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Old 07-04-2008, 08:39 AM   #3
Baker
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City: League City, Tx
Vessel Name: Floatsome & Jetsome
Vessel Model: Meridian 411
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 7,332
RE: Threat and error management

How does this apply to boats???

Threats:

Weather...current...traffic...restricted channel/water depth(terrain)...a known problem with the boat(broken radar, etc)...darkness....fatigue...poor health of the helmsman(ie poor eyesight or night vision, etc.) The list could go on and on.

Every single one of these is a threat and every single one of these should be considered. You should definitely develop strategies to cope with them and mitigate their risk. If the risk is acceptable to you, then you continue on. If it is not, then you figure a different strategy or don't continue.

Okay so now you are coming to a bend in the channel. There is a barge with about 3 long and double wide(damn near 1000ft long). Coming around the bend as well. You don't call to coordinate with him which is your first error. You keep to the "right side of the road" and he is trying to stay to his side. The one thing you didn't realize(another error) is that you are down wind of him and the wind is a solid 15 with may higher gusts. You realize he is getting out of shape. You are running out of water on the downwind side of him. You see seagulls 20 feet away in ankle deep water!!! What are you gonna do??? Luckily the pilot of the tow manages his load and gets out of the pickle and you scoot around the back of him with about 5ft of water under you.

The debrief portion(LOSA,FOQA,ASAP) of this is to brief how you screwed up. The first thing would have been to have called the tow captain. There are many people who just don't think the tow captains want to talk to us....that is a very false assumption. They will rarely tell you how to run your boat but they will suggest very strongly what they would recommend. I guarantee you in this case he would have told what he was doing and most likely would have preferred you to pass on the upwind side(2 whistle...starboard to starboard) because he was well aware of the threat that the wind and the bend in the channel posed to his operation. With experiences like this you will now realize that steering a 1000ft long load is not a science...but an art and you will respect that next time.

What would you have done had he not regained control???
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