B1/​1999M Pas­sen­ger Boat ms AL­BA­TROSSEN, Ice dam­age in Åland on 2.4.1999

04.06.2001

Finnish passenger boat ms ALBATROSSEN built in glassfibre reinforced plastics and having a length of 11 metres was transporting a group of 8 persons to an Easter lunch in Åland archipelago on 2.4.1999. At the time the ice cover from the sea was melting. In larger open sea areas there still were large ice floes drifting. The temperature of air was +3ºC and temperature of water was +0,2ºC.

On the previous evening the boat had been used for ramming ice when trying to reach a quay. The first half of the journey was made in open water, but then a one mile long partly ridged ice field was met. Due to the time of the year the ice was brittle.

When the ice field was penetrated the speed had been reduced to 5 to 6 knots. The journey progressed in spite of the ice so that at 15:10 the open water was reached and the speed could be increased. The bow of the boat did not rise when the power was increased and when the boat accelerated. About 10-15 seconds from the starting of the acceleration water rushed into the forward boat compartments. The boat was stopped and the owner/master went to the forward cabin to stop the leak. One passenger called for help with his mobile phone from the restaurant, which was the destination.

The boat floated and it was started in reverse towards a rock at the end of the open water. The passengers formed a chain and started to empty the water in the middle cabin with buckets. When reversing the boat was not steerable with the use of the rudder and for the control the power of the two propellers were adjusted by turns. The backing to the rock succeeded in 35 to 40 minutes.

The alarm center in Mariehamn was alerted from the restaurant. They forwarded the alarm to coast guard station in Mariehamn at 15:30. A small hovercraft which was situated nearby was also alerted from the restaurant. The coast guard station and the marine rescue command center (MRCC) in Turku alerted two helicopters, one large patrol boat, two small patrol boats, coast guard hovercraft and a road ferry to assistance. The small hovercraft was the first rescue craft to reach the rock where the distressed group was and it arrived there at 16:01 following instructions from the distressed. The helicopter alerted from Mariehamn evacuated the passengers. One patrol boat escorted the ALBATROSSEN to its home port after pumps had been delivered to it by different rescue craft.

The initial rescue by backing the boat to the rock was successful because the master was able to restrict the leak so much that the passengers were able to empty enough water from the boat using their own buckets. The immediate cause of the accident was the damage in the bow of the boat due to going through an ice field. The boat had no certification for use in ice nor was its hull dimensioned for it. The ice loads directed to the structure broke and effected wear on the glass-fibre laminate on both sides of the stem so that a hole of abt. 240 cm² came into being. A decisive factor, which enabled the progressive flooding, was that an opening had been made into the damaged small watertight forepeak compartment. This opening had been closed with a loose hatch.