Re: Ouzo Trial

No trial news but the report's out:

http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/2007/ouzo.cfm

In summary:

The Ouzo didn't show up on Radar mainly due to clutter from the sea
state and wasn't spotted visually till late due to the knackered night
vision of the people on watch. (They'd recently been in lit areas.)
Interestingly: "Even if Ouzo had been displaying her octahedral radar
reflector, it would have made little difference to the yacht's radar
cross section."

The PofB made a subtle (but significant) change of course just before
the collision - apparently enough to hit the Ouzo without alerting
them of the change in course.

AIS wouldn't have made any difference.

An EPIRB, handheld VHF or liferaft would have "dramatically increased
the crew's chances of survival". (Understatement?)

The PofB was well aware there had been a near miss and with scant
evidence assumed all was well on the other boat and took no action
whatsoever after the incident. (Which explains the prosecution, I
guess.)

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Ouzo Trial
    ... "Even if Ouzo had been displaying her octahedral radar ... One other point is that the OOW chose not to use the hand steering, but instead altered course away from the sighted lights using the autopilot joystick. ...
    (uk.rec.sailing)
  • Re: Ouzo Trial
    ... "Even if Ouzo had been displaying her octahedral radar ... The report implies this because the radar display was not equipped to show AIS targets - if the Ouzo was activating an AIS transponder. ... However, surely the Pride of Bilbao has other AIS receive equipment that would initiate an alarm of an impending collision - such software is fairly standard now, I believe, even for class B. AIS is such a safety feature it would be shocking if that is not the case. ...
    (uk.rec.sailing)