Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Good writeup.

Hopefully the CG identifies the vessel and holds them accountable. Sounds like the sailing fleet was more aware of the traffic situation than the freighter. If the freighter read the notice to mariners, their reaction was most likely 'Ho Hum..'.
My son was on a fishing boat that was cut in half by a freighter - all 3 crew survived! (Got the helicopter ride and the T shirt) Freighter was identified, case went to court. Freighter's main defense was a graphic showing the size of the two vessels. Their plea to the jury was that if the big boat hit the small boat, would anyone have survived? Since 100% of the crew survived, we obviously didn't hit them. Don't know what happened to cause them to sink, but you can't blame us! Jury bought it, figuring the crew may have cut the fishing boat in half to claim the insurance, and then blamed the freighter.
I know 'innocent until proven guilty' is accepted, perhaps there may be cause for these freighters to 'prove themselves innocent'. Obviously no one on that Hunter is going to be testifying to the guilt of a freighter. Here, though, is a good case of a small vessel going through the prop of a big vessel - identification of the big vessel should be proof of guilt. Just my opinion (can I volunteer for jury duty??)

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