Maritime Injury Law Blog

SEATTLE - The Coast Guard is investigating the collision of a fishing boat with several vessels and a pier in Tillamook Bay, Ore., that occurred Thursday evening. The fishing vessel Swell Rider, a 73-foot commercial fishing vessel, collided with the vessels and pier while attempting to navigate to its moorage in the harbor.

Personnel from Coast Guard Station Tillamook Bay boarded the vessel and performed an inspection. Inspections after a search and rescue case or marine accident are a normal procedure.

No injuries or pollution were reported but the pier suffered extensive damage. Further assessment of all vessels involved will continue to determine the full extent of damage. The cause of the accident is under investigation. The master of the vessel is fully cooperating with Coast Guard officials.

Photos of the damaged vessels and pier can be found at the following links.
http://www.piersystem.com/clients/uscg-13/51815.jpg?0.197262839043
http://www.piersystem.com/clients/uscg-13/51816.jpg?0.458219969359
http://www.piersystem.com/clients/uscg-13/51817.jpg?0.193432030248

Source: US Coast Guard

Posted by Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, LLP at 11:45 AM | Permalink

Five passengers were killed, and a 10-year-old girl was permanently brain-damaged, in the sinking of the Lady D Water Taxi on March 6, 2004. The accident took place in Baltimore Harbor, on its run between Fort McHenry and Fells Point. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the pontoon boat was carrying too much weight when it capsized during a storm, while carrying 25 passengers and crew.

The Coast Guard is being faulted for using outdated weighting guidelines to certify the water taxi for 25 passengers. The Coast Guard guidelines use 140 lbs as an average passenger weight, which is a figure they came up with back in 1942. This figure would allow the taxi to carry 3,500 pounds. The average passenger weight on the fated run was determined to be 168 pounds, for a total of 4,210 pounds. With pounding wind and waves, this proved to be too much for the Lady D.

A Coast Guard stability test was never officially done on the Lady D. In the early 1990s another pontoon boat, the Fells Point Princess, was stability tested. The Fells Point Princess was mistakenly rated using guidelines for a monohull boat, which it was not. This resulted in inaccurate figures for capacity ratings for that vessel. The Coast Guard labeled the Lady D. as a “sister vessel” to the Fells Point Princess, thereby waiving testing requirements, and using the inaccurate figures.

Weather was also a contributing problem, and the National Weather Service was criticized for not giving a timely warning of the thunderstorms that were approaching the harbor on March 6th, 2004. The warning was finally released about 7 minutes after the Lady D capsized. The weather service has since taken steps to correct their shortcomings.

The Coast Guard is taking heat for not taking any immediate action to correct their outdated weighting guidelines, nor can they say when this might happen. Some feel it will take another accident before the urgency is felt. The Coast Guard has been working on changing pontoon boat capacities on a case-by-case basis, and has tightened standards for determining when vessels are similar.

Sources: US Coast Guard & Baltimore Sun

Posted by Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, LLP at 11:36 AM | Permalink

The Coast Guard received a mayday call at 6:54 am Friday morning, March 10th from the 34-foot gillnetter, Slayer. The caller stated, “Going down, two hands on board Port Gardner.”

The hands onboard Slayer were Rick Nebert, 42, of Juneau, and Matthew Young, 18, of Sitka. Rick was the owner/operator of the vessel. Rick’s wife, Jennifer, said that her husband had been longlining for cod near Kake and was headed to Sitka to unload his catch.

Within 50 minutes of the mayday call, a Coast Guard helicopter arrived at the scene, and with the assistance of a nearby vessel, the Aleutian Dream, searched the area. Approximately five miles south of Port Gardner they located a raft, survival suit, and a life ring. Later in the morning an additional HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and the Coast Guard Cutter, Anacapa, joined in the search. By early afternoon, two Civil Air Patrol aircraft also joined in the effort. On Friday night the Coast Guard used a helicopter equipped with infra red and night vision technology.

At the time of the search conditions included 35 to 40 knot winds, seas of 10-12 feet, and a water temperature of 40 degrees. A Self Locating Data Marker buoy was dropped in the water to keep pace with the drift, in an effort to understand the conditions and direction that debris or survivors would travel.

The Coast Guard and Civil Air Patrol continued their efforts for three days, searching and re-searching the moving debris field, and areas along the shore. A ground search party provided by Sitka Mountain Rescue also searched the vicinity of Port Garner, four and a half miles north and upwind of where the vessel allegedly went down. There was no sign of survivors having made it ashore. 60 hours of flight time was logged throughout the search, and 918 miles of shoreline and 735 miles of open water were searched multiple times.

Rick Nebert had fished Alaska waters for more than 20 years, and has gillnetted in Alaska for the past 10. He leaves behind a wife and two young children. The Slayer was not insured.

Sources: US Coast Guard & Juneau Empire

Posted by Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, LLP at 11:26 AM | Permalink