22 September 2003
Director, TSB Liaison
Safety Programs, Strategies and Coordination Directorate
Transport Canada
Place de Ville, Tower C
330 Sparks Street, 12th Floor
Ottawa, ON E1W 5Z2
On the afternoon of 25 June 2003, the small fishing vessel Silent Provider, with 2 POB, departed Canso (Town), Nova Scotia for a short transit across Chedabucto Bay bound for Petit-De-Grat Harbour, Cape Breton. The weather was described as light winds with small waves 0.3 to 0.4 m. The trip was uneventful until approximately two miles from Petit-de-Grat Island, when a fire broke out in the vessel’s engine room. After a brief and unsuccessful attempt at fighting the fire, the decision was made to abandon the vessel. The vessel’s primary survival craft was a rigid hull liferaft, which was thrown into the water from the wheelhouse top by the crew members. When the liferaft hit the water, the rear hatch popped open and the bailer fell out and was lost. After issuing a distress call, both crew members donned their immersion suits and jumped into the water.
When one of the crew members tried to enter the liferaft through the open rear hatch, the bow lifted clear of the water and submerged the stern sufficiently to allow a significant amount of seawater to flood through the open hatch. After considerable trouble, the crew member was successful in entering the liferaft, but found it to be very unstable and, having lost the bailing device when the door popped open, it could not be easily de-watered. As the second crew member attempted to enter the liferaft, it rolled over on its side. This prompted the first crew member to escape through the forward hatch. Several more entries were made into the liferaft, but it could not be stabilized, the craft often assuming a sideways position as the crew attempted to board. Finally, exhausted, the two crew members decided to forego entering the liferaft and opted to use it as a flotation device. They hung onto the outside of the liferaft for approximately 1½ hours before being successfully rescued. A TSB investigation of the occurrence is ongoing (M03M0077).
As for any device of this nature, certain procedures must be observed by the occupants while boarding to ensure the device functions as intended. Although similarities exist between waterborne entry procedures of inflatable liferafts and their rigid counterparts (OVATEKs), some differences are also of note. Since the OVATEK rigid hull liferaft has been accepted as an alternative to the inflatable models, an updated training syllabus that includes this specific training should be available.
Both crew members of the Silent Provider had Marine Emergency Duties (MED) training, but neither had encountered training with this type of lifesaving appliance. Although some training facilities, such as the N.B. School of Fisheries, on their own initiative, do include this particular training in their syllabus, others do not. Ovatek Inc has indicated it now provides a training video with each new unit sold, but this has not always been the practice.
The OVATEK 4 and 7 liferafts are hard shell lifesaving appliances constructed of twin, glass-reinforced plastic hulls which sandwich a foam inner core. They are manufactured by Ovatek Inc. in Bas-Caraquet, New Brunswick, and have Transport Canada and United States Coast Guard approvals.
It is estimated that approximately 188 OVATEK 4 and 255 OVATEK 7 units are now in use by small vessel operators in Canada, principally fishers on the East coast and Gulf of St. Lawrence. Another 61 units (40 OVATEK4 and 21 OVATEK 7) have been sold to fishers in the United States. Three OVATEK 7 units have been sold internationally.
Transport Canada may therefore wish to consider the MED A3/A4 syllabus with a view to including approved training requirements on this type of lifesaving appliance.
Yours sincerely,
Original signed by
Fred Perkins
Director, Marine Investigations Branch
Transportation Safety Board of Canada
Cc.
Ovatek Inc. (Life Rafts)
2256 parc Industriel
Bas-Caraquet, N.B.
E0B lK0