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43 foreign Phuket tourists saved after speedboat capsizes on way to Koh Phi Phi

rooster59

By rooster59
in Phuket News

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RJRS1301 Ruby Member

RJRS1301

Posted
Posted
40 minutes ago, onlybrad said:

Boating safety is atrocious in Thailand. What I would always carry on speedboats and other boats was an empty water bottle with cap. I figured if the boat was going down, one empty water bottle down my pants would provide just enough emergency buoyancy to keep me afloat until rescue.

Hope it is bloody big water bottle.

What about a life jacket??

I refuse to travel on any water transport without one

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ttrd Advanced Member

ttrd

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, petedk said:

It will be interesting to see just why "water was getting into the boat". 

Overloaded or poor maintenance?

…. rather a combination of both and if we add to high speed, uncertified captain and poor trained staff then all 5 boxes are ticked and therefore an accident sooner or later was unavoidable….

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neeray Gold Member

neeray

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, dpeti73 said:

All these speed boats are old piece of shit wondering not happening daily 

That’s quite a generalization on your part. I have owned and maintained boats for half a century. I think that qualifies my judgement a bit when I say that I have used these very same phi phi boats and didn’t see or experience anything that would qualify as “old piece of shit”. 

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balo Ruby Member

balo

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, rooster59 said:

43 foreign tourists from Phuket have been saved after water started pouring into a speedboat they were travelling in and capsized on the way to Koh Phi Phi

Let me guess, they were Chinese?  

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car720 Gold Member

car720

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

some ruined iPhones in that group. 

You will love this one.

I was at the golf course with my Chinese wife not so long ago and she was trying to retrieve golf balls from the creek.  Funny as all hell when she fell in the creek but not so funny when she got out and said that she lost her phone out of her pocket.  Anyway, I ended up going home and getting a fishing net and about an hour later found it.   I handed it to her and she rang her girlfriend to say that she found it.  It worked perfectly.

Samsung S4.  :cheesy:

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ChrisY1 Platinum Member

ChrisY1

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, neeray said:

That’s quite a generalization on your part. I have owned and maintained boats for half a century. I think that qualifies my judgement a bit when I say that I have used these very same phi phi boats and didn’t see or experience anything that would qualify as “old piece of shit”. 

Where the boats you used fibreglass or plywood?

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lonewolf99 Silver Member

lonewolf99

Posted
Posted

I looked closely at the way these "speed boats" are consrtucted in several boat builders in Jomtien/Pattaya area. Most are made of sheets of 12mm plywood covered in a thin fibreglass gel coat. If the gel coat is compromised with even a small scratch the plywood starts to suck in water and fail. The photo of the upturned boat shows a large sheet of ply has come clean off the hull

 

They should use "Marine plywood" but I doubt if they do as it is more expensive than normal household plywood. There is also no real integral strength in the design of these vessels and they end up carrying far more passengers than they are fit for.

They are also fitted with engines far too powerfull for them and driven as fast as possible into pounding waves. This is obvious when you see them aquaplaning when driven with no passengers on board at high speed. They are death traps waiting to eat their victims.

 

The main reason these boats are taken out of the water on a nightly basis is to let the plywood dry so that the boat can be used again the next day and fix any real obvious cracks with more fibreglass sheets and gel.

 

The trouble with modern "tourists" is that they find it "fun" doing things outside their boring daily lives, constantly taking selfies and never seeing the dangers around them in a place like Thailand on the roads and in the seas.

 

Lots of press coverage of the deaths of people on the roads in Thailand but I wonder if they totalled up the deaths/sinkings of marine craft they would be right up there with African ferries.......  and Africa is a continent not a small country that should do everything to protect paying visitors...........

 

 

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bluesofa Ruby Member

bluesofa

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, Bucko said:

Maybe its about time to have Plimsoll Lines made law on these tourist boats ????

 

Sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately here we can have as many laws as we like. Enforcing them is something more akin to science fiction.

 

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ChipButty Star Member

ChipButty

Posted
Posted

I have been on a few boats while living in Thailand and seen some dodgy ones and overloaded and I did get of one as it didn't look safe, now we only recommend one company to our guest and I have been on a few of their trips they are not overloaded and seem very professional in the way they run their business.

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indepth Rookie Member

indepth

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

I have been on a few boats while living in Thailand and seen some dodgy ones and overloaded and I did get of one as it didn't look safe, now we only recommend one company to our guest and I have been on a few of their trips they are not overloaded and seem very professional in the way they run their business.

thanks for your informative post.

 

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tifino Ruby Member

tifino

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, meinphuket said:

I am forced to have my car tested for road-worthiness annually, would it entirely defeat any modicum of logic to force boat operators in Phuket to do the same ?

to be seaworthy is a requirement,

to be floatworthy is an achievement

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bluesofa Ruby Member

bluesofa

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, meinphuket said:

I am forced to have my car tested for road-worthiness annually, would it entirely defeat any modicum of logic to force boat operators in Phuket to do the same ?

How many fathoms can your car operate down to?

(sorry!)

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stevenl Star Member

stevenl

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, lonewolf99 said:

I looked closely at the way these "speed boats" are consrtucted in several boat builders in Jomtien/Pattaya area. Most are made of sheets of 12mm plywood covered in a thin fibreglass gel coat. If the gel coat is compromised with even a small scratch the plywood starts to suck in water and fail. The photo of the upturned boat shows a large sheet of ply has come clean off the hull

 

They should use "Marine plywood" but I doubt if they do as it is more expensive than normal household plywood. There is also no real integral strength in the design of these vessels and they end up carrying far more passengers than they are fit for.

They are also fitted with engines far too powerfull for them and driven as fast as possible into pounding waves. This is obvious when you see them aquaplaning when driven with no passengers on board at high speed. They are death traps waiting to eat their victims.

 

The main reason these boats are taken out of the water on a nightly basis is to let the plywood dry so that the boat can be used again the next day and fix any real obvious cracks with more fibreglass sheets and gel.

 

The trouble with modern "tourists" is that they find it "fun" doing things outside their boring daily lives, constantly taking selfies and never seeing the dangers around them in a place like Thailand on the roads and in the seas.

 

Lots of press coverage of the deaths of people on the roads in Thailand but I wonder if they totalled up the deaths/sinkings of marine craft they would be right up there with African ferries.......  and Africa is a continent not a small country that should do everything to protect paying visitors...........

 

 

These boats are not taken out of the water at night.

You really have no clue.

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