Concordia (ship)

The Concordia

Lloyd 's Register of Shipping

IMO no. 1001269

The Concordia was a three-masted Barkentine with a steel hull, which was built in 1992 in Poland for the West Iceland College in Montreal, Canada. The design of the ship was from Zygmunt choirs. With their sail training cruises were carried out until she sank on 17 February 2010.

Downfall

On February 17, 2010, the Concordia got off the Brazilian coast in a bad weather area ( predicted wind force 7-8 gusting, wave height 3.5 -4m ) during a Schauerbö heavy list, capsized and sank within 20 minutes. All 64 people on board were able to bring in four of the eight on-board life rafts to safety. The islands were sighted by an aircraft. 41 hours later could involve the occupants of three islands a guided accordingly Japanese freighter. The remaining castaways in the fourth life raft were picked up by another ship. The captain and the first officer stated later, the ship was like a sudden microburst (sudden strong wind case ) to the victim. To 4 German students who had booked a program of student exchange company Stepin, and which also came from the sinking in danger were on board.

Results of the official investigation

The official investigation report by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada called, inter alia, following reasons for the downfall:

There because of the weather observations of the crew shortly before capsizing (wind 23 knots, no significant change in temperature ), and analysis of meteorological data and satellite images no evidence of a typical microburst - situation; the wind speed was lying probably between 25 and 50 knots
The captain had given no adequate instructions for the wax -over to the second officer to proceed as for himself deteriorating weather was ( for example, with a reduction in sail area )
Although the second officer noted changes in the wind situation and watched several squalls and persecuted them even on the radar, he recognized no threat or action
The second officer had controlled despite an announced bad weather front with autopilot, which had been delayed at the crucial moment by automatically limiting the rudder deflection, the change of course
The hatches of the superstructure were fore and aft was not the announced weather closed in accordance with waterproof, what the ship's stability was significantly reduced at high heel (without the buoyancy of the superstructure the maximum of the righting moment was reached at about 38 degrees angle of heel according to the survey report, while it secured with a second superstructure - would have given maximum at about 79 degrees ) - higher
During the arrival of the Schauerbö the heeling of the ship rose for 2-3 minutes on at least 23 degrees. The ship's officers did not respond during this period
In a further slight increase in wind speed, probably with a vertical component, the ship heeled more than 23 degrees. The initiated at this time course changes ( fall ) had come too late to prevent the heel was so strong that ran large amounts of water into the ship through open doors and hatches on the leeward side.
The management of the shipping company had not drawn up any procedures that would ensure that the ship's officers had been aware of the on-board information about the ship's stability at high heeling (already was by a slight fall wind According to an examination at 30 degrees heeling the Aufrichtfähigkeit of the vessel on be reduced 0 )
The salvaged from the team EPIRB radio buoy did indeed work, the deposited to this identification number is, however, not been in operation since 2004, which have delayed the detection and identification of distress Falls

The report draws on a survey among officers of tall ships, among others, the conclusion that on many sailing ships for the knowledge of the stability parameters of their ship at high heeling was not sufficient to avoid such incidents.

Concordia (ship)

Downfall

Results of the official investigation

See also