Attessa IV collision

Looks like someone’s watchkeeping abilities leave a bit to be desired. This will be an interesting one to watch unfold......

I thought AIS was supposed to make such events a thing of the past?

I've fished off the Prowler, its a good sized beefy boat really surprised it didn't do more damage. It must have been a side swipe. Very sad for the loss of life here. How two boats that size cant avoid one another with a lookout, radar, ais ext. is scary. Yeah watchkeeping issues on both vessels would seem to be a likely cause.

Yes, this one was a shocker.

We just circled Atessa in the harbor a few days before the accident. This is the largest Mega that comes in to SD to my knowledge. A very big boat, with a large crew.

I have also fished on the Prowler and know the boat well. It has been a fixture in SD for decades.

Regarding AIS, many of the sport boats turn them off when fishing.

Atessa- damn, not sure what the hell happened there but that crew and their actions are going to be looked at under a microscope.

I would imagine that both captains and some crew on the Atessa will lose their jobs over this.

We passed Atessa about 3 weeks ago as it was heading south in Haro Strait. The owner owns a shipping company (and a mining construction company amongst other things) with Atessa staffed by very capable crew.

Assuming both vessels had AIS on their every move is recoverable. The investigation will be interesting.

sunchaser said:

We passed Atessa about 3 weeks ago as it was heading south in Haro Strait. The owner owns a shipping company (and a mining construction company amongst other things) with Atessa staffed by very capable crew.

Assuming both vessels had AIS on their every move is recoverable. The investigation will be interesting.

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Attessa IV was involved in this collision. Attessa (no #) is also in San Diego.
Attessa was Dennis Washington's earlier boat, a mere 265(?) ft, small compared to the Attessa IV at 100m (332'). His shipyard had this boat insde, completely redoing a 90m yacht bought from Evergreen (container ships) as a 10 yr old with "good bones". Refit took 4 years. Lots of pix online.

Both boats show up on AIS currently, so no doubt whatsoever they had it at the time of the collision.

My wife and I were on an NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) cruise that docked in San Diego on Tuesday last week. The Attessa IV was tied up alongside the bulkhead which we were perpendicular to. It's sister ship, or what I assumed to be Attessa was anchored slightly out in the bay. I put the binos on both and marveled at their size. 3 nights later this accident occurred. Shame.

Here are a couple of links with more info on the yachts:

LINK 1

LINK 2

All I can think of is "WOW".

Yes, will be interesting to see how fault is assigned and weighted. The yacht hit the Prowler on its starboard side.

AIS or no AIS, a 65 ft vessel makes a heck of a radar target. Someone wasn't looking for quite a while. OOOPPPSSS!!!

Lets wait for the investigation
I have a very good idea what happened
Lets not just guess or condemn anyone for now
it is sad that this even happened

Sea Q said:

Lets wait for the investigation
I have a very good idea what happened
Lets not just guess or condemn anyone for now
it is sad that this even happened

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Why? What possible harm could be caused by discussing this and even indulging in speculation? This is an Internet forum, not a board of inquiry.

Sea Q said:

Lets wait for the investigation
I have a very good idea what happened
Lets not just guess or condemn anyone for now
it is sad that this even happened

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Would you like to share you thoughts on what happened ??

Your right this forum is for discussion
Go for it

Not much info to go on with this incident. Only the stbd side damage on the fish boat which suggests it was the give way boat, but even that’s not certain. We don’t know how the boats may have maneuvered just prior to the collision. And AIS track would tell a lot, but none so far. And no witness accounts that would also fill in pieces of the puzzle. About the only thing we know is that the hit each other, and when that happens everyone has failed their duties. Given the tragic outcome, I sure would hate to be either of those captains.

This comment is not about placing blame, but one of genuine confusion. There were 28 people on board the 65' fishing vessel that was struck on it's starboard quarter. My confusion comes from this thought: With 28 people on a 65' boat, without regard to who is the stand on vs give way vessel, how is it possible that nobody saw this coming in time to take measures to avoid the impact? Nobody?

