Crewboat Safety

Continued from page eight

and the Coast Guard and too many
items of concern “fall between the
cracks,” said Idler. :
The Lumberworker attended a
training session recently in Camp-
bell River. At the dock, Watt had
his students go over all the features
of the craft. They examined the
“instruments, the engine and the
safety gear, including fire extin-
guishers and life jackets. Out on the
water, Watt put his students through
Several trials. These included navi-
gation, watching for hazards, learn-
ing radar and VHF radio, anchoring
and searching for a “man overboard.”
Later, the students searched for a

“There are all these
boats transferring
thousands of work-
ers a day and there
are no regulations
governing their
operation.”
- Gavin Idler,
I.W.A. Local 2171

small plastic bottle. The waters are
calm, but night had fallen. The bot-

‘tle, about the size of a human head,
could not be found. They had better
luck with the bright orange life ring.
After a few minutes with the search
beam, the powerful light bounced
off the ring’s reflectors. In rein-
forced Watt’s stern warning to
always wear a life jacket when out
on deck with the boat moving (a
powerful new crewboat can attain
speeds of 32 knots). And when some-
one goes on deck, another person
must accompany that person, Watt
told the students.

Bruce Bowker can now confirm
the difficulty of finding a lost crew
member. “I was surprised at how
hard it was to find somebody,”
said Bowker, one of Watt’s gradu-
ates. He has operated a crew boat
for Friell Lake Logging on Mucha-
lat Inlet, near the Vancouver
Island community of Gold River,
for five years but acknowledged
that he learned new things with

¢ In the Wildwood Logging Crew Boat are Local 2171 members leaving for work from Sechelt in the early hours
of the morning.

Watt’s instruction.

Scott Green drives a crew boat for
Powell Daniels Logging Company
on Powell Lake, outside the commu-
nity of Powell River. He got the job
because, “no one else wanted it, and
because I had the seniority.” He
appreciated going through the course
because it taught the use of radar,
how to read charts and identify
marker buoys.

Fellow Powell Daniels employee
Andy Ferris said he found the course
informative, particularly when it
came to the “man overboard” test.
So far, “we haven’t lost anyone yet,
although a few have fallen in at the
dock,” he jokes.

Yet there have been serious
mishaps involving crew boats in the
last few years. Idler’s report on crew
boat safety relates what happened
after a crew boat stuck a log in Howe
Sound: “By the time (the boat)
arrived at the float the passengers
were standing in-18 inches of water.
The boat sank at the dock. Fortu-
nately, no one was injured.” It also
tells of a Sealander barge which

capsized near Chamiss Bay, right-
ing itself after the equipment on
deck slid off. There were no injuries.

But in 1993 a logger, Shawn York,
drowned when he was caught in the
wheelhouse after a Sealander, a
type of landing craft, overturned
while crossing Skidegate Inlet in
the Queen Charlotte Islands. The
tragedy sparked I.W.A. CANADA to
demand and win the safety clause
on crew boats in the 1994 collective
agreement.

Menard said there have been crew
boats since there’s been industry on
the west coast. In the last several
years, their use has increased as
companies find that the vessels are
a viable alternative to maintaining
costly camps for logging crews. Crew
boats range in size from 60-person
carriers to those carrying less than
13. The larger vessels are already
regulated under Transport Canada.
“Our concern now is to get safety
regulations for the under five-ton
boats,” said Menard.

As the demand for crew boats
grew, companies began pressing all

ee

Ne Fant

s

e Disembarking from a crew boat is one of Powell Daniels Logging’s I.W.A. Local 2171 crews at Powell Lake.

kinds of craft into service. “On one
lake, there were using a herring
skiff with lawn chairs!” commented
Idler. Watt told of a company using
a canvas-topped boat fitted with a
tiny plastic viewing window so
fogged with age it was hard to see
through.

“There are all these boats trans-
ferring thousands of workers a day
and there are no regulations gov-
erning their operation,” commented
Idler. It is uncertain how many
members are affected. A 1995 esti-
mate placed the number between
1,000 and 1,500 loggers using crew
boats, with some 4,000 to 6,000 boat
trips per year.

The committee initially
approached the B.C. Workers Com-
pensation Board to govern crew boat
operations, but the agency said its
responsibility ended at the dock.
“We said, ‘If it isn’t their responsi-
bility, then whose the hell is it?”
Idler related.

Patterson, chair of I.W.A.
CANADA’S National Safety Coun-
cil, said the committee approached
the Coast Guard, “only to find out
that the (federal government) was
embroiled in a process we hadn't
known about.” A major manufac-
turer of power boats in B.C. objected
to proposed regulations for under-
five ton craft. “The feds rolled over,”
says Patterson. “They shelved their
regulations and they weren’t going
to talk about it any more.”

That’s when the committee
decided to create its own regula-
tions, and Idler and Salmon were
brought on board to research the
issue. It was clear to the researchers
that regulations were sorely needed.

“With Jimmy (Watt) and the WCB
rep, we went through the list of reg-
ulations for standard power boat
training,” relates Idler. “No where
in that course was there anything
about things like rocks and tides.

“We created our own standard,
but at all times we included the
Coast Guard and the WCB in our
discussions.”

Many students weren't aware of
nautical terms, or how or when to
broadcast a mayday (distress) sig-
nal, says Watt. Watt teaches chart
reading, and the use of VHF radio
and radar, still unfamiliar to many.
boat operators. He noted that dur-
ing the training around Quadra
Island, his students “were afraid of
night radar. After they learned how
to use it, they lost their fear of the

Continued on page twenty

LUMBERWORKER/APRIL, 2000/9