Pleasure yacht sinks in North Sound
(CNS): Ten passengers including two infants were rescued by a department of environment vessel at the weekend when a yacht sank in the North Sound. Police confirmed Monday morning that they had received a report shortly after 5.00pm that a 52 foot motor yacht was taking on water off Bobby Cay. Although the Joint Marine Unit began making its way to the location, a DoE vessel that was nearby was first on the scene and was able to safely remove all of the people from the pleasure boat, which is believed to have been taking visitors from the Ritz Carlton on a Stingray City excursion.
Sources tell CNS that the boat is The Lady T and the owner has made arrangements to have the vessel removed by a salvage crew.
Category: Local News
Did anyone else note the irony of the sunken big fat expensive boat sunk in the North sound and the juxtaposed article on the Cuban home made afloat in Frank Sound!
So funny!
One local boat captain here served us water in paper cups from a gallon jug, then drank directly out of the bottle himself! Then expected us to use that water for the rest of the trip.
Not a safety issue, but certainly a service and image problem.
Oh man sa!!!
Boy we really have a lot of experts!
Oopsy! Forgot to turn on the automatic bilge pump.
From the picture it’s not clear whether or not the vessel is “sunk” or just flooded and resting on the bottom in shaol water.
If it is actually sunk it would be valuable to know where the wreck is by GPS coordinates and have it clearly marked whilst it remains where it is.
It will also be helpful to know if and when the wreck has been salvaged so that other vessels don’t have to concern themselves with running into it and possibly sharing it fate.
According to the article its a 52 ft boat, and its just off Booby Key. Given its beam there is no way it can be underwater there, whether its on its beam, upright or turned turtle. It should be clearly visible (by day at least).
Whatever happened to that report on the state of vessels like this? I think it was published in late 2006 and then seems to have vanished.
This was a private boat on a brithday trip with family.Accidents do happen and unfortunately this was one.
Most likely this boat has not had a thorough inspection for years. And if not, is there any wonder why these things happen and our tourism product is going to hell! Let us ask a few questions concerning the operation of boats and other vehicles that are used in the transportation of visitors and others in and around our Island!
1. Are they all licensed to operate the business they are in? Are they regularly inspected, repaired and/or upgraded to meet the required standards for people safety! Are fines levied and/or other repercussions applied for noncompliance of Government regulations?
!. Are boat captains required to pass any kind of pre qualifications tests based on size or tonnage before they are given a license or allowed to operate these vessels?
3. Are these vessels operated by locals who generally have a keen knowledge of the waters around the island, or are they persons who have to knowledge of our Island and just stepped off a plane with a piece of paper stating that he is qualified to run a boat on Lake Woebegone in Minnesota or wherever?
4. Why don't we have metered taxis in operation yet on this Island. And why don't we have identification of the drivers prominently posted in the Taxis where passengers can have their names and I D No. And a number to call in the event they have a dispute with the driver to report incidents such as the one below.
These are some of the many questions to be asked in relation to the operation of recreational services such as these. Because as it is the visitors are being ripped off by "some" unscrupulous taxi drivers who take advantage of our visitors and others. Just the other night I spoke with a group of ladies at a restaurant who were from New York and were visiting our Island for the first time. They had taken a taxi to a local restaurant just three [3] miles from their Hotel, and were charged CI$25.00 one way. They mentioned this to the owner of the restaurant, and expressed their concerns about taking another taxi back to the Hotel not wanting to get fleeced a second time. These are the things that we must look into if weare to bring back a tourism product where visitors can feel comfortable and keep returning to our Island time and time again. Oh I almost forgot! The owner was so upset about this, that he had one of his employees drive the ladies back to their Hotel. The sad thing about this story is, that some honest taxi driver missed a fare that may have established a future relationship with these ladies should they return.
"THESE ARE" the kind of things that "DESTROY OUR TOURISM PRODUCT". Please Mr. Minister or Mr. Director of tourism, lets do something before it's too late.
I agree with the general thrust of your comment, but do note that yor point 2 – having formal qualifications to operate commercial boats – is somewhat contradictory to point 3 – criticising expatriates who have formal water safety qualifications. As there are no such licencing rules in the Cayman Islands, it is more likely than not that locals will not have formal qualifications even if they have a keen knowledge of the local waters. And as for what those qualifications are – a USCG 6 pack licence is a pretty good professional qualification, whether earned for Lake Woebegone or anywhere else in the US – the standard is the same.
A USCG 6 pack skipper license would BE a thing to promote tourism. I'd choose Cayman over another island if I KNEW that ALL our boat operators had to be licensed professionals and we have and ENFORCE regulations. To insist on this has no downside.
My first dive was in the 70’s, at age 8. I dove frequently, working as an assistant dive master by 15, and full at 17. I learned the tables backwards, have a total safety record, and introduced delighted visitors to Waldo and then Bugsy – and then, by the early 90’s could no longer get tanks filled because I had no C card. So I got certified, by a dope smoking hippie from the US on an adventure between high school and college, who at least had the decency to express embarrassment at certifying me – but hey, he was a professional!
Thank you for proving the above posters' point. Inthis day and age certification is needed. The wise operator adjusts to the times and gets certified thereby allowing them to continue their bussiness. The calcified will be ground to dust by the likes of yourself.
Only in the Cayman Islands, I simply have to laugh when I see a country that held its own in the best and worst of times when it was not favourable to live here much less invest here. The boating community then pulled themselves up by their booth strings, enacted superior safety standards for their industry and operated for decades with excellent safety records until suddenly the big masters who came just in time, those that had to do no ground work except to come in with big boats and so called qualified captains and have now begin to call the shots and demand to call for certifications. This is nothing short of amazing and I will again say only in the "Cayman Islands"
Even though I agree with your comments I would like to see more info produced here before making any comments of my own.The running of many boats around theseislands leaves much to be desired as to how much experience the captains have in boat operations and the choices that are made weather wise just for the sake of the almighty dollar.Hopefully more info will be forthcoming on this story.
Self interest, lack of water taxis, public transportation service, vacation hotel accommodation, cost of living etc, etc……. All of these issues need confronting to improve the tourist product, we need to recognise that the majority of visitors to these islands are NOT the super wealthy and adjust the product to suit without compromising standards. Stop building condos for quick financial gain and part time occupancy !!!!
As for point 3, most responsible boat captains are foriegn ticketed, have you seen how local boat owners and 'professional' skippers run their boats and 'serve' the public, some are very good, but too many are very bad?
Until the local cartels are broken up, offering value for money through competition and more locals have a slice of the market instead of the same individuals or family's owning the majority of businessess, nothing will change.
I coul not agree more!
We need to make local Captains actual "Capatains!" – Simply shameful for our seafairing history. I'm tired of cheap Caribbean labour running these tourist boats while the fat-cat Caymanian owners count the cash!
Tourism does a GREAT job of inspecting our private condo and villa rentals (to collect their 10%) it is high time that this same white glove treatment applies to our boating tourists!!!
Taxis- dont get me started on that crooked cartel. The person in charge of the public transport and taxis should be serving time in prison in my opinion. The only thing the hotels can do is to post a person at the front door and insure the fare is negotiated before our tourists get in and get ripped off. Taxis here make my blood boil. I just ruined my entire day thinking about it.