Despite how that sounds, I am not passing judgement. It might just show how hard it is to see another boat at night. Even with proper running lights (assuming they were working correctly) it can still be hard to see. There is no mention of high speed, so assuming a lower speed, there would be considerable time to act if one saw it coming. I love to boat at night, but I will admit it can be difficult to see other boats on the water.

AZ2Loop said:

<<at night>>it can be difficult to see other boats on the water.

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That is very true. Having been in the aviation world (We're going unless we legally can't) for 36 years when I retire in a few I will be happy to do as much of my boating as possible in daylight with proper visibility and sea state, and stay put and watch it if it is crappy.

I can understand how this can happen. I do a few trips a year to fish in the Gulf Stream. We usually leave about 2AM and run hull speed to get there at sunrise. All the crew are somewhat knowledgeable mariners. Lowest one on totem pole gets helm duty. All he has to do is keep a lookout both visually and by radar, and don't hit ANYTHING. I take the boat out the inlet, set AP, give a briefing and crawl in my bunk.

Once I woke up about 5am and came up to the helm. Helmsman was fast asleep!! Boat was running fine and on course. We got lucky. That boy received severe grief from me and the rest of the crew.

This past cruising season we saw several large yachts at night. Visually impossible to miss with probably 50kw of lights on. One was JK Rowling's "Calypso". We saw it from 5 nm away.

I'm amazed on various boating forums how the reaction is always "how possibly could that have happened." It's like car accidents and you wonder how. Why did car 1 not see car 2.

Well, people make mistakes all the time. Now, in this situation, you probably had a helmsman and a watch on boat boats so ultimately could have meant 4 people simultaneously making a major mistake. If the odds of one making the mistake is 1 in 100 then the odds of this happening become 1 in 100 million. However, if one boat only had one person on watch then it's only 1 in 1 million. If only one on each boat then it's just 1 in 10,000. Powerball odds are 1 in 292,000 and yet people win. Well, unfortunately, even in taking precautions, collisions at sea will still happen. Weather conditions, malfunctioning equipment, untrained or inattentive personnel increases the likelihood and that's what the NTSB will study.

Clearly though it took boat boats making mistakes. Both failed to avoid the accident. Why is still to be determined, but even with the best of us, there's always a risk. There is no such thing as risk free boating (or flying or driving) and it's due to our diligence there are not more accidents.

BandB said:

I'm amazed on various boating forums how the reaction is always "how possibly could that have happened." It's like car accidents and you wonder how. Why did car 1 not see car 2.

Well, people make mistakes all the time....Clearly though it took boat boats making mistakes. Both failed to avoid the accident.....and it's due to our diligence there are not more accidents.

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Mistakes, arrogance, carelessness, ignorance.

Any or all could come into play. I recently had a too close for comfort situation east of Sant Catalina Island. On a southeasterly course on a clear monring I was tracking several of the Catalina bound passenger boats on my port side. One had a CPA of less than 400 yards ahead of me. Too close for comfort on open water in my book. I as stand on vessel did just that. I had him on AIS, radar and visually. At 86 ft LOA I can only assume he had the same. As the range closed I hailed him on 16 & 13 multiple times, no response. Both VHFs to be certian his lack of response was not equipment problems on my end. Observing rule 2 I slowed to idle and eventually all stop repeatedly hailing on 16 & 13. As he crossed my bow I put the glasses on him and could not see anyone in the wheel house. Eventually a body appeared at the wheel and answered my call. The response I got was blunt, dismissive and clearly annoyed that he had to answer my calls.

- Carelessness, not maintaining a proper watch.
- Arrogance, thinking he did not need to respond to my calls.

You passengers, crew, boat and your safety are in your hands. Never forget rule 2.

The reason I was expressing surprise about how this can happen is that there were 28 people on board a 65' boat, at 7:45 PM. Unlike Ski's situation where a fishing crew heads out at 2:00 AM with most crew members sleeping, this was pretty early in the evening. I would think it a safe bet that most were awake at that hour.

