Siren Fleet ; concerns and questions

[HBO MD]

My friends and I were considering going on a trip with the Siren Fleet, but after asking around, we were very concerned to discover the following from various people.

Here's an example ;

"My Diveshop chartered one of Siren boats in spring 2015 in the Philippines, during the trip we got into bad weather and the main engine broke down.
Siren's 22 year old cruise director told us that they only have one engine and we have to sail back to homeport.
Group leader asked Cruise director and captain if they have ever sailed before, on any other vessel? the answer from both of them was NO! they further asked the captain if this boat that we are on had ever sailed before and he replied that he had been the captain on this boat for 9 years and they had never sailed it.
Our group leader told him that we will get off the boat right where we are, we disembarked the vessel on little sand bank, no trees, no bushes, just a sand bank!
All together our group of 22 divers ended up on the beach with all our belongings, food and drinks.
we were picked up 4 hours later by a British research vessel and they brought us back to port
Normally the trip back to the port with the Siren would take 6 hours, because of the storm it took the Siren 68 hours to cover that distance."

Other reports include that in recent years the Siren fleet have been involved in numerous accidents :

• Oriental Siren was abandoned in the Komodo islands in 2012
• Mandarin Siren burned and sunk in Raja Ampat 2011
• Truk Siren run aground and burned in spring 2015
• Palau Siren sunk in Palau in broad daylight August 2015

Despite the latest sinking, there is no remark about this on their website ; this is simply amazing !!

Any thoughts as this has clearly worried us a great deal about the safety and reliability of the fleet !!
Thanks in advance.

 

[Wookie]

Well, first off, what would you like them to say on their website? Your board name is HBO MD. Maybe you are a doctor, and maybe you are from Maryland and like to watch GOT. If you are a doctor, do you have the number of folks who died under your care on your website? I wouldn't expect it, and just because someone died while under a doctor's care doesn't make it the doctor's fault.

Siren Fleet currently shows 5 liveaboards, but I'm told that they have more coming. Some more modern steel and aluminum hull vessels not necessarily built in the "traditional Indonesian" style. Of their sinkings, 2 were sunk in storms, which is not a first for liveaboards, 1 caught fire (mine has done that, not with passengers), and another sunk in non-storm circumstances, which were not hitting a reef. These are acts of nature/acts of God. Dryer fires are the number one causes of fires on US flagged small passenger vessels, it doesn't happen because wiring shorts out, it happens because someone didn't clean the lint trap properly, but that happens on vessels around the world. If someone invented a lint trap that actually worked, they would be a wealthy man (woman).

I don't really think your concerns are justified. Sometimes bad luck comes in spurts. And yes, sometimes it is deserved.

 

[Scubagolf]

We did a week on the now-RIP Palau Siren. Great boat, great crew, great diving. We may never do another liveaboard, but if we do it will probably on another Siren.

 

[mmmbelows]

Any thoughts as this has clearly worried us a great deal about the safety and reliability of the fleet !!
Thanks in advance.

Anybody can get struck by lightening, anybody can get struck by lightening twice... anybody can be struck by lightening three times... anybody can be struck by lightening four times....

Four major disaster in four years... LOL, no way in hell would I book with them, nothing wrong with their safety record, they are just unlucky is all.

 

[descent]

Can someone who has studied the company summarize their "sins"?

So far, I have only heard that Siren sometimes gives you a little more travel adventure than you wanted. For me, this is drama with a little d. "Late getting back" means you still get back.

I have read about boats going out a long ways out and returning a diver or two light. Has Siren ever miscounted and left a diver drifting?

I have read about ops with compressor intakes breathing generator exhaust and actually killing divers with CO. Has Siren ever served up bad gas?

I have read multiple times about live boat diving where someone's mask strap goes backwards into rapidly rotating brass blades. Has a Siren boat ever done this?

 

[Altamira]

My friends and I were considering going on a trip with the Siren Fleet, but after asking around, we were very concerned to discover the following from various people.

Here's an example ;

"My Diveshop chartered one of Siren boats in spring 2015 in the Philippines, during the trip we got into bad weather and the main engine broke down.
Siren's 22 year old cruise director told us that they only have one engine and we have to sail back to homeport.
Group leader asked Cruise director and captain if they have ever sailed before, on any other vessel? the answer from both of them was NO! they further asked the captain if this boat that we are on had ever sailed before and he replied that he had been the captain on this boat for 9 years and they had never sailed it.
Our group leader told him that we will get off the boat right where we are, we disembarked the vessel on little sand bank, no trees, no bushes, just a sand bank!
All together our group of 22 divers ended up on the beach with all our belongings, food and drinks.
we were picked up 4 hours later by a British research vessel and they brought us back to port
Normally the trip back to the port with the Siren would take 6 hours, because of the storm it took the Siren 68 hours to cover that distance."

