Iron Eagle Review

[Dee]

First NapaDiver...Welcome to Scuba Board

I appreciate your detailed report and evaluation of the Iron Eagle. Knowing your reputation from another board for being an honest and fair person, it holds alot of weight for me.

 

[Rockhound]

Napa Diver for the skinny on your trip. My feelings are like yours, that in most widely disparate tales, the truth lies somewhere in between....

As for the boat's setup, Dan told me he looked at Gary Rinn's boats in Texas when he came over to pickup his vessel. Gary's boats have now been sold to another group, but Gary ran a first rate operation, a tradition I hope will continue.

Gary's boats, the MV Fling and the MV Spree, which run out of Freeport and go to the Flower Gardens and Stetson Bank, mostly, are even less "luxurious" than the Iron Eagle.

With bunkhouse sleeping arrangements for the most part, there is no hot tub, kayaks or other water toys and no true "staterooms" (although a couple of true private doubles are available, all bunks are "first come, first serve" and none are reserved. This is mainly to encourage folks to show up on time, I think.)

While not providing luxury or "pampered diving", what these boats do provide is wonderful, if somewhat advanced diving, and a chance to see critters that most folks think they can only see off Malpelo or Costa Rica. Both boats do have pretty good "diving" setups to make up for the lack of cushy amenities.

Maybe Iron Eagle could adopt some of their methods, if there is room and he can work it in......

Here is the physical setup:

1) All bunks are belowdecks, except those for the crew. Dining is in the galley area (these are crew boats like Iron Eagle. One is 97', I think, the other only slightly smaller.) There is room for about half the folks to eat inside, but I usually eat outside by my gear or up on the sundeck, which has picnic tables and cheap plastic patio furniture. If it rains, we just crowd inside or on the main deck by the gear.

2) Each diver provides one (1) full tank, either Air or Nitrox, for the trip. Filled tanks can be provided for traveling divers by the sponsoring dive shops or clubs at the boat for an extra charge.

3) Bench seating is alongside the outside railing and in the center of the deck. The boat takes 26-31 divers, plus crew. There is plenty of room, but all gear MUST be stowed below the benches in your gear bag or, better, in a tub. It does sometimes get messy under the benches, but the walking spaces are policed and kept clear. Most of the divers are these trips are experienced. Those that aren't are coached pretty well before the trip is over.

4)A camera table is setup midship, just forward of the center benches and just aft of the galley exit. I've been on "photo" trips with over 20 shooters and the multilevel camera table, which is covered in AstroTurf, worked just fine. I would go below to my bunk to change film or lenses, mainly to avoid getting my internals splashed, but the area was pretty safe for storage and adjustments. The boats have a "cameras only" freshwater dunk tank, sometimes two of them. No dive gear is allowed in the tanks.

5) All tanks are filled in place. You simple bungee your rig to the rail and remove the first stage after every dive. The compressor lines run along the bottom of the sundeck and can reach any tank on the railings. DM's fill the tanks and remount the first stages as a sign they were filled. Divers are responsible for checking their fills and those on Nitrox are provided a 02 monitor to check the mix. Although the DM's check everything, the divers are responsible for a final check BEFORE gearing up.

6) Many of the crew are volunteers who are trained by the paid crew, this includes the galley hands. In return, the volunteers recieve a share of the tips and the opportunity to make dives during slack times and during surface intervals. There is always plenty of crew, including 2 captains, a couple of mates, a couple of galley hands, and 4 to 6 DM's. Diveshops usually bring their own DM's, but only those trained on the boat do the pre-dive site work.

7) A boat DM enters the water first and secures a sideline to the mooring line at about 20-30'. He then does a visibility and current check. A long current line with a float is set aft. I think this line is several hundred feet long and stored on big deck reel. Two shorter lines with loops on the end are also set on the bottom rungs of the twin ladders, which run fairly deep (I can't remember, maybe 10' or so) . These are for divers to hang on while they remove their fins prior to ascending the long ladders after the dive. Three deep lines weighted with 50 or more pounds of lead are lowered for the safety stops. A surface supplied regulator is attached to the after stop line at about 20' and a camera line with a bolt clip is also lowered aft.

