CHIMÈRE: The Man Overboard Beacon That Had Been Dead Since 2009 and Nobody Knew

Chaussée de Keller, 1 November 2012 — 10:00

CHIMÈRE, a 9.72m line-fisher, was working alongside her sister vessel SPHINX off the island of Ouessant — a known fishing ground, and a known dangerous one: strong tidal currents, exposed rock heads, drop-offs to 90 metres, and a sea that can throw up sudden breaking waves with little warning. That morning it was blowing a genuine gale — force 6 to 7, gusting 8 — and both skippers had checked the forecast with the Stiff semaphore station before setting out.

What Happened

CHIMÈRE's skipper, working alone as the vessel's sole crew, was wearing a buoyancy jacket and an inflatable lifejacket fitted with a ‘wavefinder’ MOB radio beacon — a system designed specifically for this: one man, working alone, in a place where help needs to know exactly where to look. At around 10:00, motoring up-current toward Keller Island, he heard a breaking wave behind him. It struck the stern and threw him into the water. His lifejacket inflated automatically and kept him afloat — but CHIMÈRE, gear still engaged ahead, carried on without him.

SPHINX's skipper noticed CHIMÈRE running an abnormal course near Keller Island, spotted his colleague in the water, and went straight to him — dropping a rope ladder over the stern and manoeuvring to present it in a calmer patch between breaking waves. It took several minutes of genuine effort — the rope ladder wasn't rigid enough to climb unassisted, its rungs didn't reach deep enough into the water for a foothold — before the two of them, working together, got him aboard. CHIMÈRE ran aground on Keller Island and was a total loss; her EPIRB distress signal wasn't picked up by CROSS Gris-Nez until 12:46, over two and a half hours after the wave hit.

What the Investigation Found

The wavefinder MOB system pairs a radio beacon built into the lifejacket with a receiver aboard nearby vessels — when the lifejacket inflates, it should trigger the beacon and sound an alarm on any receiver-equipped boat within 5–6 miles. CHIMÈRE's skipper was wearing his correctly; it inflated exactly as designed. SPHINX, close by and fitted with the matching receiver, never received an alert. A follow-up test on 19 November 2012, with a BEAmer investigator present and both skippers watching, confirmed why: neither beacon worked, and SPHINX's receiver was completely inoperative. The wavefinder system had been out of production since 2009, with no manufacturer support since 2011 — and had never once been checked since it was fitted, installed years earlier, free, through a genuine 2008 government sustainable-fishing initiative.

The Real Lesson

Every individual piece of equipment functioned exactly as intended at the moment it mattered — the lifejacket inflated, the skipper stayed afloat, his colleague spotted him and reacted fast. The one thing that was supposed to make the difference between ‘spotted by chance’ and ‘located immediately by radio’ had been silently dead for years. BEAmer's own conclusion is direct: CHIMÈRE's loss might have been avoided entirely if her propulsion had cut automatically the moment her skipper went over the side — a capability that, at the time of the report, didn't yet exist commercially for single-handed vessels.

Check Your Vessel

• Skippers and deckhands: If your vessel carries any lifejacket-integrated MOB beacon or receiver system, has it actually been tested — not just visually checked — in the last year?
• Solo/short-handed skippers: Does your vessel have any means of stopping propulsion automatically if you go over the side, and if not, is that a conversation worth having with your gear supplier?
• All crew fishing in exposed or tidal grounds: Do you fish known dangerous headlands and rock heads alongside another vessel, close enough to actually respond if something goes wrong?

Source: BEAmer (Bureau d'Enquêtes sur les Événements de Mer, France) — Rapport d'enquête simplifié, Homme à la mer à bord du ligneur CHIMÈRE et naufrage du navire, 1 November 2012, published June 2013.