From the Honolulu Advertiser
Boy in boating accident was part of tour group
The teenage boy who was killed yesterday afternoon off Waikiki when the mast of a commercial tour catamaran snapped, pinning him against the boat's cabin, was from Riverside, Calif., and arrived here with his parents on Thursday, said Jessica Rich, president and executive director of the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii.
Rich said the boy, 13, and his parents were among a group of employees of the American Automobile Association who were being rewarded for their work at AAA with a trip to Hawaii.
A number of the tour group members were aboard the 45-foot Na Hoku II catamaran when its aluminum mast buckled and toppled over, pinning the boy against the boat's cabin and deck about 4:15 Friday afternoon.
Witnesses said crew members and passengers aboard the boat tried to free the boy but could not.
Firefighters who were taken to the boat managed to free him by using airbags. He was flown by helicopter to The Queen's Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
It was supposed to be just a fun thing and it turned into a tragedy,
Rich said.
She said her organization will meet with 22 people, almost all of whom were part of the AAA tour group and who were aboard the boat, at 10 a.m. this morning. VASH is also helping the boy's family with funeral arrangements.
One positive thing to come out of this is how supportive all of the AAA members have been — they are all pulling together,
Rich said.
She said an AAA executive is planning to issue a statement later this morning.
Two women, both 41, were also injured in the incident, one of them critically, when the steel cables that support the mast broke loose and lashed the boat's deck.
Wow, how does something like that happen. I understand some of those really high performance boats in bad conditions breaking their masts but you would think a tour boat wouldn't be pushing the limits. I bet the mast had a flaw or something.
I was delivering a new mono sailboat- 32 feet- up to Charlevoix Mich from Holland and in less than 10kn of wind on a beautiful day the forestay let go and the mast came crashing down. My crew was forward and thankfully no one got hurt. IN retrospect, the rollerfurling system hadn't been set up right and everytime the sail was furled or unfurled it would tighten/loosen the stay. Not fun, but could have been WAY worse
That's pretty scary.
Is there any kind of agency that investigates accidents involving commercial boats?
It would be interesting to find out what happened and why. Did the mast buckle or did it snap? Could it have been diamond-wire failure? Where was the break (or buckle)? What were the conditions at the time. What sails were up, if any? Has anybody ever heard of this happening before on a commercial catamaran?
Probably going to be lawsuits, so eventually the information will come out. But will the public (the sailing public) ever hear about it? <img src=
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So far it's the Coast Guard and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. DLNR probably licenses the boats.
Another local paper describes the conditions as rough seas. The skipper of another boat in the area said he
...encountered strong wind gusts and the offshore conditions were rough.
They were using the sails. The auxiliary is an outboard motor.
It's not the sailing public that has to be concerned, it's the tourists.
UPDATE
The evening news showed a close-up of where the mast failed. It appears that the bend is where some stays are attached to the mast.
What I mean is that only sailors would really be interested in the details of how and why such accidents happen, and usually we never find out. A mast failure like that is of interest to everybody who owns (or plans to own) a big multihull of any kind.
What I mean is that only sailors would really be interested in the details of how and why such accidents happen, and usually we never find out. A mast failure like that is of interest to everybody who owns (or plans to own) a big multihull of any kind.
I understand. I said the tourists because they, for the most part, blindly get on boats assuming that they’re in tiptop condition.
There are more news reports today discussing past citations by the CG on maintenance and staffing issues. None were for anything that could have led to a catastrophic failure like the mast coming down.
Let us know how many millions they get awarded.