All dives are non-deco, but safety stops are encouraged if not required and the lines provide plent of room for everyone.

8) The chase boat is splashed using a davit crane and the engine is usually started before the first diver is in the water (however, I seen the engine flood when we really needed it, too.)

9) Divers do a side entry dropping the 6' or so to the water. All divers are required to give their bunk number on entry and their time in is noted on a big grease board by one of the shop or club DM's. After entry the divers must head immediately to the sideline (accept for the "camera folks" who come back for their cameras which are lowered to them on a line). A quick okay tap on the head they head hand over hand down the line. Free descents are discouraged because the variable currents and winds can move the boat around, making the mooring the only safe land(water?)mark, but I sometime do them if we're on a location that is familiar and the current is light (folks who "swim it" down and burn air on descent are wasting valuable bottom time).


10) At the end of the dive, the bunk number, max depth, bottom time and sometimes air remaining are noted. After all the divers are up, a DM goes around the boat with the bunk list and rechecks the names. He also asks "How are you feeling? Anything unusual?" If the answer is anything other than "Fine", an assessment is made and 02 is available.


Anyway, it sounds more regimented than it is, and i went into WAy too much detail, but the highlights are that the tanks are filled "on the spot", and that a DM goes in to assess conditions at every new location. If they is a doubt, the captain WILL cancel the dive and move (and it happened to me on the last "shark trip")

Anyway, Iron Eagle sounds like a good operation and one that I would try if I lived or traveled in the area. With a little tweaking, it sounds like it might be a great operation.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Natasha]

Napa Diver:
Thanks for telling your side of the experience. I hope you and your wife will post on this board now too.
Rick thank you also.

 

[Hal Iotis]

...for everything that happens on his ship. OK, let the blame game start:

- the booking fiasco is the fault of a booking employee and the booking company;

- Overflowing toilets? Blame it on the passengers (all of them)

- Sloppy maintenance? (nails, burnt out bulbs) It's your fault for not asking the crew to do their job. Do passengers also have a responsibility to ask the crew if the through-hull fittings are sound?

- No TP? Who would ever expect supplies to be loaded prior to departure? Hmm...wonder how the EPIRB batteries are doing? Oh well, we can always toodle over to Cat Harbor if we need some...

Stinky water? Of course, it's the United States Coast Guard's fault!

Oversexed/undisciplined divemaster? Who hired him? Who was supposed to supervise him?

I sense a pattern of a) not taking responsibility for the boat, its employees, and all that happens on it; and, b) lack of attention to detail. Either of these are not desirable traits for anyone operating any vessel, let alone carrying passengers for hire. The combination of the two can be deadly. The Saint Brendan article linked above is very careful not to make any judgements about the seamanship problems that could very well have resulted in fatality, but as consumers we can and should be judgemental about charter operators whom we entrust our lives to.

Having been a deckhand and diver for a well respected Southern California charter operation, I know that the attitude, passenger orientation, competence, and safety consciousness of the crew is a direct reflection of the caliber of those who run the operation. There is always going to be some glitch: weather doesn't cooperate, passengers are late, mechanical problem, etc. It's how these contingencies are planned for, dealt with, and, most importantly, avoided in the first place that makes all the difference. A captain who is constantly blaming others or stumbling into predicaments due to lack of attention to detail is eventually going to get caught in a situation where all of the blame displacement in the world won't make things better.

I am understanding of poor weather, sick/late/grumpy/horny passengers, bad visibility, high costs, minor maintenance glitches, etc. I am not tolerant whatsoever of poor seamanship or disregard for passengers. With so many other excellent choices for Southern California dive boats, I am not going to risk my money or life for a dive boat whose Captain doesn't hold himself to the highest standards of integrity, as evidenced by the post above.

