More deaths
Two yacht captains, a long-time mate die.
A16 Pura Vida
A pre-float?
Stew gives English, gets much more in return. B10
Should yachts do like airplanes? A18 Vol.7, No.6
www.the-triton.com
HAZWOPER, HAZ what?
An unspoken topic: death on board
TRAGEDY IN THE MED
The serious training with the funny name By Dorie Cox Whether working their way up to a bigger yacht or upgrading their license, many yacht crew are eager for the next thing. Since the April 20 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, the opportunity to do something new – or simply to do something in this recession – has prompted several yacht captains and crew to join the troops combatting oil in the Gulf of Mexico. To be in the thick of things, though, they needed a new kind of training not required in the yachting industry, certification in hazardous waste operations and emergency response standard training, known as HAZWOPER. “It’s beneficial and I got a lot out of it, but it’s not like I’m going to encounter those scenarios tomorrow,” Capt. Menkin Nelson said of her recent HAZWOPER course in Ft. Lauderdale. “Everyone in the class, barring one guy who was a land-based engineer, was intending to go to the Gulf.” The HAZWOPER course teaches participants how to analyze a
See HAZWOPER, page A8
Roberto Hernandez of Safety Guys gets suited up during HAZWOPER training in Ft. Lauderdale this PHOTO/DORIE COX summer.
The sling in use on a PWC. It is unclear if this was the PWC that fell. The crew in this photo were not identified in the Cayman Islands’ notice. PHOTOS FROM CAYMAN ISLANDS SHIPPING REGISTRY
Deckhand dies after fall when lifting sling fails By Lucy Chabot Reed A deckhand on a 175-foot yacht died in July when he fell about 6 feet onto a personal watercraft that was being launched. The Cayman Islands Shipping Registry issued a notice, which did not name the megayacht or the deckhand, about the accident. According to the notice, the yacht was at anchor in the South of France and the crew was launching the PWC. When it reached deck height, “a deckhand boarded the craft to ride with it to the water, in order to release the lifting slings and bring the PWC round to the stern of the yacht.” Once aboard, the deckhand held onto the crane’s cable and lowering resumed. Almost immediately, according to the notice, the inboard lifting slings failed and the PWC fell into the water. The deckhand could not hold onto the cable and also fell, hitting the PWC face down and sustaining serious chest injuries. He was taken to a local hospital but
September 2010
Thousands of yacht crew span oceans around the globe, but the deaths of a few reverberate like a boulder tossed into a small pond. Be it murder, suicide or accident, any death in yachting gets captains and crew thinking about how they are affected. “Death is From the Bridge something that’s Dorie Cox not usually talked about,” a captain said at this month’s Triton From the Bridge luncheon as we discussed how captains handle a death on the job. “The commercial industry has guidelines on what to do, but we have none,” another captain said. “We have procedures for everything else -- mayday, pan-pan -- but there is no format to follow for this.” “The industry is really light on this subject,” said a third. “There should be standard protocol.” As always, individual comments are not attributed to any one person in particular so as to encourage frank and open discussion. The attending captains are identified in a photograph on page A16. When someone dies in a television drama, the authorities arrive, process
See BRIDGE, page A14
TRITON SURVEY The failed cables. died. The notice indicated that the steel lifting slings were found to be corroded near the crimped eye connection to the spreader beam. Officials from the Cayman Islands would not talk further about the incident. To read the Cayman Islands’ full notice, read this story on our Web site (www.the-triton.com/ node/8788). A 2006 Triton article about preventing this sort of accident is reprinted on page A6.
Do you have a negative impression of yacht crew who have lots of short-term jobs on their resumes? Yes, candidate obviously can’t keep a job – 11.8% Yes, unless resume lists preference for freelance – 38.8%
No, short or seasonal; jobs are common – 49.4% – Story, C1