Jack Abry accident investigation

A French trawler hit rocks due to tiredness and personal stress affecting the skipper, according to an investigation.

All fourteen crew were plucked to safety by the Stornoway Coastguard rescue helicopter as raging seas lashed the rolling boat which grounded on jagged rocks on the north west coast of Rum.

The MFV Jack Abry II had failed to change course to starboard and continued to steam ahead at 13.5 knots, in heavy weather, ramming up on rocks on Mull around 11.20pm on Monday, January 31st, says the a report by the Marine Investigation Accident Branch.

Xavier Leaute, 48, was on watch and did not read the radar properly due to rain clutter. He believed the island - and the turning point - to be further away.

The 46-metre vessel and her sister ships often change crews in Stornoway. This time the skipper joined in Lochinver, where the boat lands her catch. He had been awake since flying from Lorient to Inverness some 11 hours beforehand and had little sleep over the preceding three nights.

The married family man was under stress due personal issues at home. After departing port, he had two glasses of whisky during a meal break to celebrate the birthday of two crew members though investigators do not think this was a contributory factor. He then took over the watch at 6pm and the wheelhouse was warm and stuffy.

She was heading south from Lochinver to deep water fishing grounds off Ireland to fish for scabbard but sought a shelter passage from the brewing storm.

The skipper was monitoring displays from navigational equipment from the wheelhouse chair. But one chart plotter computer screen was partially obscured by a protective bar while the second plotter was switched off at 9pm as the skipper was using the computer to listen to music.

The watch alarm was switched off and there was no lookout on duty - two important safety factors which the company had pledged to deploy following an earlier grounding off North Uist.

Instead of waking the first mate to take over the watch at 11pm, Leaute remained in the wheelhouse. But its believed he fell asleep at a crucial point, after wrongly reading the radar screen, and failed to alter course to take the vessel out through the Sound of Canna, according to the report.

The vessel ended up being a total loss but the investigators believed she could have been salvaged because she had grounded on a rising tide and have moved to a different position by the next day. They criticised the failure to assess the extent of damage at the time.

The also said the owner, Scapêche, should have had better oversight of the vessel’s operations to ensure that the crew were adhering to its policies, risk assessments and regulatory requirements which would have helped to enhance the onboard safety culture.

The crew were emergency airlifted to Stornoway where Xavier Leaute of La Marsaudictre, St Amand, Sevre, France, was fined £3000 at Stornoway Sheriff Court after accepting blame for the accident.

At the time Sheriff David Sutherland praised Stornoway Coastguards and the rescue helicopter crew for saving the crew in the bad weather conditions.

The sheriff said: “This matter could well have ended in tragedy particularly if not for the swift response of the coastguard helicopter at Stornoway. We could have been dealing with a situation with considerable loss of life.“

■ The way such rescues are co-ordinated in the future look likely to change under proposals to revamp the coastguard service. The Jack Abry accident was handled by island staff in Stornoway Coastguard station. However, a live government consultation indicates a new coastguard control centre based on the English Channel could task such emergencies to coastguards based on the other side of the country.

■ In 2001, another trawler, the Jack Abry, operated by the same owner, ran aground off North Uist, after the watchkeeper fell asleep while alone in the wheelhouse. At that time the owner said it would fit a watch alarm to its vessels and use a second person as lookout.

Skipper asleep when vessel hit rocks 14/8/11