I'm glad NapaDiver had such a positive experience on the Iron Eagle, and I hope that the Captain decides to cater to serious, safety-minded divers. Based on its website, I can't tell if the Iron Eagle is a Catalina get drunk and party/scuba boat or if it is a Mexican cruise boat, or if it is a panga fishing mothership. I don't want anything to do with a boat that advertises getting drunk one night, then diving the next morning "for those who aren't too hungover." I'd also rather dive from a dedicated dive boat, not a part-time fishing charter boat, or one that sends spam e-mails (that's another discussion...).

 

[santacruz]

After reading the arrogant posting from Captain Dan, I thought it was necessary to share my personal experiences with the Iron Eagle.

I was booked on the Iron Eagle's maiden voyage in mid-August of 2001. Fortunately, and you'll realize why I say this during this posting, the boat never left the harbor.

Our nightmare begins when we arrive at the Long Beach harbor on the scheduled night of departure. As people arrived at the boat, Dan immediately greeted us and delivered the "unfortunate" news that they were having difficulty getting approval from the Coast Guard, and as a result, the trip was cancelled. Apparently, the operation decided that instead of calling the chartering dive shop (Aqua Safaris, a Santa Cruz dive shop, 8 hours away from LA) at least 24 hours prior to the trip, their time would be better spent trying to fight with the Coast Guard in an attempt to get last minute approval. They did finally contact the dive shop with the cancellation information, but not before most people had already departed for LA.

Anyway, Dan told us that he would allow us to sleep on the boat, drink his beer for free, eat all of his food, dive off of their small boats, and play with the jet skies and other toys, along with a full refund. As things turned out, I would have been better off checking into a hotel and leaving the following morining. Here's what happened.

First, the sleeping accomodations. The staterooms STUNK every time someone used the toilets. This was blamed on all of the passengers, as we apparently do not know how to use the toilets correctly. Everyone thought they were following the instructions, but apparently a detailed course would be beneficial in the use of these incinerator toilets. Additionally, the bunks were narrow, with the entry being at the end of the bunk. Now I know what it feels like to sleep in a coffin.

The next morning, divers boarded two panga boats for an excursion to one of the offshore oil rigs. When we arrived at the first rig, a rig worker yelled down at us that we could not dive there due to maintenance, so we continued to another rig. We made it to the rig, geared up, and entered the water. After a few minuted underwater, I noticed a strange chemical taste in my air. After surfacing, I alerted our shop's owner, who confirmed that the taste was a result of compressor oil.

During the trip back, one of the boats was sluggish and ended up having to be towed by the other boat. I don't recall if the boat broke down or was just too slow.

When we returned to the harbor, the crew was made aware of the air situation. It turned out that the compressor's filter had fallen loose, and all of the boat's cylinders were contaminated. They had to drive to the hardware store, buy some type of cleaner, and rinse all of the tanks. Who knows what would have happened had the boat actually gone to the Channel Islands.

The crew ended up renting cylinders from a local dive shop for our second dive, which was at the breakwater . On route to the dive site, the panga stopped for gas. During the fill up, a gas line broke loose which resulted in a lot of give gear getting soaked with gas.

After the dive, we returned to the Iron Eagle for dinner. I decided to head for home instead of taking a night dive at the oil rig. I was lucky, as it turned out the boat's gas line broke during the night dive trip, and had to be recovered by another boat.

As for the "toys," the jet skies never worked (they were very old). I found the layout of the boat very cheap, with plastic patio furniture and wood picnic tables scattered around the deck. For a boat about to embark on its first charter, it seemed very beat up and in poor condition. Hardly a "luxury" charter boat as advertised.

For those who believe the truth lies somewhere in between, go ahead and take the risk of diving with this operation. You might have a good experience, but that doesn't erase the fact the the Iron Eagle has decieved and inconvenienced people in the past. I prefer to give my business to those who deserve it.

Captain Dan, go ahead and try to defend yourself. I know what you're going to say. It was the Coast Guard's fault, and you apologized all night long, saying "Please don't hate me." But a more meaningful apology would have been a day earlier, over the phone, before we all drove 8-10 hours down the coast while you knew you didn't have the approval to carry passengers. Slander? Absolutely not, just a warning to others seeking information about your boat.