MISTRAL / DORIS II: When the Harbour Itself Is Too Bright to See By

Ajaccio Harbour, 20 August 2014 — 21:12

A busy summer evening in a busy Corsican port. The pilot boat MISTRAL had just put the harbour pilot back ashore from the ferry EXCELSIOR and was looping back toward the cruise terminal to meet the four-masted schooner STAR FLYER. The pleasure craft DORIS II, returning from a private diving trip with four people aboard, was heading back toward the marina on a course running roughly parallel and opposite to the departing ferry. Her navigation lights were on; her owner and passengers, all in diving gear, had their attention on the departing ferry and the brightly lit STAR FLYER at the quay — not on the water immediately around them.

What Happened

As MISTRAL completed her turn to pass astern of the ferry and head for the cruise terminal, her skipper suddenly spotted a white, planing hull about 15 metres off his port bow. He threw the engine hard astern. DORIS II's pilot, hearing the bow wave and spotting the pilot boat only at the same moment, put the helm hard over. Neither manoeuvre was enough — the two vessels collided violently in several impacts just before 21:13. DORIS II heeled hard to starboard; one passenger was thrown into the water and ended up trapped beneath one of the hulls, another was thrown clear, and her owner jumped in to help. All were recovered within minutes with the pilot boat's help; three of the four people aboard DORIS II were injured, one seriously with a fracture requiring surgery. DORIS II's hull was damaged beyond repair; MISTRAL suffered only scuffing to her bow.

What the Investigation Found

Both vessels had their required navigation lights switched on. BEAmer's investigation found DORIS II's side lights, mounted low near the bow rail, were genuinely hard to pick out against the sheer density of ambient light in the harbour that evening — cruise ship, departing ferry, quayside lighting, all competing for attention in the same field of view. On both vessels, attention was drawn elsewhere: DORIS II's pilot was focused on finding the marina entrance, without help from his passengers; MISTRAL's skipper was focused on completing his turn to reach the next job. Neither properly registered the other vessel until collision was essentially unavoidable.

The Real Lesson

A working navigation light and an actual, effective lookout are not the same thing, and a busy, brightly lit harbour is exactly the environment where that gap matters most — not open water on a dark night, where a light stands out clearly, but a crowded anchorage or port approach where it has to compete with everything else nearby. BEAmer's own conclusion is that this kind of environment specifically calls for a more attentive watch, not a more relaxed one, precisely because detection is harder, not easier, than it looks.

Source: BEAmer (Bureau d'Enquêtes sur les Événements de Mer, France) — Rapport d'enquête simplifié, Abordage entre la pilotine MISTRAL et la vedette de plaisance DORIS II, 20 August 2014, published May 2015.