Ferry’s Report of Incident – ” When the yacht was aprx 80 mtrs away, 5 blasts were sounded on the ships whistle. This drew no response even when a further 5 blasts were sounded, by which point collision was imminent & he took evasive action by slowing the ferry right down to allow the yacht to pass across its bow”
The ferry was traveling at 15.5 knots & would cover the distance of 80 mtrs in 10 seconds. Each blast is to be about 1 second’s duration (Rule 22.32) so 2 series of 5 would take 10 sec without the interval for response inbetween - that’s overtime already. The ferry weighs 281 gross tons & has total engine power of 1120 Kw – it would certainly take a few 100 mtrs to slow down as was subsequently revealed. Why was the feasibility of the claim not queried by Maritime NZ at the initial receipt – it appears obviously implausible ?
