Tourists, crew safe as dive boat sinks off Similan Islands

[Tchooptip]

There are reefs, rocks at the water's edge, not visible especially in the volcanic regions and not always on the nautical charts for the small ones.  I am a sailor, I lived on my own boat without another house, I was at this time a volunteer of the SNSM (the French Society of Rescue at sea) so I had logically a lot of acquaintances among the captains of pleasure boats. One of them who was working for a rich Japanese, cast a catamaran on rocks, not far from the coast, on a rock a few feet deep. There were no casualties, the boat remained as in the photos without sinking deeper, the time to the navy, the country, I do not remember which one, to come and rescue them. He told me at the time is the shame of my life, but it was impossible to avoid, I was not going fast, brrr, big noise under the hull, and waterway! So before bringing everything back to incompetence (which certainly is more than common, because here the real sailors are a rare commodity, I think that in the tourist places anyone could declare himself with maritime competences LOL), but we should anyway wait for the results of the survey, for everyone has the right to the presumption of innocence...The only thing that bothers me is that the local sailors, they at least, are supposed to know ALL the reefs in the waters that they attend every day... which was absolutely not the case of my story that happened in unknown waters thousands of miles away...

[GregKeo]

6 hours ago, Searat7 said:

Looks like a yacht possibly converted for diving. Will be very interesting to find out the reason it sank. 

Searat7 you obviously didn't get your moniker from expertise in sailing. That vessel was never a yacht! 

[MikeN]

3 minutes ago, GregKeo said:

Searat7 you obviously didn't get your moniker from expertise in sailing. That vessel was never a yacht! 

 Have you never heard of a motor yacht ?

[Snow Leopard]

Its all down to maintenance and no safety standards or legit inspections.  

 

 

[SteveB2]

I remember a similar incident a few years back. A scuba tank valve blew out early evening while filling, that resulted in the tank shooting like a rocket through the hull. The hole it made below the water line was more than 1sqm. The Dive boat sank in under 5 mins. No fatalities but... the rescue boat didn't pick up the 25 passengers and crew until 1pm the following day.

[Snow Leopard]

I cannot understand why Thailand is buying Submarines from China when they can create their own widowmakers. 

[TomJoad]

13 hours ago, car720 said:

how do you let a beautiful boat like this just sink?

 

I once knew a guy who launched his motorboat but forgot to put the boat plug in.  The boat had 2 heavy outboard motors and . . . well . . . you can probably guess what happened next.  

[sammieuk1]

12 hours ago, Searat7 said:

Looks like a yacht possibly converted for diving. Will be very interesting to find out the reason it sank. 

To much water on the inside is my best guess????

[katatonic]

18 hours ago, MikeN said:

 Have you never heard of a motor yacht ?

That was never a motor yacht either

[chama]

Is there a rule that Thai tourist boats must sink?

[outsider]

Another sinking. Holidaying here is fast becoming like Russian Roulette. With a FULL cylinder.

Edited February 26, 2019 by outsider

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 3:23 PM, weegee said:

Why oh why cant the Thai government use the huge amount of years of experience that the Expats living here possess, to remedy this problem with tourist vessels regarding seaworthiness and Safety?

The News of this will already be around the world, just on Social media alone....

 

For the same reason the government of my ( western ) country doesn't use the huge amount of years of experience that the retirees living here possess, to help train the next generation. Once retired, on the scrap heap far as the government is concerned and IMO hoping they all die off sooner than later.

In the case of LOS, there is also the language situation- how many expats speak good enough Thai to be of use?

[Odysseus123]

27 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

For the same reason the government of my ( western ) country doesn't use the huge amount of years of experience that the retirees living here possess, to help train the next generation. Once retired, on the scrap heap far as the government is concerned and IMO hoping they all die off sooner than later.

In the case of LOS, there is also the language situation- how many expats speak good enough Thai to be of use?

Point 1.-Hmmm...

Point 2.The usual silliness from the apologists who-for reasons unknown-like to bag their home countries presumably in the futile pursuit of propping up the facade to which they had become long accustomed  and very familiar with.

[monkeycu]

On 2/25/2019 at 7:12 AM, Borzandy said:

In Thailand, it seems the Thais "engineers" build boats only for sinking.

Well it is a " Dive Boat " so I guess its only proper to dive under sometimes 

[stevenl]

The boat received maintenance after it returned from Singapore waters (Singaporean owners) in October. It didn't really sink this time but was beached, but it did sink about 5? years ago, different (also Singaporean) owners.

[weegee]

14 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

For the same reason the government of my ( western ) country doesn't use the huge amount of years of experience that the retirees living here possess, to help train the next generation. Once retired, on the scrap heap far as the government is concerned and IMO hoping they all die off sooner than later.

In the case of LOS, there is also the language situation- how many expats speak good enough Thai to be of use?

All Mariners no matter which Country they are from must speak and understand English....Standard Maritime Laws. A Thai or Vietnamese is never considered for employment, unless it is first confirmed they speak and understand English for Safety reasons...

[overherebc]

On 2/25/2019 at 12:57 AM, animalmagic said:

It looked beautiful above water, but you never know what flaws are hidden below the waterline.

Build quality, build materials, over loading, increase/change in usage and poor daily maintenance (if any) lead to any boat sinking.

When someone has a spanner and everyday sees 4 shiny bolt heads on the boat floor it will become so interesting just to see what's under the steel plate they are holding.

[Expat Tom]

Take it from a retired maritime professional (aka captain); beauty is only skin deep. It might look good from the outside but who knows what the important aspects of the vessel were like? Design? Construction? Maintenance? Crew? Who knows? Commenting on what it looks like on the outside ( What a beautiful vessel !) is kind of like looking at ladies on "Walking Street". There is often more than what meets the eye.