Diver Pick-up Boats

[crofrog]

The “U.G.” was a former beast of a spearfishing liveaboard running to the Dry Tortugas area from Fort Meyers FL with 20 divers packing 12 drops in 3 days. NO CHASE BOAT,everyone diving solo and popping up a half mile from that huge 2knot SLOW boat that was 21 feet wide and 90 feet long!!. For 30 minutes,you floated with a stringer of dead bleeding fish, pushing sharks off and that slow boat was still taking it's slow time picking up other divers before you. It was a fight for survival. And he picked us up one by one and never turned the engines off, with 2 giant props spinning. You climbed up on the steel grate platform totally exhausted and your friends congratulated you by spraying beer & a water hose on you from the rear deck. That diving forced you to not panic, trust & use your training, and to never give up & cry.
You don't need a chase boat,,,,you need better training, better equipment & be a stronger diver.
PS..The boat was sold and also frequently ran bird photography trips not just hunting trips.

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Just because you survived doesn’t mean it’s not f cking stupid

 

[Rich1280]

Most UK based liveaboards I've been on don't have chase boats or the like in the water, I think most of them have them on board somewhere. I usually use Clasina which has one and can crane deploy it, but its not in the water. Having said that, we're often in the North Sea where a 3-4m squidgy isn't going to do massively well anyway.

Rich

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

Most UK based liveaboards I've been on don't have chase boats or the like in the water, I think most of them have them on board somewhere. I usually use Clasina which has one and can crane deploy it, but its not in the water. Having said that, we're often in the North Sea where a 3-4m squidgy isn't going to do massively well anyway.

Rich

… and most day boats that go pretty far offshore don’t have a chase boat either. Oh and the skipper is frequently the only crew onboard.

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Thread moved to Liveaboards forum from Accidents, Incidents & Near Misses forum because original topic does not relate to any specific accident, incident or near miss.

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[bmag78]

I would bet any company insuring a liveaboard operation would require a boat capable of rescuing divers in need.
Insurance companies run the world
I wouldn't get on a boat without one

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

I would bet any company insuring a liveaboard operation would require a boat capable of rescuing divers in need.
Insurance companies run the world
I wouldn't get on a boat without one

I can assure you that commercial UK dive boats are insured and MCA coded, usually Cat 1 (150 miles offshore) or Cat 2 (60 miles, mostly dayboats). Now speaking of the average warm water liveaboard with a dinghy …