Lessons from the Long Island Collision (Visit this link)
Last week a 600’ coal freighter ran down a 92’ sailboat at 4:30 am in clear weather off the north coast of Long Island in Long Island Sound. A woman on the sailboat died of hypothermia and two men on the boat were rescued alive. The sailboat sank.
The USCG inquiry is underway and we do not know what they will find. However, we do know that this is an accident that should not have happened. Obviously, neither vessel was keeping a proper watch. By definition, if it were “proper” a crewperson on both vessels would have seen the collision coming and avoided it.
We do not know what went on in this case, but we DO know that skippers of commercial fishing vessels in Long Island Sound have been known to punch in their way points on a chart plotter, click it into the autopilot, then leave the bridge to do other work. We also know that yacht delivery crews, which are almost always short-handed, do the same thing.
In our view, the problem here is that both commercial vessels and yachts now both have very sophisticated electronics and they are connecting the autopilot to waypoints that they program into the chart plotter. They are also setting “intrusion alarm” rings on their radar units expecting a buzzer to sound if the perimeter is crossed. The devices don’t cause collisions -- but people who turn them on, then don’t keep a proper lookout -- do.
Several years ago a 33’ sailboat in thick fog just two miles of Point Judith at the mouth off Long Island Sound was struck amidships by a fishing trawler with no one on the bridge. The captain of the commercial vessel reportedly said that if had to keep an eye out for all of the #@*%&# yachtsmen he would never get any work done.
Stories that you have heard for years of freighters coming into port with sailboat rigging caught in their bow anchors are true. Yachts have been rundown in the oceans for years.
The lesson is clear: Do not connect your chart plotter to your autopilot. Both are great tools, but don’t be tempted to connect them. And don’t count on your radar to buzz if a boogie comes close. Just keep a proper watch.
Submitted by: mhodgdon
Hits: 39
Added: Thu Sep 28 2006
