The Tragedy at Tofino, B.C.: Inside the Sinking of Leviathan II | Hacker News Reader

The Tragedy at Tofino, B.C.: Inside the Sinking of Leviathan II

macleans.ca

59 pointscurtis18 comments

I live in BC and work for an organization that regularly responds to maydays. These things happen all the time. It is rare for so many deaths to be involved, but I hear the story of a small boat suddenly overturning on a weekly basis. The BC coast is littered with islands that make waves do strange things. We aren't Alaska, but the water is still cold and help is always far away. There are airforce helicopters in Comox and Victoria, but they are at least an hour away from most of the BC coast.

Don't go out in a small boat unless you are ready to fall off that boat. Either put on an immersion suit (the big yellow drysuits used by the fast whale watching boats) or make sure you have and know how to use a 6/10-man inflatable raft. Even then, take a plunge. Go to a polar bear swim (new years day in canada) and get a feel for real ocean water. And learn to swim. Not splashing around in your neighbour's pool. Imho if you cannot do a hundred meters in a lap pool you shouldn't be in any small boat. In rough seas that 10-15 feet to the raft, and then hauling yourself into the raft, isn't easy. If you are in your 80s and want to see sea lions up close, get a big TV and download an Attenbourough documentary.

Two things stood out to me from a radio/communications point of view:

First, that a vessel carrying that many people wasn't required to be equipped with AIS, and indeed was not AIS-equipped. There are a number of water taxi and small ferries in BC which are smaller than this which are AIS equipped, such as the water taxis you can hire to go from Vancouver to Gambier Island and other locations in Howe Sound.

Second, this part from the TC report, which seems to indicate that the government is taking more seriously the concept of requiring EPIRBs on this class of passenger vessel. Since modern EPIRBs are a lot less costly than they used to be, I don't think it's a huge burden for operators.

"In response, TC has proposed to expand requirements to carry an EPIRB. At the national Canadian Marine Advisory Council meeting in April 2016, TC updated industry on the proposed Navigation Safety Regulations, which are expected to be completed in 2018. Under the revised regulations, which would consolidate the Ship Station (Radio) Regulations 1999, among others, vessels would be required to carry EPIRBs when operating outside of sheltered waters if the vessel is more than 8 m in length, is carrying more than 6 passengers, or is a tug/tow boat."

I just got back from a week on my sailboat in Barkley Sound, which is the sound just to the south of Tofino on the west side of Vancouver Island. Maybe it is a local culture thing, but I was very surprised by how few boats had AIS transponders on the west side of Vancouver Island, especially now that the price of a transponder is well below $1000.

Then again, while AIS and EPIRB can save your bacon, they can also give a sense of false security especially if help is more than an hour away. Self-reliance comes first on the water.

Absolutely, I have only ever thought of modern aids like AIS and satellite EPIRBs as part of a belt + suspenders approach to safety and planning.

At least it was a proper boat and not those converted bus/boat deathtraps that drive around cities with rivers or lakes to give the tourists something to do.

The Transportation Safety Board report is at http://www.bst-tsb.gc.ca/eng/enquetes-investigations/marine/...

They recommend improved safety planning requirements and automated beacons for such commercial vessels operating outside sheltered waters.

Automated beacons are great, but nothing would have gotten rescuers onto this scene any faster. Thirty minutes or an hour is an amazing response time. Unless you are 10-15 miles from Comox, even an airforce helicopter could not have gotten their any faster.

The "Findings" section of the report indicates 45 minutes elapsed before authorities were aware of the capsizing. In this case, a beacon may have cut that time down.

In a location where hypothermia is a risk, this is important.

> Approximately 45 minutes elapsed before search-and-rescue (SAR) resources became aware of the capsizing, as the crew did not have time to transmit a distress call before the capsizing, nor did the vessel have a means to automatically send a distress call.

the temperature-to-survival time table:

http://www.ussartf.org/cold_water_survival.htm

In this case water was 14C, so while such water may be very unpleasant (depends on overall weather - on a nice summer day it is very nice to go into water at Half Moon Bay where water today for example is 14.5C, and where i originally come from we have 17C, at best, water in summer and everybody enjoys it immensely), it isn't such an imminent danger on its own if one has flotation vest on, as one can survive for several hours in it, yet unfortunately most people wouldn't be really able to actively maintain flotation on their own without the vest, less swim, for duration longer than may be 10 minutes. Basically having vest on or off is the critical juncture.

> ... nothing would have gotten rescuers onto this scene any faster.

That's true in this case, but might very well not be the case in a future accident. That rescuers were able to reach the Leviathan II so quickly in this case is partly due to some very good luck after the accident -- crew members spotted a flare just floating in the water and were able to fire it. It was this flare that the first rescue boat saw.

Finding the flare wasn't the amazing bit. That someone was close enough and looking in the correct direction, that's the miracle. Normally I would never say to just launch a flare and hope someone sees it. That's a wasted flare. Normally you hold off until you think someone is in the area. And a flare being seen during daylight?

A rogue wave hit them, so fast no one had time to react.

> 2.1 Factors leading to the capsizing and loss of life

> ... The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) stability assessment supports the conclusion that the forces exerted on the vessel by this wave were sufficient to overcome the stability of the vessel and cause it to capsize; no other significant factors contributing to the capsizing were identified.

For anyone interested in maritime tragedies: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/inside-el-faro-the-w...

Spoiler alert: it's a sad story and no one survived.

I have nothing to add to this story but I've been on this boat many years ago. Tofino and Ucluelet were my second homes for many years.

Cheers from Bulgaria.

I (with my family) lived 5 years on a 13 m sailboat. I added AIS and EPIRB to the boat as we had many off-shore passages. AIS (class b) costs about $500 (US $). EPIRB is about $400 with a $200 every 24 month cost.

What I take from this story is that I should always carry an inflatable life vest when boating about. There are some small models that wrap around your waist and don't get in the way until you need them.

A story I kinda wished I hadn't read, 7 days before heading out into The St Lawrence, Q for a whale-watching trip (gulp)

Something about the pagination of this story was awful.

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