Accident yesterday - Quinns Rocks.

Forget about any blame game. This was a serious incident that could have been FATAL!. DPI need to investigate and the appropriate corrective actions need to be taken to ensure that it doesn't happen again. Fill in the form (or lodge an official report with DPI and make sure a full investigation takes place.

Its hard to imagine that a large power vessel in good light ,and slight seas could not see a 19 m kite (probably 10 metres above the water). The vantage point at the helm would give excellent visibility. SO something is not right.

This incident involved a kiter but it could have been a family runabout or dinghy....

Cheers guys. Happy New Year to you all have a great safe year on the water.
Yes the SL63 is all good

Hi Pete you are one lucky (and unlucky) son of a .....

I suggest that the reason you have not heard from the rescue service is that they would have to adhere to a very strict protocol which would restrict any interaction particularly if there is any investigation or possibility of one. This is the same for most organisations, i.e. life saving clubs, like this and shouldn't be interpreted as a lack of caring or as a reflection of the character of any of the crew. It is an unfortunate bi product of the litigious society we now live in.

Before calling out the cavalry I would be giving them a call and saying, hey guys what happened? Based on the response your receive then decide how or if you want to proceed.

Hope you get back on the water soon.

What the hell were you doing kiting at Quinn's rocks!!!!!

Accidents happen. Always have and always will. Despite what the safety types say when people are involved standards slip. Awareness drops due to complacency ( end of the day. Bringing the boat back to its pen at the marina.)
Human nature has the helmsman " knocking off" before he has got there. I live local and paddle the marina near daily as exercise and frequently pass the Whitfords VMR vessel. These guys are volunteers, Predominantly retired and generally do a great job. Indeed all VMR vessels are as the name suggests run by volunteers ( volunteer marine rescue). We desperately need these guys and the last thing we need to do is press charges or run to the media. These guys are volunteering to SAVE lives an to be involved directly in something that could have done the opposite would no doubt be absolutely horrifying to those involved.

A procedure needs to be put in place to better reflect the changes in the marine environment and the users habits. A decade ago the term downwinder did not exist. Now we have hundreds of kites and skis over a weekend operating in areas they would never have been sighted in. Possibly VMR operating procedures and watchstanding procedures need to be updated to reflect this change. I would agitate to make sure this is the case. Not a witch hunt. No need to shame someone who has made a mistake but make sure you are the last.

You dodged a bullet and should be very grateful but the fact remains you got hit by a boat that you should have seen. I know power gives way to sail and yada yada but nobody should ever let it run to its conclusion ( collision). Always leave room for the possibility that you have not been sighted and reserve room for your own collision avoidance if the give way vessel fails to do that.
They made a mistake. You should have caught it.
Make sure they have updated their operating procedures to reflect the changed operating environment and move on.

Apologies for typos... Bloidy ipood is ard to rite on

Anyone whinging about the poor standards should consider volunteering their weekends away to assist in raising them.

Stoked to hear your doing well Pete. Last thing we need is preventable accidents occurring.

I'm not pulling the pi ss here, but does your helmit restrict vision? Oftern we see smaller tinnies and cray boats coming into the line up at Pinneroo. Same tack. They are never hard to spot 200 meters away.

On the sounds of things It seems like you both could have avoided this incident. The boat should have given way to you under sail. At the sane time, at your speed you would have seen the boat to your right at one point in time.

Once again I resonate the fact, your very lucky/blessed to be alive! Quick recovery champ.

Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel.

Wondering how neither vessel was aware of the others approach? A 40 foot boat and a big kite in clear conditions, how does that end in collision?

Glad to hear there is no lasting injuries.

Pretty silly for anyone to start rolling out the "you should have" statements until the other side has been heard. All I know is that even if the kiter was only doing 10kts and the boat was doing 20kts as stated that's potentially 30+kts of combined speed going on there, which gives the skipper and kiter very little time to do anything if they haven't seen each other. So glad the kiter got out alive in this case.

