Volvo Ocean Race initiate independent report into night finishes
by Richard Gladwell/Volvo Ocean Race 2 Mar 2018 00:16 PST
2 March 2018
Vestas 11th Hour Racing - Leg 4, Volvo Ocean Race Melbourne to Hong Kong © Vestas 11th Hour Racing / Volvo Ocean race
No-one should be surprised that an investigation has been called into ocean racing at night in high traffic areas.
The point was bought home yet again, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, as five boats in the Volvo Ocean Race fleet hard-charged reaching in 20kt winds under big overlapping jibs.
On the water it was as black as the inside of a cow. Overcast, almost raining, no moon visible, and no stars either.
With their dark sails, the Volvo 65's are near impossible to spot in those conditions. They're sailing at the speed of the wind - 18.5- 21kts in winds just under 20kts.
From water level all that can be seen is is an angled red and green masthead light streaking through the sky. Below it the shape of the sail-plan can just be discerned - if you know where to look and what to look for.
Who knows how many boats were out there? Was the situation that much different from the finish of Leg 4? Same race boats, similar speeds. One lot were looking out for race boats. The others - who knows?
We, four photographers, were out in the Rangitoto Channel at 1.00am on Wednesday morning, punching into a good sea - made worse by the myriad of other boats in the area doing the same. Fortunately we were in a sizeable and very capable Coastguard vessel. Impressively so.
But visibility was not good - and the crew gazing at a multiplicity of screens and information were struggling to align the virtual world with reality.
What hope would a fishing boat have had 30 miles off Hong Kong six weeks earlier in similar circumstances? It was probably a wooden boat, unlit, no radar reflector, certainly no AIS, and not expecting to have a racing yacht come noiselessly charging through their fishing fleet at 20kts?
What hope would the racing yacht's crew have of seeing an unlit fishing boat, dark, low in the water approaching slowly to leeward, out of the helmsman's arc of visibility?
The situation is not uncommon. With the Volvo Ocean Race now routing through Asia the amount of traffic is quite different from that found in the old four legged Round the World course to from and through the Southern Ocean.
Auckland is notorious for its Whitbread and Volvo Ocean race spectator fleets and incidents. Most notable was the Swedish ketch The Card laying one spectator yacht on her beam ends as their rigs snagged in the melee soon after the start from Auckland in the 1989/90 Whitbread RTW Race. And that happened in broad daylight. Accidents do happen,
To underline the difficulty of the combination of dark night and poorly lit boats, on Wednesday morning our Coastguard crew picked up a Mayday call from a small - probably 6-7metre open boat. They'd taken a few waves over the bow. We had to break off trying to engage with the Volvo 65's and started a search for the white open boat, which was spotted five minutes later heading for home.
With no discernible marks on the boat (registration not being required in NZ), the Water Police would have to sort it all out in the morning doing track and trace on mobile phone numbers.
A fatality is the difference between what happened on the Waitemata on Wednesday morning and the incident off Hong Kong six weeks ago. But how many other near-misses have there been?
The collision between Vestas 11th Hour Racing and a non-racing vessel in the final stages of the racing leg into Hong Kong, the organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race have commissioned an independent report into ocean racing at night in areas of high vessel traffic density, to establish what steps race organisers may take to mitigate risk going forward.
The report will be conducted by an Independent Report Team (IRT), chaired by Rear Admiral Chris Oxenbould AO RAN (Rtd) and assisted by Stan Honey and Chuck Hawley.
Rear Admiral Oxenbould is a former deputy chief of the Australian Navy and an experienced ocean racing yachtsman with a particular expertise in navigation. He is also the former chairman of Australia Sailing’s National Safety Committee.
Renowned current sailor and ocean navigational expert, Stan Honey, who won the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 as navigator onboard ABN AMRO ONE, and Chuck Hawley, who is the former chairman of the U.S. Sailing Safety at Sea Committee, will assist Rear Admiral Oxenbould on the report.
