Another electronic helm system fails to work? (video)

Shutting down is an option but really doesn't change the outcome in this case and he was trying to regain control, which shutting down is counter to. By shutting the engines down you relinquish all control and I can't see where you would have reduced damage. I see nothing at all in the article or the video that says to me the captain should have done something different. There was a major issue and no one hurt and I read about what if someone had been on the catamaran, they might have been killed, and I don't find that the case. They might have fallen and been hurt but the likelihood of severe injury is slim given the low speed and mild impact.

Also, recognize that the Captain had little or no experience with this boat and had only come aboard in the past ten days. While he had 38 years experience, it sounds like he may not have had any with systems and controls like on this boat. In retrospect, I might have done one thing different. If significant work had been done on the boat and I was heading out for a sea trial to verify all was working well, I might have used tows to get me out of Dania Cutoff. I can't say for certain without knowing what work had been done or when or by whom the boat was last used or whether the Captain had ever run the boat.

The turn in front of the marina is too tight to come out motoring, so she would've had to stop, bow thruster the bow around until she was facing east and then go. Sarafina did not go aground as the Dania cutoff canal is deep enough for her from dock to dock. She went into full speed reverse as the Captain gained control of her, noticed by the amount of exhaust water coming out of the port exhaust in the video and how she came to a stop. That Captain was most likely busy trying to regain control, versus blasting the horn and hanging on for the ride crashing into yachts down the entire Dania Cutoff canal. A cruise ship has many crew on the bridge and elsewhere.

2 questions:
Would it be good to have A/B (switchable systems) at each control station?
And locate horn control in obvious easily reachable places?

A horn control in obvious easily reachable places, yes. A lot of times, the more control stations you have, the more issues you tend to have as theirs a lot more wiring, switches, connections, places for water to intrude the control stations and so on. I've been seeing more control failures as of lately. I'm dealing with one right now on a set of Cat C18's with sturdy's. But in that situation, Port is losing communication and losing throttle, shifting works fine. Emergency back up controls, which bypass a lot of the wiring/possible issues/stations is on the dash just to the right of the main controls on the FB and those work fine. A lot of boats, they're buried somewhere, as everyone is building yachts with form over function for a clean looking dash.

Why all the worry about the horn? I can blow the horn a million times and it doesn't change anything and none of us know whether or not the horn was sounded. Also, we don't know from the video exactly where the first contact was made. Whether the distance was 150' or 300', we're only talking 20 to 40 seconds of time.

I can't say whether everyone on the yacht made the most perfect choices in everything or not. I can say that it looked to me like they handled it professionally and averted what could have been far worse damage.

Suppose there was somebody below on that cat. A bunch of horn noise might have brought them up and out. Agreed that the captain was doing a lot of things...but to me sounding that horn should have been one of them.

But we don't know if the horn was sounded or not and based on the impact, had someone been below, brining them out might have been good or bad. All speculation. The collisions were all mild. No boats sunk, none torn apart. By the time the second CAT was struck, the one in the video, you had the noise from the first one as well.

Why is everyone assuming no horn was sounded? We have no recording of the first part of the incident.

I don't think we are assuming anything. I was merely responding to your thought that sounding the horn wasn't very important, if I understand your opinion correctly

My opinion was, and is, that sounding the horn in this one incident would not have changed a thing.

The Triton article, with the interview with the Captain has more info. It states that they dropped the anchor and that's what brings the vessel to a hault and sling shots it backwards. Which if you look at the video carefully after it hits and pushes the catamaran, you can see a HUGE indentation on the port bow of Safira after she slides backwards a little bit, where I'm guessing the chain crushed in, once the anchor hooked and capstan locked down.

https://www.**************/2019/11/malfunction-sends-yacht-off-course/

I am wondering if the problem might have been a mechanical problem rather than an electronic one. On planes, we sometimes fight the urge to only consider the computers.

Exactly. someone could have "butt checked" single lever controls? Who knows until the report is in....

We do?