With anything from drunk guests to tired crew, tender ops at night have a higher potential to become a worst-case scenario
The harbor was busy that night as small boats buzzed between the packed anchorage and the bright shoreline lined with bars and clubs. The mate and the second stew were doing a late evening pick-up of the engineer returning from his time off. He’d been away for a couple months so there was lots to catch him up on.
The three quickly got into conversation as they headed back to the yacht. The mate, following the well-trodden track they had left during day runs, gave the chart on the console an occasional glance. As they got closer to the yacht, he throttled back, focusing on the yacht’s lights as he shared how last week’s guests had left them their biggest-ever tip, when — thunk! — the tender collided with a rock just a few hundred feet away from the yacht and unceremoniously ran aground. The mate hadn’t even noticed that they had veered off course.
This fictionalized account of a grounding is based on an actual report received by CHIRP Maritime, a confidential incident-reporting program. In the real-life incident the tender sustained superficial damage and one of the passengers sprained a leg. CHIRP noted several contributing factors, including loss of situational awareness, distraction and lack of alert from the mothership that the tender was off course.
Consequences can be much more severe. Probably the worst worst-case scenario was in 1995. The engineer on a 177ft yacht was at the helm of the tender with a load of crew and their guests returning from a night out on shore. He was going 25 knots at 3am when the boat ran into a metal pipe structure in the port of Poros in Greece, killing four crew and guests and injuring six, including one seriously. Port authorities had set up orange balloons around the installation to warn vessels, but the driver was traveling too fast to see it in time at night.
In the cloak of darkness, the danger is amplified; anything that can go wrong is more likely to. “Most tender ops, including fuel, trash, passport runs or others, should be left for daytime, ideally,” Patrick Levitzke, second officer on a 197ft expedition vessel cruising in the South Pacific, says. “Chances are you’ve been running guests around and have already had a full day. I try to avoid night tender ops for that reason — having a tired operator — as awareness is paramount. Instead of simply by sight, navigation needs to be done by instruments, ideally radar if fitted, GPS, history tracks, simple land fixes and tiny lights; there is no visual lay of the land.”
Many crew get their start driving boats with an RYA Powerboat Level 2 course or the IYT Small Powerboat and RIB Master in the States, yet neither of these courses includes night hours. For that, the next level is the RYA Tender Operator Course, which is only available in Europe.
“The reason we do the RIB Master or the Powerboat Level 2 is to instill that safety element from the beginning,” says Mark Schwegman, co-owner of Professional Yacht Training in Fort Lauderdale. “You hope that they keep on with it, but I think a lot of the time they kind of neglect it; they think that it’s not that important anymore. The vessel itself might not enforce it, and complacency sets in.” He’s noticed that when his students return to do more advanced courses, they’ve developed bad habits. “We have to reteach them to get them back on a safe platform.”
One bad habit Mark has noticed is crew on their cell phones. “You see them driving the tender with their phone in their right hand, searching the web or whatever.”
Another distraction at night can be the guests. “Tender ops at night are more than likely going to involve drunk guests,” Patrick says. “Despite them owning the multimillion-dollar tender you’re driving, their safety is still your responsibility.” He advises bringing along at least one other crew member to help handle unruly passengers.
When night runs are unavoidable, Patrick says to remember three things: one, always have reliable communication with the main boat through predetermined VHF channels and/or phone reception if in range of land. Two, have the most up-to-date charts plus redundancies. “This means charts on the console for the local area plus Navionics or similar software as a backup on an iPad or phone.” And three, all life-saving appliances should be on board and accounted for, including life jackets, grab bags and EPIRBs.
All the little safety things add up, says Mark. “Just missing one, you might get away with it, but if you don’t have the kill cord on, and you aren’t visually aware and you’re being sidetracked, all three of those put together create a big issue.
“The ocean is a funny thing; when you think you know everything, or you think you’re the best, that’s when it brings you back down to ground.”