Felixstowe yacht crash report finds neither vessel had a proper lookout

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-32801378

Version 0 of 1.

A fatal crash involving a yacht and a 5,000-tonne dredger happened because neither vessel had a proper lookout, investigators have found.

Bernadine Ingram, 57, of Butley in Suffolk, was killed in the collision off Felixstowe last June.

She had been aboard the yacht Orca when it collided with the dredger Shoreway. Her body was recovered the next day.

A Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) inquiry found the crash happened in good visibility.

The report said Shoreway's chief officer Gerardus Chapel, from the Netherlands, had altered course before the collision which meant Orca entered "a blind sector" of obscured visibility caused by equipment on the dredger's bow.

This meant the yacht was not seen by the chief officer until seconds before the crash.

The MAIB said Peter Ingram, the skipper of Orca and Mrs Ingram's husband, saw Shoreway about 1.6 miles (2.5km) away.

Judging there to be no risk of collision, he turned on the autopilot and went briefly below.

But the two vehicles crashed and the badly-damaged Orca sank within minutes.

Mr Ingram was pulled from the water by Shoreway's rescue boat but Mrs Ingram, whose mobility was impaired following recent medical treatment, was found in the vessel the next day by divers.

"The vessels collided in good visibility as neither the chief officer, who was alone on the bridge of Shoreway, nor the skipper of Orca, who was below deck in the cabin, were maintaining a proper lookout during the period immediately prior to the collision," the report said.

The MAIB said action had been taken by marine and port authorities as well as by Boskalis Westminster, owner of Shoreway.

At Ipswich Crown Court in February, Chapel, 37, was sentenced to six months jail, suspended for 18 months, for failing to discharge his duties properly as officer of the watch.