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Old 02-26-2019, 09:59 AM   #8
Ski in NC
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City: Wilmington, NC
Vessel Name: Louisa
Vessel Model: Custom Built 38
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 6,194
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wild Blue View Post
Here's a very readable article with nice graphics about the USS Fitzgerald collision with container ship Crystal.

https://features.propublica.org/navy...crash-crystal/

After this read, the obvious recommendations are:
1. Buy each Navy ship a $25,000 Furuno commercial radar. Way easy to use and very reliable.
2. Look out the window more often.
3. Teach your crew that when you're in the world's most busiest strait, don't be training folks on the PORT side when all the traffic to avoid is on the STARBOARD side!

I think most recreational boaters could do a better job.
Well, I read the whole Propublica report. Wow.

This will probably get me in hot water on some levels, but one thing I noticed was that at the time of the collision, the officers in charge were women. OOD on bridge (appointed to operate the ship while capt slept), officer in charge of the combat center (where radar is, and traffic tracked) and officer in charge of the visual lookout. Some very young and inexperienced. Helm operated by a woman with 25 minutes (??) of experience on this actual helm.

Sounds sexist, but I have run boats with women on the crew, and my girl is often at our helm. My girl is smarter than I am on many levels, but one thing she is not good at is navigating at night and keeping a mental image of important nearby targets. The other women I crewed with were similar. They could do it, but it was not natural to them. I'm sure there are women out there that are natural excellent navigators, but I have not run into them.

And nobody stationed on stbd side as a visual lookout? Officer in charge of the lookout, her and her trainee were both on port side mostly occupied with some sort of training??

Ok, short manning. But you have what, 270 souls on board and you can't get someone out of a bunk for a stbd side lookout?

And no one seemed to be comparing radar echos to visual targets. That is a primary way of getting confidence in your radar. See something visually at say 2000yds and then check the screen. If it is not on the screen, then radar can't be trusted.
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