I received the following message from another expert with regard to marine safety issues. Here is what Captain Bollinger has to say about the Ethan Allen capsize.
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Dear sir:
I enjoyed your web site concerning the capsize of the M/V ETHAN ALLEN ... By way of introduction I am Capt. Ray Bollinger, a forensic examiner with the American Admiralty Bureau, Ltd. I believe this accident was preventable chiefly by the company that owns and operates the M/V ETHAN ALLEN. The direct cause appears at present to be the combination of two elements of mismanagement. First the stability of the vessel was modified without the proper design work, tests and safeguards. While New York State which had regulatory authority over the vessel has no specific regulations on these issues, there are recognized standards that apply. The Coast Guard regulations and the various classification society rules that would have been applied to this vessel if she had been in an area regulated by the Coast Guard, or had been classed, are not pulled out of thin air but are derived from authoritative literature such as the Naval Institute's "Introduction to Naval Architecture" (ISBN 0-87021-318-0), particularly chapters 6 through 8. This text and similar standard texts used in the education of naval architects, naval / merchant marine officers and others describe and define the basic underlying laws of physics and hydrodynamics that the regulations and classification society rules are based on. These are laws of nature that cannot be ignored with immunity. The presence of legal regulations and technical codes that incorporate these natural laws only serve to underscore that these are known natural laws. In any contest over liability the known character of the natural laws of stability will be very damaging to the owners of the M/V ETHAN ALLEN. The second cause of this accident appears at present to be mismanagement of "live ballast." In short, the passengers themselves were an important element in establishing the centers of gravity, buoyancy, and the resulting righting moment. Their weights had to be carefully managed to avoid having the center of gravity rise above the center of buoyancy. This meant that the seats had to be carefully designed and then the people had to be pretty much confined to those seats or their movements carefully managed. This was not done. There is an extensive history of cases involving the mismanagement of "live ballast" associated with the Witcker Capsules used on offshore oil rigs off of Texas and Louisiana. In years past quite a few crewmen lost their lives when lifeboatmen in charge of these capsules failed to have them fasten their seat belts during not only actual evacuations but also during drills. As to the role, if any of the excursion boat MOHICAN, she does not appear capable of producing a wake capable of capsizing a vessel of this size if not in exceptionally "tender" condition. Assuming she was cruising at routine speed her wake should not have been problematic. Her "contribution" if any is dependent on some element of unreasonable behavior that is not apparent at this moment. The MOHICAN is a displacement vessel and will create a wake of some sort at even very slow speeds. She is also relatively shallow draft, so there is a finite limit to the wake she can create at even full speed, and this wake would not normally be considered "excessive" unless very close to shore side delicate structures or very small recreational craft. Her wake, even at full speed should not have been problematic for a boat of say 30 feet, assuming all else being normal.
AAB Codes and Standards Dept.
Capt. Ray Bollinger
Master, Pilot AGT
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Captain Bollinger:
Thanks for the comment. Enrico Schaefer
The thought that be complying with minimal New York State standards (even assuming they did this much), the owners of commercial vessels are off the hook is nonsense. It is industry standards that should be the test. The point to me is that stability testing has been standardized and defined by the coast guard. Stability testing is cheap, easy and straight forward. Any business taking people on the water ought to ensure that its vessel can pass the industry standard stability testing before it is commissioned and after any modifications. It appears that the owner/operator of the Ethan Allen was only concerned about how many passengers if could get on-board, not how many passengers it can safely put on-board.
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