Other reports include that in recent years the Siren fleet have been involved in numerous accidents :

• Oriental Siren was abandoned in the Komodo islands in 2012
• Mandarin Siren burned and sunk in Raja Ampat 2011
• Truk Siren run aground and burned in spring 2015
• Palau Siren sunk in Palau in broad daylight August 2015

Despite the latest sinking, there is no remark about this on their website ; this is simply amazing !!

Any thoughts as this has clearly worried us a great deal about the safety and reliability of the fleet !!
Thanks in advance.

Best advice I ever received: When in doubt, follow your gut. That advice has kept me out of trouble countless times over the years. Also, a dive trip should be fun--not a source of worry.

 

[Hintermann]

We did a week on the now-RIP Palau Siren. Great boat, great crew, great diving. We may never do another liveaboard, but if we do it will probably on another Siren.

My wife and I did 9 days with the Philippine Siren. OK boat, disagreeable crew, poor scheduling and good diving. On a night dive, we were on the surface for almost 15 minutes after the dive before the dinghy made an appearance.
If there is one dive operator we won't use, it will be the Siren fleet.

Each diver makes his/her own opinions and decisions based on their experience.

 

[Iralub]

I just did a trip on the fiji siren. Had awesome time, great boat, great crew. Would go again. Ymmv

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

In defence of the Siren Fleet and all liveaboards, below is a message I copied off of SB some time past. I now send it to all of my clients when they book a liveaboard trip. I think that there are often expectations that nothing will ever go wrong on a ship. Even major cruise lines have problems we see in the news. This is not a land-based resort where you can pack your bag, grab a flight and head home if you are unhappy. This is a small metal or wood ship out on the ocean subject to the whims of nature and the effects of salt water 24 hours a day. Book with Siren Fleet or any other liveaboard, enjoy the adventure, and dive safe…!

The most important thing to bring on a liveaboard is a sense of humor and a generally good, positive attitude. If you're not familiar with boats - much less living on one - here's a few FACTS about boats:


· everything on a boat breaks
· everything on a boat leaks
· everything on a boat gets wet
· nothing on a boat every really dries
· everything on a boat smells like a boat; where things break, get wet, and never really dry
· anything that doesn't smell like a boat smells like people who live on a boat
· everything mechanical on a boat is very loud (until it breaks; then it becomes very quiet)
· everything non-mechanical on a boat creaks and/or rattles (until it breaks in; then it gets very quiet; that's usually the day before it breaks)
· everything on a boat is small
· if something is not small, it's not on the boat
· if something is not available on the island/mainland, it's not on the boat
· if something is not on the boat, it's not on the boat
· if you need something specific but didn't bring it, it's not on the boat
· even things that are usually on the boat are often not on the boat
· most things that happen on a boat happen simply "because it's a boat"


A thousand major/minor/uncomfortable/disgusting/annoying/inconvenient things can go wrong on a boat over the course of a year. Statistically, that means that 20 of them will happen the week you're on board. You won't notice 15 of them. Will any of the the other 5 things ruin your trip? Honestly - other than a condition which presents a clear and imminent safety or health issue - whether or not something ruins your trip is entirely up to you. I choose to focus on the things like diving that make my trip enjoyable; folks who choose to focus on things that will ruin their trip can always find something that will.

But, as an optimist, keep in mind that you also get to take the good with the bad...


· everything GOOD that happens on a live-aboard happens "because it's a boat"
· you're never more than an hour or so from the next dive, the next meal, the next nap, or your first drink - because it's a boat
· you set your gear up once and don't worry about it again - because it's a boat
· you're right over the dive site - because it's a boat
· two hours later you're right over the next dive site - because it's a boat
· it's a twenty foot walk from your last bite of desert after dinner to your night dive - because it's a boat
· it's a ten foot walk from your night dive to a hot shower - because it's a boat
· it's a twenty foot walk from the hot shower to a cold beer - because it's a boat
· it's a twenty foot walk from the cold beer to your bed - because it's a boat
· when you wake up the next morning to the smell of coffee and waffles...you're right over the next great dive site - because it's a boat

 

[Lorenzoid]

In defence of the Siren Fleet and all liveaboards, . . . .

That's a really fun read. Thanks. But the question is how does the Siren Fleet's safety and operations record compare with other liveaboards in the same regions of the world.