Water Safety Ireland should consider researching whether some form of “regulated training” would improve basic safety education among recreational craft users, the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) has said.
Regulated training would be a matter for the Minister for Transport, the MCIB notes, in a series of recommendations it has made in its latest published investigation.
The MCIB inquiry into the death of a recreational motorboat owner who fell overboard near Bruckless Pier, Co Donegal, last September has found that inadequate safety equipment and training were contributory factors.
The owner was also operating alone, when the incident occurred between 15.30 hours (hrs) and 16.30 hrs on September 28th, 2023.
The 4.8 metre coastal angling boat Nuala Bríd was at its mooring approximately 50 metres (m) from the shore, in a rural area near Bruckless.
Weather conditions were poor, with winds of force 6 and gusts of up to 35 knots (65 km/h).
A Met Éireann small craft warning was in effect at the time, the report notes.
The vessel was an older model of a recreational motor boat, which predated the introduction of modern design requirements to both minimise the risk of falling overboard and to facilitate reboarding, the report says.
These design requirements were introduced in 2013 by the European Union (EU) Directive for Recreational Craft.
It notes that the vessel had no means of unaided reboarding, either accessible to, or deployable by, a person in the water.
The casualty was not wearing a Personal Flotation Device (PFD), he had no means of contacting the emergency services, and he had not left notice of his intentions with a contact ashore,it says.
The report says the marine casualty occurred because of a combination of the following causal and contributory factors:
1. A fall overboard into cold water.
2. Operating alone, in challenging weather conditions.
3. Lack of formal training and planning of the voyage.
4. Inadequate safety and emergency equipment, being the omission of: a PFD; a means of raising the alarm, either in-person by VHF, PLB or mobile phone in waterproof pouch or via a shore contact; and a means of unaided reboarding of the vessel from the water.
Recommendations have been made to the Minister for Transport, Water Safety Ireland and Irish Sailing.
The report says that Irish Sailing should consider the introduction of specific guidance within the curriculum of the National Powerboat Training Scheme dealing with the hazards for persons operating a powerboat alone.
This guidance would deal with particular scenarios of: a vessel being operated by someone who is alone and falls overboard; the difficulties that can be experienced for an overboard person attempting an unaided reboarding of a vessel; the risks, and potential control measures, associated with vessels that predate the implementation of the European Union Directive on Recreational Craft.
The full MCIB report is here
