Departing harbour around midnight, two fishing vessels set off to deploy several fixed nets.
Yacht crew
The standard routine was to leave the nets in place for about 3 hours before recovering them, at around sunrise, and then head back into port.
Having shot away their first net, one of the two fishing vessels started to sort out their second net on the aft deck. The net had become tangled so the skipper went aft to deal with it, leaving his crewman in the wheelhouse. The vessel was steaming along at around 3kts when there was a loud bang.
It soon became evident that the fishing vessel had hit a yacht anchored in the bay. The yacht’s crew came on deck to see what had happened.
Discovering a split in the port side of their yacht, which was now taking on water, the yacht crew agreed to be towed into the nearest harbour. The anchor rope was released and the yacht’s crew donned lifejackets and started bailing
the flood water out of their vessel. The partner fishing vessel arrived to check on the situation and its skipper remarked that his fishing vessel had earlier passed near the same spot; he had been travelling at 6kts and had not noticed the anchored yacht.
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Source: Safetydigest
