Safety, Safety, Safety....

This happend a few days ago at our marina in Thailand. VERY, VERY SAD...



Unconfirmed reports suggest that a crewmember knocked the throttles of the yacht while putting a cover on the controls, causing the yacht to surge forward and snapping the bow mooring line, which in turn hit dockside spectators.

It is believed the yacht in question was the 50m Hakvoort MY JeMaSa, which was launched in 2006.



Here is the News Story as reported in the Australian.



A DARWIN teenager has lost her fight for life after a freak boating accident in Thailand.

The life-support system keeping 16-year-old Ali van Os alive was turned off last night, five days after she received massive head injuries when she was struck in the head by a snapped mooring line.

Ali, the daughter of author Joanne van Os and prominent Darwin barrister Lex Silvester, was in the north of Phuket island as part of a round-the-world sailing trip when the accident happened.

Passionate about yachts and the sea, Ali was at the Yacht Haven Marina, admiring a 50m super-yacht, when it is believed someone knocked the boat's throttles.

The boat surged forward, snapping a hawser and causing a 10cm-wide kevlar-composite rope to strike her across the face and head, throwing her into the air and on to the jetty.

Van Os and Mr Silvester rushed to their daughter's aid, joined by medical staff from other yachts at the jetty. They tried to control the heavy bleeding and to keep Ali breathing, before an ambulance arrived at the remote jetty about half an hour later.

Ali was taken to an emergency clinic at Thalang before being transferred to Bangkok Phuket Hospital.

Her mother, whose 2005 memoir Outback Heart told of her marriage to Rod Ansell, the man who inspired the character Crocodile Dundee, said she took solace in the thought her daughter's final moments were spent around the sea.

"We take some comfort -- a lot of comfort -- that she was doing something she loved and did the best at that moment, talking to someone and getting an invite on board a boat, making the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends ... something we all know Ali did better than anyone," she said.

Van Os said the US company that owned the superyacht had been supportive and a full inquiry was under way.

Friends of the gregarious teenager gathered for a farewell ceremony in Darwin last night. Her life support was turned off at 7.30pm (AEDT).