Oh very dear !!!

[Antares_9]

http://www.lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/fishing_boat_hit_by_oil_tanker_off_lowestoft_coastline_1_797612

I make no comment

[pks1702]

Mmm the track seems a bit erratic

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/defaul ... 15:27%20PM

[jimbo]

I think we could probaby do an ' On Land ' reconstruction, by cycling onto the A1 in front of one of Eddie Stobarts fleet

[senator]

Not so sure Eddie would hit you if you were sat in a lay by by a side road off the A1 and you had told him where you were. Especially if he had to take a detour to hit you.

[jimbo]

Oh right Ian, I hadn't realised the ship had steered a course to hit it, that is out of order I was working on the theory, that if its that much bigger than you, your probably better off getting out of its way

[Guest]

So just to be clear about the oil transfer .....

Large super-tankers transfer oil to smaller vessels, presumably to enable the oil to be delivered to smaller ports? Or is it the other way round?

Sorry I've seen this activity going on and often wondered what the purpose was and why it has to be done on the high-seas in our backyard.

[senator]

Yep Supper Tanker to Tanker but not allowed anywhere else in UK waters.

Not sure why Lowestoft-Southwold would be singled out for this operation, maybe the ecology of the area would not be upset by a few thousand gallons of oil or there are not any influential politicians living in the area

[senator]

Oh right Ian, I hadn't realised the ship had steered a course to hit it, that is out of order I was working on the theory, that if its that much bigger than you, your probably better off getting out of its way

AIS track was a bit curvy and supposedly the skipper of the Tanker had acknowledged the fishing boats call and assured him he would steer round him.

Does raise a few points though.

Did the fishing boat call the right tanker? there are a fair few tankers and lots of fishing boats out there so how could he be sure that the tanker skipper was not a different tanker with a different fishing boat in view? if the details are correct then a position was given but was the transmission even heard on the ship that hit them and if another tanker could see a fishing vessel were the coordinates checked to ensure it was the fishing boat that was actually calling.

Why would you sit there when the tanker got close enough that there was any doubt? I don't have any experience with commercial traffic but I assume that if an avoiding course was being steered it would not be to miss by a few yards.

Maybe A certain pilot could comment on that?

For the Fishermen amongst us, given that he was not trawling (at anchor) is there any equipment that would prevent the skipper from moving out of the way? if there was a long line out could he not just have dragged it to a point of safety?

[jimbo]

That was the part I couldn't really understand Ian. It's one thing going through the correct protocol etc but in the end common sense would tell you to get the hell out of it's way surely?

We had a similar situation whilst fishing off Whitby.A container ship was bearing down on us and attempts by the skipper to radio the ship failed, so we all reeled in and got out of it's way. As it passed by our skipper said it looked like nobody was on the bridge and reported it to the coast guard.Being one of the local RNLI crew, he wasn't impressed to say the least, but wasn't about to sit there and let it run us down just because we were in the right

I guess when you only get one side of the story, like in this case it's hard to judge really?

[senator]

Thanks for the post Rod but what I hoped you would comment on was what distance a Tanker would consider a safe distance to pass a small fishing boat at? I was guessing that if the captain did offer to avoid the fishing vessel it would be by more than a few yards, hence it should have been bloody obvious that something was amiss at say 1/2 - 1/4 of a mile when self preservation should have kicked in.

Still bad form to hit a boat at anchor, assuming the appropriate shapes were being displayed, bit like someone running into your car while it is parked outside your house then blaming you, but as you say Rod only one side of the story.