Lessons to be learned after fishing boat tragedy

The Heather Anne capsized in December 2011 because modifications made it unstable

A Cornish fisherman drowned because modifications on the boat he was working on had made it unstable. That's the verdict of an inquest jury which is calling on the industry to learn lessons about the stability of vessels and storage of catches.

The Heather Anne capsized and sank in just seconds in December 2011, throwing Ian Thomas from Mevagissey into the water.

The owner and skipper of the Heather Anne, Robert Hunkin told the inquest in Truro how the boat sank in seconds.

He was returning to Mevagissey with Ian Thomas a bumper catch of more than ten tons of pilchards just days before Xmas three years ago.

Michael Brokenshire described how there'd been such a weight of fish, he'd been called in to help bring some of it in on his boat, the Lauren Kate. He was following the Heather Anne in the dark when it disappeared from radar. He was at the scene in four minutes, and pulled the two men from the water, neither were wearing life jackets. Ian was unconscious. He was airlifted to the Royal Cornwall Hospital where his death was confirmed.

The Heather Anne capsized because she'd been modified to carry more fish

The Heather Anne had been built in 1971, then called Aquarius of Cawsand. She was a very traditional looking Cornish fishing smack, 15 metres in length. But she'd been modified, and modified again, over the years, and that had increased her weight, making her more unstable, and reduced the amount of freeboard, the height she was riding above the water.

She was designed to carry just five tonnes of fish, but she would often come into Mevagissey carrying as much as ten tonnes and more of fish. This made her ride really low in the water. The final modification she underwent, just one month before the accident, increased the width of her fish hold. This meant the fish, and any water in there, could swish around. The Marine Accident Investigation inspector said this had the effect of making her yet more unstable and on the day in question she could move only 13 degrees from the vertical before she would capsize.

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch inspector Howard Flegg said there were no stability regulations covering boats, like the Heather Anne, under 15 metres.

The jury returned a narrative verdict calling for the fishing industry to learn the lessons about stability of vessels, and the way the fish is stored in holds.