Whale Watching Boat Capsizes

Initial news stories made it sound like it was a remote location with response limited to aboriginal fishing vessels - the video in the above link quite clearly shows a CCG 47' Motor Lifeboat.

The details coming out now about it being a rocky area are starting to paint a more clear picture. I'm not a subscriber to the theory of "rogue waves" and their culpability for every marine incident where there is no other obvious 'twisted and torn metal' cause that can be shown in flashy, attention getting photographs. On the ocean there are swells and waves, and winds, and they are not bound to our opinions on decency. A predominate 4' swell does not mean there cannot be an occasional 6-8 at the end of the set, nor does a 12 second period mean a couple aren't going to stack when they hit bottom contour or deflect off bottom structure. There is nothing 'rogue' about it. This is behavior you either expect from the ocean, or you remain oblivious and stand into danger until you learn the hard way.

Hopefully they come up with an informed opinion on the cause of this incident so everyone can learn from it, and so all of the media antagonists that wouldn't know saltwater from dog piss knock off this "rogue wave" BS. It's not only annoying, but it casts aspersions on the crew of this boat, it insinuates they were oblivious to conditions around them, when nobody really has any idea what happened yet. Or at least none that has been published. That's very unfair to them.
 
I was boating with friends just south of that area last weekend. We ran from Seattle WA, to Victoria BC then up to Ucluelet which is about 20NM south of where this happened on the outside of Vancouver Island. The area is obviously exposed with open ocean to the west and there are a lot of small barrier islands/rocks with sometimes narrow channels that you have to come through where the surge can be substantial. Clearly a sad turn of events and I'll be interested in the cause etc...
 
quote:
Originally posted by GeeBee

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http://www.vancouversun.com/news/fi...r+whale+watching/11467007/story.html?tab=PHOT

Wow! After seeing a pre-casualty picture of this boat, and one of the post- pictures showing her bow up where she looks real shallow and skinny - I have the same reaction as you. 25 pax, off the top of my head I think the avg weight for stability testing is 180lbs (I know it changed in the last few years, I don't remember with 100% certainty, but 180 is good enough for discussions sake). That's 4500lb of unpredictable cargo shift on a top deck, on a narrow hull. Coupled with the weight of the high structures itself, I could see that easily putting the CG on the wrong side of the GM. Add in open doors hatches and fittings, and there's insufficient buoyancy to get the CG back under the metacenter and bring her back upright.

http://www.shipwrecklog.com/log/2015/10/leviathan-ii/

I'm eager to hear if any inclining test had been done to her after she was modified to her current configuration - although I can guess the answer.
 
We were in Monterey, CA last month. Sitting on the balcony, we say a whale watching boat go out. Everyone standing, on the top deck. It looked both heavy and I really questioned the stability if everyone went to one side to see a whale.

NC, are stability reports required for these size vessels?
 
quote:
Originally posted by GeeBee

We were in Monterey, CA last month. Sitting on the balcony, we say a whale watching boat go out. Everyone standing, on the top deck. It looked both heavy and I really questioned the stability if everyone went to one side to see a whale.

NC, are stability reports required for these size vessels?

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Not sure on Canadian regs, but here it would depend on both size and service. But there's this, which helps validate the theory:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/1...whale-watching-boat-to-capsize/?intcmp=hplnws
 
I have no doubt that all of these third world ferry disasters are related to stability issues.
 
Well...this is hardly a third world disaster. News reports this morning do point to a stability issue, tho.
 
Looking at pictures of the boat, it seems to have a narrow beam while appearing top heavy. porbsbly a combination of a wrong wave at the wrong angle with passengers on the wrong side...
 
Appears to have been a "perfect storm " of some type.
The owner states this same vessel has been making the same trip, twice a day for 20 years ...and maintains it is inspected annually including this year.
 
quote:
Originally posted by PascalG

Looking at pictures of the boat, it seems to have a narrow beam while appearing top heavy. porbsbly a combination of a wrong wave at the wrong angle with passengers on the wrong side...

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She looks shallow, too. Wonder how much tankage and how light they were? Also interested to hear who modified her, and if plan reviews and stability experiments were done. She was, I believe I read 65', and looking at photos online it's an aluminum hull (no running rust, chipped paint showing bare metal) that you can see has had at least some modifications. Forward she looks like a planing hull, and some of the photos you can find on Google images show her scooting right along. Whatever the topside structure is, aluminum or FRP, it's still significant weight - and 25 pax is not only significant weight, but it's the most unpredictable kind of cargo there is, liable to shift and redistribute itself en masse on a whim.

I'm no Archimedes, and even if I were, all I know about that boat is what I've found on Google, but my initial impression is that she looks like a stability disaster that was waiting to happen. Light, shallow, narrow, with high topside structure intended to place 25x180lbs+ of unpredictable shifting cargo on in a 10' sea. Add in the possibility of a slack tank (if, as I suspect, this boat was a lengthened hull, was new tankage installed? Baffled?) and the possibility of open doors/fittings/hatches...

I really hope more information comes out. I hate to play the assumption game, but this is subject matter that really interests me so I'm eager to hear more.
 
quote:
Originally posted by rythmstrat

Well...this is hardly a third world disaster. News reports this morning do point to a stability issue, tho.

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When did Canada become a 3rd world country ?? You're way out of line.
 
quote:
Originally posted by biglar

quote:
Originally posted by rythmstrat

Well...this is hardly a third world disaster. News reports this morning do point to a stability issue, tho.

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When did Canada become a 3rd world country ?? You're way out of line.

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Edit - Sorry - missed the word "hardly." My apologies.
 
When did Canada become a 3rd world country ?? You're way out of line.
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Edit - Sorry - missed the word "hardly." My apologies.
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Understood, no problem,
I was responding to 'boatbum'
 
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