Also, with 28 souls on a 65-footer, it's not like they were all in the lower dining hall, in the casino, or dancing in the ballroom on deck 4 -- it's just a 65-foot fishing boat. In other words, many were likely outside or could easily see outside. Yet nobody called attention (at least not in time) that a huge 300+ foot mega yacht was getting closer and closer.
BandB, I agree there was just one helmsman and probably one other lookout on both boats, but still there were 28 people on the 65 footer -- presumably 56 eyeballs -- yet nobody said "hey, there is a 300+ foot boat out there, getting closer and closer" in time for evasive action.

I am not placing blame. It's not my place nor do I have enough information to do so. I'm saying that when it comes to night vision on the water, it is more challenging than we sometimes think. Perhaps that supports BandB's point and provides an explanation as to how this can happen.

It seems to me that when you have a professional crew, one of, if not THE most important parts of the jobs is to NOT HIT STUFF. The same holds true for the charter fishing boat. Most owners will be less concerned about Colregs than the fact that the crew failed in in one of their primary responsibilities. As such, I can't think of any reason why the watch standers on the bridge would still have a job when they got back to shore.

Fishing boats usually have lots of bright deck lights on unless they are traveling. If they were drift fishing, with a tuna or 2 hooked up, I would bet $100 that everyone on deck would be looking at the fish and the craziness vs looking out wondering about some running lights in the distance.

What's a ping/echo on radar look like from a 300 foot boat? Is is possible the 65 foot fishing boat thought he was going behind the bow light and didn't realize it was a Football field sized mega-yacht painted dark blue in front of him? (Assuming it's very dark/cloudy/foggy and he could see radar and maybe the bow light but not the boat.)

Sidney

High Wire said:

Fishing boats usually have lots of bright deck lights on unless they are traveling. If they were drift fishing, with a tuna or 2 hooked up, I would bet $100 that everyone on deck would be looking at the fish and the craziness vs looking out wondering about some running lights in the distance.

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Interesting point. Nothing ruins night vision more than bright deck lights. It would be very hard to pick running lights out on anything in the distance if the passengers on the fishing boat were all under bright lights. I'm not suggestion that's what happened, but since we (I) drifted this thread into night vision, it is an interesting point.

The boats were on nearly reciprocal courses (which helps to explain why none of the fishing boat's passengers saw Attessa in time to give warning). There is (or at least was) AIS data available for Attessa, which showed it turned to port either just before, or as a result of the collision. Prowler, the fishing boat, was not transmitting an AIS signal at the time of the collision. The most plausible explanation I can think of is that Attessa saw Prower on its radar, and tracked it for miles, with it appearing to be a port to port crossing. I suspect that as the vessels neared each other, Attessa began hailing Prowler (not by name, since no AIS data, just by course and location) but did not receive a reply. Prower was returning from a multi-day fishing trip, in which the crew is typically exhausted and sleep deprived. Attessa's radar is so high that it may loose contact within about 400'. It may be that as the two vessels approached for a very close port-to-port crossing, the Prowler crew was surprised to see the lights of Attessa and turned hard to port, putting its starboard side right in front of Attessa's bow. I find that explanation much more plausible than the idea that no one was paying attention on either boat. Attessa was less than an hour out of Point Loma. Unlike Prowler, it very likely had abundant well rested crew. And I suspect that the Captain was at the helm at that time if for no reason other than that he wanted to be. He certainly wouldn't "relax" and turn the helm over to someone who would fall asleep or who lacked the experience to handle a situation like this.

i concur
If the Prowler didn't have the AIS running he was ether tired or person didn't know how to turn it on .
Attessa would have been the sitting goose not sure what way to turn from a high speed craft maybe not on a straight course intersect.
Prower might have had only one at the helm but i'm sure on a 300 " plus you would have 2 probaby 3 on the bridge .
These people would be highly trained and well paid employees for a reason.

My AIS and it is always on; also i use the Marpa function on one radar with any questionable targets and in such a situation I would call for extra manpower to the bridge knowing things might turn bad quick
I'm sure Attessa would have done the same and more.
I sort have got an in and everyone is staying quiet like they should