Anybody know anything about the dive boat that sunk this morning?

[2airishuman]

The failure of some component leading to a substantial amount of water entering a larger motorized boat is entirely predictable. Shaft seals fail. Hoses burst or come off their seacocks. Boats collide with stuff. Raw water pumps and exhaust elbows leak. Valves on heads stick. Green water comes over the bow or through an opening.

Pumps have been fitted on oceangoing craft since the 1500s. Before that, they had buckets. They are not optional.

A bad shaft seal should be caught with proper preventative maintenance in most cases, yes, but it's not unheard of for them to fail without warning.

 

[ReefHound]

What I find interesting is after each of the past several boat sinking here they've all blamed a malfunctioning bilge pump. That's not exactly true, IMHO. A bilge pump is only good to remove water from inside the boat. It's failure has nothing to do with why water actually got into the boat. It's not like the pump died and the boat began taking on water.

Are you thinking that "failed bilge pump" is the go-to excuse to cover mistakes?

 

[ggunn]

Is it just a coincidence that these boat sinkings happened during a period of brisk N to NW winds and higher than normal seas?

 

[Thiago Koga]

Hi guys,
My name is Thiago (twitter @thikoga) and I was in the dive boat during my Cruise with Royal Caribbean over the new year. It’s a terrible situation as you guys can imagine and there were NOT just experienced divers over there. (It was not a discovery class either)
I was reading the information posted here and I can say for sure that a pump will not solve the problem for this boat. It seems something was wrong since the beginning of the dive trip. All other dive boats was faster than us and when the boat stopped the divemaster began to give the dive instructions in the back of the boat, after some seconds there the water start to get in, less than a minute later the boat was sank as you guys can see in the video. We didn’t have time to get our stuff. My backpack (wasn’t dry one, going to buy one from Amazon right away) was in a dry area of the boat, which means I couldn’t get it before a leave and I end up losing my stuff (they rescued somethings but wet and damaged). Some of the divers got injuried with superficial damages, nonetheless bad memories from our vacation time. The company name is sand dollars and they are located really close to where the cruise ship arrives. Their manager told us that in 25 years operating there (Cozumel) this kind of situation never happened. (I’m not sure)
Hope that clarifies some doubts and thanks God everyone is safe and healthy.
I’m posting a picture that I took before we on board in the Arrecifes II Dus.

 

[KathyV]

Hi guys,
My name is Thiago (twitter @thikoga) and I was in the dive boat during my Cruise with Royal Caribbean over the new year. It’s a terrible situation as you guys can imagine and there were NOT just experienced divers over there. (It was not a discovery class either)
I was reading the information posted here and I can say for sure that a pump will not solve the problem for this boat. It seems something was wrong since the beginning of the dive trip. All other dive boats was faster than us and when the boat stopped the divemaster began to give the dive instructions in the back of the boat, after some seconds there the water start to get in, less than a minute later the boat was sank as you guys can see in the video. We didn’t have time to get our stuff. My backpack (wasn’t dry one, going to buy one from Amazon right away) was in a dry area of the boat, which means I couldn’t get it before a leave and I end up losing my stuff (they rescued somethings but wet and damaged). Some of the divers got injuried with superficial damages, nonetheless bad memories from our vacation time. The company name is sand dollars and they are located really close to where the cruise ship arrives. Their manager told us that in 25 years operating there (Cozumel) this kind of situation never happened. (I’m not sure)
Hope that clarifies some doubts and thanks God everyone is safe and healthy.
I’m posting a picture that I took before we on board in the Arrecifes II Dus.

Thank you for sharing your terrible experience, I am glad that you are okay. Was everybody already wearing their scuba gear when the boat started to go down? What about the boat driver?

 

[mediumone]

What about the boat driver?

That guy is called the Captain.

500 - 999 shore dives you say?

 

[KathyV]

That guy is called the Captain.

500 - 999 shore dives you say?

So what? I was asking if people were already geared up when it happened. I'm sure the captain (or boat driver) wasn't in scuba gear.

What do shore dives have to do with anything? It was a dive boat that sank!

 

[H2ODoc]

The boat seems to be sitting plenty high in the water in that picture Thiago posted. Sounds like a gland seal or shaft seal failed. But... that's not 100% uncommon, right? Bilge pumps should be able to keep up with that?

I found this article on www.poresto.net and here's a translation:

COZUMEL, 3 January.- Wednesday morning was the sinking of a boat charter type, named "Coral II Dus", property of Cozumel Scape Corporation S.A. de C.V., which provided a service to eight tourists were rescued by other boats that were at the height curve torments, in the south of Cozumel. Authorities conduct research. The eight passengers were divers experts and are unharmed as the two crew members of the vessel.
According to company sources, the vessel "Reefs II Dus", with tuition 2304047814-5, is registered in the name of John Flint, belonging to the Cozumel Scape Corporation S.A. de C.V., same that performs various tourist services for more than 20 years in the village, with wide experience the captains of the vessels in this.
However, after 09:00 hours on Wednesday was the report of the rescue of a boat that was crossing the stretch known as Curve torments, located at kilometer 10 kilometers from the costera sur, when suddenly a problem which resulted in enter water to this, forcing the passengers to jump into the sea.
Due to boat traffic that is recorded on a daily basis in the area, to be within the Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park, the eight crew members of Russian origin, were rescued by other boats that sailed there, just like the two crew members of the charter, who could do nothing to prevent the boat out to the bottom of the sea.
Although the port authority said that it did not have complete information until the close of edition, the version of the crew to connoisseurs of tourist services, indicated, the problem was derived by a fault in the "gland", which in the words of a captain of the locality, is a graphited yarn that is intended to be used in the shaft and the transmission do not enter the water, in this case that the strong waves could have been the cause of that this will fail, that the bilge pumps were useless to avoid the total collapse of the vessel.
Meanwhile, the eight crew members and two passengers were transported by other vessels to the facilities of La Caleta, where he attended the medical unit of Life, who attended the castaways who were without any injury, except for two tourists were still nervous, despite the diving experience i assure you have most of these.
Staff of the Secretariat of the Navy - Navy of Mexico, responded to the call for help, so from the Naval Station of Search and Rescue (Ensar) came out to defend a vessel to be able to support the crew of the boat, although he had already achieved the immediate rescue of these. It is expected that the Navy could continue to support to the owners of the vessel for the rescue of this, while the Authority continues with the necessary investigations.
It is worth to mention that the last month of November there was a similar case of sinking of a vessel on which they were traveling a little more than 90 passengers and crew members, events that took place in the northern area of the island, highlighting that there was no human loss in any of the two cases.

 

[mikeycanuk]

I like how this has “never happened before”. Do they think people are idiots?

 

[ggunn]

The boat seems to be sitting plenty high in the water in that picture Thiago posted. Sounds like a gland seal or shaft seal failed. But... that's not 100% uncommon, right? Bilge pumps should be able to keep up with that?

Not necessarily. His description of how fast the boat sank sounded like a more catastrophic failure than a blown seal, and water coming in that fast may have overwhelmed a bilge pump even if it was working perfectly.