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Displaying items by tag: Loa Zour

The latest Marine Notice from the Department of Transport reminds seafarers of the important of passage planning and regular weather forecast checks during voyages.

It comes following the recommendations in the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) report into the rescue of five sailors from the yacht Loa Zour amid severe storm conditions off the Spanish coast in June 2019.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, a crew from Kinsale Yacht Club were rescued from the 40ft yacht on 6 June 2019 just days after they had set out from West Cork for the Spanish port of A Coruña, after experiencing extreme conditions amid the surprise Storm Miguel.

The MCIB report found that while the storm was “an unusual and unexpected weather event”, and the skipper of the Loa Our “showed good judgement in his decision and actions in broadcasting a Mayday distress VHF transmission and activating the vessel’s EPIRB”, he was also unaware of the details of the Code of Practice for the Safe Operation of Recreational Craft and the requirement to submit a passage plan to a shore-based authority.

“If the basic tenets of the passage plan had been observed in detail with respect to updated weather forecasting during the voyage, observing the limitations of the boat design capability and staying within reach of a safe haven by taking a more circuitous route around the coastline of the Bay of Biscay, then the crew of yacht Loa Zour may have been better prepared before encountering Storm Miguel 85 [nautical miles] north of A Coruña,” the report states.

Marine Notice No 19 of 2021 highlights the relevant advice contained within the Code of Practice and related Marine Notices, and can be downloaded below.

Published in MCIB

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.