Wow WA is a real hotspot for fatal & serious accidents

What an amazing story. So glad you're going to be ok Pete.

Its important to push the official channels so that the Sea Rescue reviews and learns what went wrong. I acknowledge they're volunteers and nothing like this would have been intentional but reviews help organisations learn and improve. That would happen as a normal course of events in any professional setting.

Graeme

Glad to hear you are ok Pete.

Its almost impossible not to see the kite. Maybe the guy at the helm should be checked out quick smart, could be failing eyesight etc, things get swept under the carpet in these sort of organisations too, even though we rely on these guys to man the service , theres no excuses

OK let me make my intentions clear here so as to keep the thread constructive.
First the crew of DG188 looked after me professionally after the impact occurred; they called for an ambulance and got me into Mindarie Marina safely.
I have nothing but praise for the Whitford Sea Rescue Services.
I only want this incident to be investigated so that we can all learn from it so as to prevent it happening again.
As has been stated above the investigation is now with the Department of Transport and I have filled out the Marine Incident Report and will be emailing it off today.
I am confident that this will clear up the uncertainty of how this accident occurred and we must all wait to see its findings before making rash judgements based on speculation.
We need to have a constructive approach to make our sport as safe as it can reasonably be.
I use a Garth Gedi helmet which I have never found to obscure my vision in any way.
Normally it is rare to find many other craft passing us while racing/training at speed and I knew that only one other kite was out with me and he was upwind in my field of view on a parallel track and we were both tacking hard upwind, wind was light 11-14kts SW, both on 19m Edges.
At speed your attention to what???s in front of your course is paramount as things happen quickly.
I can safely say a close encounter with a 40ft vessel is not ever going to be a good day out! and I clearly would have taken evasive action had I known its proximity to me.
Picture below shows the GPS speed graph at impact my speed was 30kmh tacking hard up wind, during the impact you can see the sling shot effect to 118kmh for a brief moment then down to zero, after that the readings are as the rescue boat takes me into Mindari.

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Chris6791 said..

How long after your last change of direction did it happen?

Last change of direction was 3:08 sec, distance from last change to impact 1.53k

Perfect response to your unfortunate accident.im really glad you seem to have come out ok.hope your back in the water soon.maybe consider only surfing with your kite .ive never seen a boat in the shore break.:) speedy recovery.

S%&t happens, there is nothing to learn from this accident as the chance of it ever occurring is basically nil.
This is a freak accident and I am glad that you are ok.

To the bunch of blood sucking leaches that are advising police reports, media exposure and lawyers involvement, I hope that feel one day the wrath of the law for some bull $%it incident and die homeless and broken.

The captain of the vessel is probably already devastated by the event and must be cursing himself for his lack of awareness.

This is more than likely a great bloke with a tonne of experience who dedicated his life to rescuing people in hellish conditions.
Surely, if this went to the media, he would lose his job and it would be a great loss to all of us who enjoy the ocean.

Of course his family would suffer the most. Of course you could possibly get some cash although 90% would be chewed up by the lawyers vulture and the multiple appeals and counter appeal before a settlement is agreed upon.

You had a freak accident, I am delighted to hear that you are ok, leave it at that.

ps: a couple of carton and a new set of lines sounds very fair.

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rbl said..

I dont understand how you dont hear a boat like that,,, must have been the helmet. Red thumb away

^ ^ ^

Until, the full circumstances have been documented, examined and investigated, comments such as the above are totally speculative and inflammatory to reporting and judgment of a serious maritime incident.

I do not wish to say anything other than I wish @ Pilotpete a speedy recovery and the crew of the vessel that allegedly T-Boned him are recovering from such a serious incident. Hopefully, all will recover well and return to pre accident activities with minimal residual impact.

To discuss and look for our weakness to protect is vital, assigning blame is not our place to move on.