# eNav Warning--Seaquel's Final Chapter



## svHyLyte (Nov 13, 2008)

For the aficionados/proponents of electronic navigation that eschew keeping a back-up on "paper charts" and such "out dated" technology, the demise of the yacht Seaquel is a cautionary tale. See (click on) Seaquel's Final Chapter.










A word to the wise? Think about it.


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## vikingthunder (Sep 16, 2010)

I am not sure that it is so much a Cautionary tale about Electronic navigation equipment, so much as it is a cautionary tale about redundant backups, and also on the idea of using something like an Ipad as a primary navigation device.

I cannot imagine anyone thinking it was safe to use anything as a primary Navigation device that was not Dedicated to Navigation only. A dedicated Chartplotter/MFD, with an Ipod as a backup, would have not allowed such a thing to happen.

If anything, this could be a lesson in Prudent navigation. Had the Skipper turned out to sea when his Ipad stopped working properly, and stayed far from shore while getting it working again, he would have likely had no issues.

As it was, it would appear he was out in a place of which he was unawares, without having any real redundancy in navigation, using only an Ipad, and not keeping his fuel tanks topped up caused him to push when he should not have. Many mistakes stacked on top of one another ended in catastrophe. 

We can all consider him lucky that all of his crew are safe and sound.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

Sounds more like a warning about blind skippers.

The skipper himself says it was all his fault, and if he'd been able to SEE, he wouldn't have gotten into that situation. 

That wreck had nothing to do with nav systems or electronics, it was a skipper sailing without adequate knowledge of where he was.

Same thing could happen to any solo sailor who just takes short catnaps...and oversleeps once. You can't close your eyes when there's pointy stuff within range of the boat, period.


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

How are paper charts going to help?



> Berg, who is totally blind.


Disabled and physically challenged people are allowed to partake in the world. In fact its behoven on us luckier people to give them a helping hand.

I am typing this on an Ipad and I think they are a bloody stupid kids toy. Great for portability, but its nothing like a real computer. Ipad a toy that Apple still thing they own after you take it from their shop... Never letting you be in total control. Its a walking lump of malicious code that spys and tries to control your computer life.

Anyway, if he was sighted, and below looking at paper charts he may still have made the same error.



> "I should have just said, 'Hang a hard left', until we sorted things out, but I didn't. It was totally my screw-up." Before they could find a software solution, they heard the sound of surf crashing and they knew they were in trouble.


Thats CDF if you get locationally disorientated wether on Paper charts, or proper charts you should turn to safe waters till you got it sorted out.

Mark


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## Frogwatch (Jan 22, 2011)

I,m not too impressed with the iPad as primary nav tool. I'd use it but would use gps and paper charts as my primary nav tool.


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## Elewese (Apr 21, 2013)

Just to stop the speculation going on out there from those not in the know. John had a complete state of the art Simrad navigation system,GPS, chart plotter, radar and AIS which interfaced with his Ipad. The Ipad was a repeater used in the cockpit along with his iphone as cockpit backup. It all worked seamlessly together. We used it in the local Channel Islands without a hitch. 

John is an accomplished sailor and I have trusted him and his judgment on many occasions at sea. He is a better sailor than most sighted people and he remains my first choice in crew aboard our KP44.

As in any accident it is never one thing that causes it. In this case there were several issues which had to be dealt with which lead to the accident. It happened and there is no going back.


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## Dean101 (Apr 26, 2011)

Elewese said:


> Just to stop the speculation going on out there from those not in the know. John had a complete state of the art Simrad navigation system,GPS, chart plotter, radar and AIS which interfaced with his Ipad. The Ipad was a repeater used in the cockpit along with his iphone as cockpit backup. It all worked seamlessly together. We used it in the local Channel Islands without a hitch.
> 
> John is an accomplished sailor and I have trusted him and his judgment on many occasions at sea. He is a better sailor than most sighted people and he remains my first choice in crew aboard our KP44.
> 
> As in any accident it is never one thing that causes it. In this case there were several issues which had to be dealt with which lead to the accident. It happened and there is no going back.


Was the Simrad system what the article was referring to when it said "The built-in chartplotter had a system that displayed NOAA charts, but Berg says that proved inadequate."? I thought the iNavX was an Apple application and I assumed as I read the article that the iPad was being used as the primary nav method. Are you saying it was just repeating what the Simrad was doing?

Another thing I'm curious about is the usefulness of NOAA charts around Hawaii. I would not think they would be inadequate in that area of the world.


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## JonEisberg (Dec 3, 2010)

The cautionary tale in this one, for me, is the simple loss of Situational Awareness - which I believe has become more common and easily accomplished these days, with most boats becoming increasingly complex, and navigation typically reliant on electronic gizmos that so easily 'enable' one to become dangerously distracted when a glitch arises... A broken point on a #2 lead pencil, or a sticky pair of parallel rules, was far less likely to result in the sort of loss of situational awareness than that which can attend having to troubleshoot or reboot a balky computer or chartplotter... 

Classic example of EAL Flight 401 Syndrome, nothing more, nothing less... Don't allow yourself to become dangerously preoccupied with a minor problem, to the point of forgetting you still have to fly the damn plane, or sail the freakin' boat...


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## svHyLyte (Nov 13, 2008)

hellosailor said:


> Sounds more like a warning about blind skippers.
> 
> The skipper himself says it was all his fault, and if he'd been able to SEE, he wouldn't have gotten into that situation.
> 
> ...


The owner had a sighted crewman aboard upon whom he was entirely dependent, particularly near shore. His taking "responsibility" for the loss of the yacht is a noble but rather hollow gesture. They were sailing in an area with which they were entirely unfamiliar and had evidently not acquainted themselves. They were dependent upon an electronic device that allowed them to proceed without maintaining any practical situation/positional awareness. Had they studied a chart beforehand and kept it open on their nav table or in their cockpit, when the electronics went down there would have been no real issue. Instead they fiddled around with their malfunctioning electronics while they stood into danger/disaster. Defending and offering apologias for the owner's choices may seem "kinder" but it/they dilute the object lesson others might take from the event. Hindsight's always 20/20. Foresight gets one a lot farther.

FWIW...


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## christian.hess (Sep 18, 2013)

so what he got popups or something on that damn ipod? couldnt load his nav page no matter what?

hate those things

a chart and a gps coordinate from a simple handhled done, simple

x2 on 20 20 hindsight though...


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## christian.hess (Sep 18, 2013)

at least in the article before the boat was torn up they said the owner managed to salvage the engine and many $$ items to get him back on track...they also said it was looted in a matter of minutes after leaving the boat on the reef

man

wish him much luck


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## Elewese (Apr 21, 2013)

I do not yet know how John was using the Ipad (as primary or as a repeater) at the moment of the grounding). When I see him next week I am sure I'll get more details.


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## sharkbait (Jun 3, 2003)

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