Canada BS Thread

If they lost power out there , they could be on the rocks in a couple minutes

 

Lots of speculation going on towards what happened; whatever it was it sure must have been very, very frightening for everyone, and the shock of the cold water. I know the smaller rigid hull whale tours, everyone wears a survival type full floatation suit. Not sure about this size boat.

 

Brings home the reality of our coastal environment in the PNW. All that I love about it, is exactly what makes the safety margins so thin. Doesn't take long to find oneself in a life threatening situation. My thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families.

Up here anyway, the large boats are only carrying standard life preservers; and some inflatable survival rafts IIRC. If they had rafts, it would appear that whatever happened occurred so fast they didn't have time to deploy rafts.

I'll be interested to see what the investigation determines. Thoughts to the safety of the investigators and recovery crews as well.

 

My BIL and I used to sport fish outside of Tofino harbour and one time our main engine ran out of gas while we were slowly idling along in front of the rocks , the few minutes it took to realize what happened and start the trolling motor while we were being pushed by 16' rollers towards the barnacle and mussel encrusted rocks was pretty scary shit .

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-border-security-benefits-seniors-1.3290299

I love the website address of this article and how it's totally opposite from what this actually does to seniors!

 

Preliminary report from Transport Canada says ship was broached by a starboard wave, when all the passengers were on the top deck and on the port side. Yes, that would have happened very quickly, and tossed everyone in the water, some of them with a ship coming down on them I imagine. The cold water would also be quite a shock and initiate a gasp reflex for most.

 

I can see that all too easy. Hard to control the customers when the critters show up. Very sad, because it could have been prevented. Lesson learned the hard way. So tragic.

 

We had an accident on our Lake on a rented houseboat. It was a party boat overloaded with uninvited guests, and all up on the top deck. It flipped 50' after it left dock. One young woman died when she was trapped in the bathroom.

 

I thought I heard a news report yesterday say 5 deceased were English ... but that's just my recollection, I might be wrong.

 

So tragic, stupid, and sad all at once.

 

Yes, one person still missing is Australian, three are British tourists, and two are British nationals living/working in Canada.

 

There was video, with folks commenting on shore it looked unstable. Firemen on their time off were in the local pub by the dock, and swam out to bring people that were struggling to shore. There were like 30 people on the top deck of the house boat. The boat, if I remember was rented by one person, but keys handed over to another person who did not know what they were getting themselves into.

 

Turns out the boat in question was probably converted from a boat not built for top end loading. Not that they have anything firm to say about it yet.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...ale-watching-crash-more-inspections-1.3295885

 

It passed all its inspections though which seems odd

 

How tight are the inspections? That's what I'm wondering. Ten years ago the commercial inspections here regularly missed things that caused accidents. After some better training and manpower though now it seems like stuff that mechanics miss gets picked up by the inspector. We even invite the inspectors on site to find our issues before we send the heavy trucks in each year for overhaul just so we are all above base and know our stuff is safe.

Maybe ship inspection has slipped? Maybe not?

 

Don't know the details on that

 

Basically , I would say that it was more bad luck than anything else . The same boat has been making a couple runs a day in the same weather conditions ( which were not bad ) or worse to the same areas for decades , presumably with similar amounts of people

 

Sure , makes sense going forward , I just don't like the reporting that is kinda demonizing the owners for modifying the boat , legally apparently and inspected , for the resulting rollover

Nobody that works in those waters would purposely put people at risk

 

I'm sure every company that handles people NEVER cuts a corner or two .

The media is overplaying it, the company is innocent until proven guilty but the media doesn't allow for that, but Transport Canada should review the modifications and see if:

1. Where the owners and vessel within compliance or was something missed by inspection.
2. Is the current code acceptable given this accident, or could simple changes be made to decrease the risk further.

If anything the last few decades of air travel have shown that sometimes even small screw ups in the inspection and maintenance of vehicles can lead to disastrous results. Maybe nothing was wrong and this is just the risk of having people out there. I know my dad has lost a friend to a fishing accident a few years ago on the west coast and it was all because the company let them go fishing in seas that were too high. Maybe something can be done to avoid this in the future. Until every avenue is explored by investigators, there is no way to know.

 

I have no issue with the investigation and unfotunately the results of which tend to be the driving factors behind code and conduct changes , just don't like seeing the boat owners tried in the court of social media

If in the end it does turn out that the modifications done to the boat passed all rules and inspections , the investigation needs to make sure to lay the blame squarely with the regulatory system and not the boat owners , doing anything else would be like investigating me for a fatal building collapse that was built to code , inspected and passed and yet still blaming the builder