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Admiral Meyer, Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents, makes clear in the MAIB's
April 2004 Safety Digest that he wants all leisure craft users to report accidents
and hazardous incidents so that the whole maritime community can benefit from
the lessons to be learnt. He reinforces the point by asking the Chief Executive
of the RYA to introduce the leisure craft section of the Digest.
Clubs may wish to receive copies of safety reports and are likely to want to
encourage their members to do the same and to report incidents in which they
may be involved, if they do not do so already.
There are three valuable United Kingdom sources of reports, all available free-of-charge:
The addresses for each organisation is given below.
Compulsory reporting began in 1999 and the guidance explains that all merchant
ships, fishing vessels and vessels in commercial use for sport and pleasure
are required to report accidents. Accidents on or to pleasure craft used only
for recreation and not for commercial gain are not required to be reported.
Although there is no requirement to report hazardous incidents, owners, masters,
skippers and others are strongly urged to do so voluntarily since useful lessons
can always be learned. The guidance points out that the fundamental purpose
of investigating an accident is to determine its circumstances and the causes
with the aim of improving safety of life at sea and the avoidance of accidents
in the future. It is not the purpose to apportion liability, nor, except so
far as is necessary to achieve the fundamental purpose, to apportion blame.
An accident is defined as an undesired event that results in personal injury,
damage or loss. Accidents include loss of life or major injury to any person
on board, or when a person is lost from a ship; the actual or presumed loss
of a ship, her abandonment or material damage to her; collision or grounding,
disablement, and also material damage caused by a ship. A hazardous incident
is when an accident nearly occurs in connection with the operation of a ship.
In other words, it is what is often known as a "near miss."
The MAIB is the independent investigator of reported accidents and incidents
to British ships and other ships in UK waters. It publishes a "Safety Digest"
three times a year, a 60 page collection of short, readable, anonymous reports
on the lessons learned from investigations, split between merchant vessels,
fishing vessels and leisure craft to which has now been added a MAIB noticeboard
of safety bulletins. The incidents affecting leisure craft may be the most immediately
relevant, but skimming all the sections certainly helps build any skipper's
awareness of risky situations.
The printed Digest will be sent free-of-charge to any club or individual who
registers at MAIB, 1st Floor, Carlton House, Carlton Place, Southampton SO15
2DZ, telephone 023-8039-5500, email maib@dft.gov.uk.
Copies of all reports can be downloaded from the website www.maib.gov.uk,
clicking on 'Publications' and these include two leisure craft digests of articles
written over the past eight years, one for sailing and one for motor boats.
CHIRP is an independent, government funded charity and it was extended to the
marine environment in July 2003 after two decades experience in the aviation
industry. It reports safety concerns from the reporter's perspective based on
the information available to the reporter. CHIRP's primary purpose is to represent
safety related issues to the relevant organisations without revealing the identity
of the reporter, but is not intended to be a "whistle blowing" programme.
Both Admiral Meyer of MAIB and Captain Beedel of MARS serve on CHIRP's Advisory
Board, as does Stephen Johnson of RYA Cruising, representing the RYA. CHIRP
has issued two quarterly reports called "Maritime Feedback" so far
and, although only one reported incident involves a leisure craft, no doubt
reports will increase as cruising yachtsmen become used to the scheme.
As was noted at the CYCC 33rd Annual Meeting in the discussion about obstructions
to seaways caused by unmarked fishing gear (see the minutes at agenda item 15),
the RYA has persuaded CHIRP to support its initiative to attract reports about
fishing gear and is willing to do so to assist in determining the extent of
the issue and the risk it may pose to life.
Maritime Feedback will be distributed free-of-charge by email to anyone who
registers on the website at www.chirp.co.uk,
and clicks the button marked 'subscription'. Past editions can be downloaded
from the website by clicking the button marked 'downloads'.
MARS is a long standing and successful initiative of the Nautical Institute,
the international association of Master Mariners, in which Captain Beedel collects
reports of incidents, mainly from Institute members, and seeks to tease out
the lessons. The reports are particularly interesting because they tend to be
less formal and hence more forthright than MAIB and CHIRP and come from anywhere
around the world where members take their ships. The incidents involve primarily
the merchant fleet, but the reports are nonetheless particularly interesting
to leisure sailors since a large proportion deal with "near misses"
and discuss the applicable Collision Regulations and thus offer a keen insight
into the minds of ships' officers contemplating a yacht in their path.
The Institute's monthly magazine "Seaways", in which MARS reports
are included, is available on subscription from The Nautical Institute, 202
Lambeth Road, London SE1 7LQ, telephone 020 7928 1351, email sec@nautinst.org.
There is an excellent free-of-charge database available for search on the Institute's
website at www.nautinst.org and click
on 'Confidential Accident Reports (MARS)'
Each reporting scheme offers more information on the website's indicated and
this includes reporting guidelines and report forms.
David Darbyshire