Category: When things go wrong…

A captain’s nightmare: putting your 344’ Saudi-owned mega aground, rupturing a fuel tank, just off Cannes during the Film Festival. The above photo and news here, and more at PMY’s megayacht forum and yachts.monacoeye. Have there been...

That’s the Coast Guard cutter Liberty off loading some 130 (of 250) passengers from Empress of the North after she supposedly hit Hanus Rock in Alaska’s Icy Strait at 2am this morning. I’m certainly not...

This weekend a Panbo reader emailed me thusly: “How about an in-depth look at the electronics and friggin’ AIS on that cruise ship that grounded then sank???” Well, I wish I could find the...

That’s a 35’ Viking, ironically named “Lit Up”, as it became “the world’s largest flare gun” off Mayport, Florida, on Feb. 10. All six crew survived just fine, thanks to good planning and gear....

There’s no question that some boaters out there, even pros, are misusing electronics, which is why we have terms like “radar assisted collisions” and more recently “computer assisted groundings” spoken only half in jest. Now the January...

I spent the winter of 1972 living in New Orleans and working on oil field supply boats, acquiring a huge fondness for the former (not so much the latter). But I haven’t been back until...

While doing 18 knots 1,000 miles south of Cape Town yesterday, Alex Thomson’s Hugo Boss experienced canting keel failure, nearly capsizing. At the crack of dawn this morning another racer, Mike Golding, pulled off...