of the Port, in the town, on the possible penalty or procedure to be performed to Oscar Alfredo Hernández Espinosa, owner of the vessel "Tres Hermanos" Rodriguez Loaiza said the owner came in a first interview with this agency, to submit documentation . of the boat as well as informative record of what happened on Thursday morning
During the interview, the owner of the nautical unit, exhibited the Certificate of Maritime Safety, the notebooks Sea Permit Nautical Tourism as well as the sure the boat to another, ie, the crew, all of these in full force until 2015, referring that there is no problem in this regard.
was also reported that the sailor skipper (captain) named Jose Ignacio Ek Flores, specified that last Thursday was accompanied by a sailor, and nine passengers, at the height of the reef Colombia in the south, when suddenly the succumbed a wave that entered the bottom of the boat, so he decided aim at the coast of the island, but because the passengers came from one side of the nautical unit, began to enter more water until semi-sinking.
Rodríguez Loaiza similarly reported that it is waiting for the Marine Park Reefs of Cozumel, issue the results of the possible effect that the sinking of the boat could have been derived to determine whether this could or have no economic or physical punishment, as this inactivity, but will be in the next day when the resolution of this case has.


Boat in pic is not tres hermanos[/TD]
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[Carl_F]

More info ... Only the three DMs were in the water at the time due to some confusion about the dive site. The captain's GPS didn't have power (no batteries or dead batteries) so the DMs were looking for the dive site.

As mentioned, there was much backing in the higher seas which got water over the transom. The boat started swamping and rolling when the crew/captain directed the divers to go to the high side of the boat as it rolled. Tanks and gear were falling out of the holders as the boat was rolling. Eventually the captain realized he was foundering and headed to shore. He had folks get in the covered cabin area to offset the weight aft.

None of the planned two dives were completed.

Either way, cause was poor seamanship in higher than normal seas. Potential for sump pump failure but haven't heard anything definitive on that.

Also - ProDive Mexico is NOT cheap. When I was on the Tres Hermanos earlier in the weak, I didn't see anything particularly unsafe. So "cheap dive ops" discussion seems like a red herring to me in this discussion.

---------- Post added February 15th, 2014 at 01:37 PM ----------

Locals that we've talked to have confirmed what we heard yesterday about a tendency for Pro Dive to load these rental boats pretty heavily.

In the ten days diving with them from the Grand, they new how many the boat could hold and if there was demand, the boat was filled. I didn't notice anything that indicated the boats were overloaded. They did keep the dive groups (DM + divers) to nine or less so there were often two dive groups on the boat several times we went out with just six divers + DM and no others on the boat than the crew.

If a boat has a safe capacity of twenty, I don't know that I would expect the op to only load the boat to eight or nine and turn folks away.

 

[beaverdivers]

Because the harbor master would have to inspect and pass judgement on the safety of every boat in Cozumel. The HM does, though, sometimes open the harbor only to boats over 40+' long.

Sorry to hear the bad news. Glad everyone is OK.

Boats sink, even the Titanic.

The boats that are sunk in the caleta didn't pass the test.:shocked2:

Correct! There are days that only bigger boats ( >40' ) can go out.

 

[Ron Lee]

Is it known whether the boat sank or was just swamped?

Did people lose a lot of personal stuff because of this incident?