Another electronic helm system fails to work? (video)

Try finding the horn on most dashes...…..I run a lot of different boats......and usually the horn is a black button on a long lengthy row of buttons that isn't easy to find in a hurry. I'm guessing this Captain had his hands full and the catamaran was moored at a dock.

I've had mechanical cables fail also...….one throttle cable end fell off at cruise and the engine went to idle speed and the boat carved a very tight turn on autopilot in the ocean...….another one fell off of the gear and was stuck in gear...….and I had another one snap on another gear, only able to do forward and neutral...….

It's not checking where the horn is, it's being able to find it when SHTF. I'm guessing the Captain was pre-occupied with trying to regain control, which he/she apparently did. On a yacht the size of Safira, cable controls are simply not an option due to the length of runs. So you're left with air, hydraulic, or electronic. I've had failures with all of them, including cable.

And what exactly would have blowing the horn have done???? You keep harping on why the horn wasn't blown. The entire incident occurred within 20 seconds, that's not a lot of time to react. When stuff really hits the fan, it takes some time to process what is going on, then decide or think of what/how to react to it. First order of business for any Captain would be to try to re-establish control, which the Captain did as at the end of the video you can see the port engine in full speed reverse, by both the exhaust and the way the vessel is heeled over. I know that marina extensively where the sailboats are moored. I manage a yacht in that marina since 2014 and have also had multiple boats hauled out there for many years prior to that. Those boats are at that dock for storage. Could there have been people on board, yes, but it's not as likely. IF there were people on board, would they have paid any attention to the horn and even came outside or gotten off in time? I was just at that marina a week ago and blew a very loud horn on the yacht I manage for 5 seconds as part of my monthly service check where I exercise everything. The boat yard also has a horn that blows at various times to signal break time, lunch time, etc.

I know that area extremely well, it is my backyard so to speak. I do not know the boat, nor the Captain at all. From where the video started, the only additional area that is navigable for that size yacht is an additional 50-100 yards period, if it came out of Marine Max's yard (which it's too big for) and you cannot turn the vessel around there, so it must've come out of Directors yard, which is literally about where the video started, maybe 50 yards west, the initial impact of the black sailboat was at 25 seconds from the start of the video the catamaran at about 30 seconds.

As proven by the FAA in that Scully airplane incident where he landed a 737 in the Hudson river with close to 200 passengers on it. It takes 50 seconds for a human to figure out in their mind, what the issue is, go through the trouble shooting checklist (in their mind) and then decide what action to take. The entire video of this incident is 1:31 minutes but the impacts occurred at 30 seconds or less of the video, and I can assure you given the area, the situation didn't start but seconds earlier.

While I cannot prove it, given the angle of the video, I am guessing a horn was sounded at the beginning, because why else would someone start videoing from the angle the video is taken. It's not an area where people would start videoing, but this is just a guess on my part.

In a situation like this, you never know what the Captain is seeing in front of him, in the way or whatever. I crossed from the Bahamas once about 10 years ago in 6'+ seas in a 70' azimut with an open flybridge, ran the boat across from the lower station. Wind blowing 20-25 knots. Got into Port Everglades on a busy Saturday, incoming tide towards the bridge, and about 300 yards from the 17th Street bridge, put the controls in neutral, went to the flybridge, accessed the station, put them both in gear.....all was fine, went to neutral because someone was going very slow in front of me...…..Port engine went into forward at 1300 RPMS and the boat started really accelerating as I was trying to slow it down. At this moment in time, I had to see what my options were when it came to open space, not hitting the bridge, not hitting the boat in front of me going through the bridge, what space/boats I had on my sides and stern. If I killed the engine, I couldn't have stopped the boat before hitting the boat in front of me, and would have spun the boat sideways using only starboard reverse and hit the bridge. I ended up turning the wheel hard to starboard, gave it about full throttle on starboard reverse and spin the boat and started heading back out of the Port, shut the port engine down, shut everything down, determined the FB station was shorted from the water, and ran it to the dock from the lower station. Bottom line is, not all Captains are excellent at handling a yacht, not all Captains know the yacht they're on that well, not all Captains are as lucky, and stuff happens. I've lost engine Control on about 12 yachts over the years, luckily none of them resulting in any damage. In a situation like this, not knowing exactly what the pods on this yacht were doing, or acting, it's hard to say what anyone else could've done, should've done, or had time to do. And, even the Captains recollection can be very skewed without them knowing it.

For example, I had a mate have a massive heart attack at a marina in Key West last year. I performed CPR for 10 minutes on the deck of a SF, lot of other crew standing around on other yachts in the marina. Dockmaster was talking to him when he dropped, alerted me (inside the boat) and called the Paramedics instantly.....I checked vitals,there were none, I started cpr, a little while later several crew came over and asked if I needed them to jump in and take over cpr, I said no, I'm ok for a little while longer...…..another crew brought an AED and after zapping him once and 20-30 seconds of more cpr, he came to...……the paramedics arrived seconds later....….I thought I had only performed CPR for a minute or two when everyone came over and asked if they could jump in. In my mind after the fact, I truly believe that my mate (69 years old) was only out for 2 minutes. I was informed by everyone afterwards that I was doing chest compressions for over 10 minutes straight, before the aed was attached.

Wow...and excellent job Capt J . Well put.

I forgot about Seahaven, which is new. It is directly across the canal from Marine Max yard (which you can also see in Seahavens aerial photo of the marina) and as far West as one can go in a yacht that size on that canal. They went all of 150 yards +/- before hitting the sailboat. Look at the bottom left photo on Seahavens website. The sailboat the hit was directly across from the large yacht on the canal with the bow facing the ocean. Something alerted someone to start filming it, which my guess is a horn, because the video person started the video before the bow even entered his view. Either way it happened very quickly and in a very short distance. My guess is the Captain pulled out of Seahaven, got bow facing east and stopped from a wing station, went to another station and activated it, and that's when everything hit the fan. I do not know anything for certain, but just speculation based upon my intimate knowledge of where it happened. I manage the yacht with the blue hull seen in the background right after the catamaran breaks free and it's been docked there since April 2014.

https://seahavenmarina.com/

Would any of you have shut the motors down?