Vital life raft stowage lessons after inquiry into fatal sinking

Is your life raft stowed correctly SW

Purbeck Isle and crew - sank quickly © SW

Britain's Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report has said it was 'entirely possible' they could have survived if only their automatically-inflating life raft had inflated.

Because of the lack of a distress signal, the coastguard was not alerted for hours and the boat was not found until the day after it had sunk. After the fishing boat had not returned on schedule and a search was started, it was found at a depth of 164ft, south of Portland Bill, with its life raft still on board.

A release unit used to secure the life raft in its cradle activated as the vessel sank.

But the raft failed to float free and inflate because it had not been properly stowed and sank to the seabed.

'Because the life raft canister did not fit snugly into its cradle, the skipper had applied additional lashings to prevent it from falling off the wheelhouse roof in heavy seas,' the report said.

'These additional lashings had been intertwined with the life raft's main lashing rope and they prevented the raft from floating free.'

Meanwhile, the coastguard was not alerted to the Purbeck Isle's plight for seven hours as it was not fitted with an emergency position-indicating radio beacon or similar distress signalling device.

The body of Mr McFarlane, from Weymouth, was found entangled in ropes attached to Purbeck Isle's two lifebuoys the day after the sinking. The wreck of the vessel was found later that day.

The search for the two missing fishermen was called off two days after the tragic incident. Only one was later located.

A spokeswoman from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said it was implementing the recommendations from the MAIB report. 'Regulations, standards and good safety practices are vital to ensure the safety of lives at sea. Working together with the Fishing Industry Safety Group, we are all keen to nurture improvements in the safety of commercial fishing vessel operations.'

And it's a heads-up for cruising sailors as well...