The IRT will examine all the issues associated with racing a Volvo Ocean 65, or similar racing boat, at night in areas of high vessel traffic density, drawing on the experiences in recent editions of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Any findings from the report that could benefit the wider sailing community will be released. It is intended that the IRT will make its report available to Volvo Ocean Race by June 2018.
Phil Lawrence, Race Director, stated: “Understandably, there has been a lot of reaction to this incident in the sailing community, but the fact is, it takes time to make a responsible assessment of what could be done differently to minimise risk and increase safety.
“Our sailors, as qualified professionals, understand their responsibilities under the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, Racing Rules of Sailing and the Rules of the Volvo Ocean Race.
“As race organisers, we will continue to evaluate safety as we race over the coming months and take the appropriate steps to minimise risk.” concluded Lawrence.
Below is a further Q&A with Phil Lawrence pertaining specifically to the Vestas 11th Hour Racing collision
Recap of the incident:
A collision occurred between Vestas 11th Hour Racing and a non-racing vessel on 20 January 2018. The incident took place around 30 miles from the Leg 4 finish line in Hong Kong. See original story here
Vestas 11th Hour Racing immediately stopped racing, informed Race Control of the incident, sent a Mayday distress signal on behalf of the other vessel and initiated a search and rescue mission, recovering one of the crew. Another boat in the area recovered the other nine crew.
Tragically, one of the fishermen lost his life in the incident. He had been recovered from the water and taken on board Vestas 11th Hour Racing and was transferred by helicopter to a hospital in Hong Kong where medical staff were unable to revive him.
It has taken some time to release more information about the incident with Vestas 11th Hour Racing at the end of Leg 4. Why is that?
Sadly, a person died in this incident and in these circumstances an official investigation needed to be carried out by the relevant authorities. The casualty arrived in Hong Kong and the incident itself took place in Chinese waters. We have, therefore, been dealing with two official investigations.
While these investigations are underway there are legal and cultural considerations that limit the amount of information we are able to share publicly.
We have now been informed that the investigations by the Hong Kong and mainland China authorities will be closed shortly with no further action to be taken.
Why did you finish the leg in Hong Kong Harbour?
Hong Kong harbour and the surrounding territorial waters are highly regulated with fishing boats subject to restrictions. We were confident that the risks in Hong Kong waters were always well managed.
This incident occurred 30 miles offshore, outside of Hong Kong territorial waters. The fleet still had to navigate the fishing traffic offshore but this is not an uncommon occurrence in these waters. Many different offshore races both professional and amateur, sail through areas of heavy traffic at times, or start or finish in busy harbours. To that end, we have commissioned an independent report to establish what steps race organisers should take to mitigate risk going forward.
Why was Dongfeng Race Team not diverted to the accident scene?
Vestas 11th Hour Racing communicated to us that this was not necessary – there were enough local vessels on the scene rendering assistance and this was told very clearly to Race Control as Dongfeng approached the area. As a result, we decided to release them to finish the leg.
By the time team AkzoNobel approached the area a couple of hours later, we considered that the Vestas 11th Hour Racing crew had been dealing with a crisis situation for more than two hours and might benefit from the support of a fellow competitor staying in the area, on stand-by, if needed.
AkzoNobel did stand by in support, at our request, but was not needed to render any tangible assistance, and was released to continue to the finish line when Vestas 11th Hour Racing began motoring towards Hong Kong following the conclusion of the rescue.
Why has there been so little information?
I understand Vestas 11th Hour Racing are in a similar position to ourselves with regard to making public statements while authorities are still conducting their investigation. However, the team has issued a more detailed account of what happened today.
There was damage to the Vestas 11th Hour Racing boat in the accident that precluded them from racing in Leg 5 and 6, and the boat was shipped to New Zealand for repairs. Since the boat arrived in New Zealand the team has provided updates on the progress of repairs in anticipation of them re-joining the race.
Is the Volvo Ocean Race in direct contact with the family of the deceased?
Through legal representatives in Hong Kong, we are in contact with the family of the deceased. At all times we have taken advice from our counsel from a cultural perspective, in respect of expressing condolences, providing support and the treatment of those affected by this accident.