What would you do?

[Worried]

Ok here it is OWI takes boat out for the day with trainees aboard. Plan is to drop into 6m for training. Arrive at site does not believe the sonar, so everyone kits up and drops into 20m!!! When divers surface boat engine does not start. OWI thought he put enough fuel in!! but did'nt "Fill it"!!!.
Donk starts and take for ever to return (Really heavy weather)

OWI should know better?? your thoughts >>>>>

[Mike Halligan]

Incident Pit: -

"Really heavy weather" with engine off?
Boat occupied at all times and patrolling dive site with 'A' flag raised?
Donkey tank not switchable to feed main?
Insufficient spares, tools, skills to fix main engine?
OWI doesn't believe echo - but wasn't it working in harbour and all the way out?
What of chart, compass, transit marks, VHF?
Trainees, OWI, and who else on board?

If our brave OWI is tasked with fuelling, coxing, site location, weather watch, validating incredible echo reading, leading more than one trainee and training, who else is not surprised he/she forgot the petrol?

Looks to me like this started when the OWI agreed to undertake so much, and others stood by letting it happen.

(only IMHO of course - 'cos yes, I am capable of being leant-on to do likewise.) Thank God you got back OK, then go and make sure others learn form your discomfort.

Mike ;-)

[David Walker]

Righty: well there's not all that much detail there (like who else was on the boat, who was going to look after the boat when the OWI was diving, how many dives had these trainees done before...), but theres obviously a few things gone wrong.

First thing I think though is to look at what they did - OK if one OWI went out with a few trainees, thats not particularly good, but in reality when there's no other option to get some dives done then i'm sure others would do that too. Personally i'd take at least another DL with me, and make sure someone else could handle the boat while I was diving (even if it was very basic, not necessarily having even done the BH course).

If the plan was to go to 6m, then they really should have planned the site - if you're in the middle of the sea and your depth says 20m, I wouldn't just ignore that and think "nah, i'm sure it'll be 6m so we're fine" - could have thrown a shot in and see how far it went before it stopped, would have only taken a couple of minutes and would have saved the problem. Even a 2kg block of lead on the end of a reel would have done.

Generally someone should be left on the boat and usually the engine left at least idling - what if someone came up in difficulty, especially if they were trainees its a possibility? I know a lot of clubs say that the tanks are always to be left full, so you don't have people skimping on fuel to try to make their dive a little cheaper by not putting in more fuel than they needed. Especially for a 6m dive site surely they can't have gone all that far? Or possibly there was plenty to get to the 6m site, but as they got lost they went further than they thought?

Heavy weather - well depends on the circumstances but lots of divers would go out in heavy weather - but taking a boat full of trainees out in bad weather isn't a good idea, and especially if it was eg a club by the coast anyway or they only drove there that morning it would be easy to call off. If they'd stayed overnight then it might be more tempting to do the dive anyway, but mini-golf is always a favourite when you can't dive.

Conclusion: its impossible and wrong to try to judge an OWI based on what little imformation you've given. We can all point out what looks like mistakes, but i'm sure he probably has his own reasons for doing what he did. Did someone pressure him to take out lots of trainees? Were there also another 3 instructors and 2 boat handlers we don't know about? Were there only 2 trainees? Were they actually doing drills for a DL lesson, and so perfectly happy down to 20m and in rough weather anyway? Did club policy mean that if he returned with half-full tanks he lost what he'd paid for? Was there a history of problems with the sonar to make it doubtful?
There's loads of things we don't know about - if it is a problem then its something between your DO and the OWI to sort out, and the DO should know enough about the conditions and circumstances themself to be able to point out where the OWI may have made mistakes so that they are avoided in the future.

David

[Matts]

OWI should know better?? your thoughts >>>>>

OWI is a teaching grade, not a boating grade. There are two possible reasons for the foul ups. Either the OWI has insufficient experience operating boats or he was complacent.

The question is, if you think you can do better and 'worried' about this guy, why were you not on the boat to prevent the incident?

[Khaled Alwassia]

I think that is they only way one should look at this scenorio.

Khaled