MCA warned its rules will destroy IoW fishing industry

Frustrated Isle of Wight fisherman Geoff Blake, from Ventnor Haven Fishery, has called on the media to help put pressure on the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to change its blanket approach to boatbuilding rules.

Blake, speaking to BBC Radio Solent, says that the rules designed to make fishing boats safer could be putting lives at risk, and because of that, he’s loathe to order any new craft.

“We’re down to two boats here in Ventnor, which are full-time,” he says. “We used to be able to source [fish] from fifteen other boats around the island here, but they’ve all gone. The fishing industry is a dying industry. We need at least three or four boats here to have enough collateral mass to be able to make the thing run, and if we don’t get these boats built, in a few year’s time, it [commercial fishing] won’t exist, and I think that the fishing industry on the Isle of Wight is very, very near to total collapse.”

Currently Blake’s team uses catamarans made by Cheetah Marine. He says this is because Cheetah’s cats are incredibly stable, and the fuel tanks below deck help to keep the weight down towards the water line, giving a low centre of gravity.

But now if Blake wants a new boat built to the same design, he’ll have to have the fuel tank up on deck. He says this will make boat top-heavy and much more likely to capsize in the choppy waters off the south of the island.

“The condition can change dramatically and very quickly,” Blake told the Alun Newman show. “These boats are fast – we can get home quickly, but if you just hit a rogue wave wrong, if your centre of gravity is higher, then the boat is less stable.

“All you can do is to do everything you can to get every bit of weight as low as possible, and you end up with a safe boat, but as soon as anything as heavy as fuel is above the deck, it’s one more thing to go wrong, to make it turn over.

“I liken these boats to the rally car of the fishing vessels, and I think if Mika Häkkinen had to put his fuel on his roof, I don’t think he’d even attempt to do a rally because he knows going round the first corner you would turn over and that’s the situation we’ve got.

“We need new boats – I’ve got young lads who want to go to sea – and we need these boats safe for them. At the moment, with the regs as they are, the authority that is supposed to be looking after our safety is making a boat that is less safe than the one we built five years ago.

“We need the people who are making the rules to actually understand what they are saying, and what they are doing, and the implications of it. It seems that nobody answers a question, and there’s no way we have of going to complain somewhere that the regulations don’t make sense. All we have really is hopefully the press might be able to wake them up to the situation. We shouldn’t have to wait until somebody drowns before something happens.”

Sean Strevens, MD Cheetah Marine, says: “The MCA are good people, but the system does not work. I’ve been working on this for well over 10 years.

“They were supposed to harmonise codes years ago, but this didn’t happen. There should be an equivalence between CE ISO, workboat code and commercial fishing code. But bureaucracy stops this happening.

“When I first started building boats late 80s early 90s, there was no such thing as workboat code. Early Seafish requirements in 2000 were based on MGN 280 workboat code, which worked well for our designs.

“The real issue with fishing boat safety in those days was around traditional designs with inboard diesels which capsized or sank due to water inlets, shaft seals or hatch problems all leading to down flooding.

“We have sealed hull compartments and outboard engines which is far safer. The rules should cater for this. Low vertical centre of gravity is important for us, but the MCA pushes to increase deck heights, put long-range tanks up on deck, and increase the vertical centre of gravity (which reduces stability).

“We have proven that under-deck fuel tanks are safer, more fire resistant, insulated (keeping moisture out), keep cooler in the summer, are out of the way for fishing operations and are thus far more protected. Surveying can be done through deck hatch inspection, and pressure testing if needed.

“The tank debate has been going on for years and the MCA have had them in and out of standards for the last 10 years, but always in the standards for workboats and CE boats.

“It is very frustrating when we are trying to build the safest boats possible.”

Strevens’s bewilderment is palpable.

“We can build three boats to fish mid-Channel, all for rod and line fishing: leisure CE ISO cat B, charter workboat code, and commercial fishing. All would have to be different – with the commercial fishing boat being less stable. In fact, it needs to be more stable as the commercial fishing operators, understandably, work in rougher sea conditions.”

Cheetah has been building boats for Blake for over 25 years. Strevens has known Blake all his life — they went to school together. “His whole family have been fishermen for many years, and we want to build him the safest boat possible, but we cannot.”

According to the BBC, Blake has also been trying to get the MCA to look at this for a number of years.

In an MCA statement to the radio station, the organisation stressed that safety is always its top priority and its rules about above-desk fuel tanks are to help minimise fire risks, essentially because it makes them easier to inspect and maintain. However, the MCA said, if a proposal for under-deck petrol tanks was presented it could consider making an exemption on a case-by-case basis. Plus, if there were multiple applications that might provide enough evidence for a blanket change of the standards.

Statement from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency

“We support the fishing industry and recognise the dangers involved, which is why safety is always our top priority.

“Recommended changes to fuel tank placement came about to minimise fire risks and to improve safety in a range of ways, through proper long-term third-party oversight of related systems. The latest Fishing Vessel Codes provide for improved safety checks by the MCA, through requirements for ongoing maintenance and inspection.

“If a proposal for an under-deck petrol tank installation was presented to MCA HQ, through the normal exemption application process, it would be looked at on its merits.”

Proposals for under-deck petrol tanks can be submitted to the MCA for consideration on a case-by-case basis, which may assist in providing evidence for revising the overall standard. It is recognised that there are other standards out there that do permit fuel tanks under-deck. However, it is important to note that other commercial vessel codes of practice don’t promote the use of petrol but do offer ways to do so if risks – particularly those of under-deck stowage – can be appropriately mitigated. This would need to include checks and inspections to ensure continued compliance, under small commercial vessel and workboat codes. In the case of fishing, the physical impact of some methods and concerns about maintenance means the MCA does not have the evidence required for a safe blanket change of the rules at this time.

Main image courtesy of BBC Radio Solent reporter, Dominic Blake, via Twitter.