– Photo: Simon Boxall
Down Under Submarines was involved in a collision, days after the Compass reported on a previous incident involving the company.
In this latest incident on 7 Jan., its submarine came up underneath and struck a 110-foot-long liveaboard dive boat, the Cayman Aggressor IV. The 64-foot-long, 65-ton submarine was diving on the Doc Poulson dive site, where the liveaboard yacht was already tied up to the mooring ball.
Fifteen minutes into the dive, the submarine, which was carrying five passengers, made an uncontrolled ascent that resulted in a collision with the yacht.
No one was hurt in the incident.
Andrey Alexeenko, manager of Down Under Submarines, who was also piloting the submersible at the time, said the collision occurred because of a miscommunication with their surface support vessel. “There was a delay in information from the surface support vessel; they should have communicated the position of the Aggressor dive boat to me well in advance; before I began to ascend over a ridge of coral.”
According to Alexeenko, buoyancy was also a factor in the collision, “The submarine usually requires at least 12 passengers on board to meet the necessary weight requirements, and because there were only five passengers on the submarine, we compensated for the lack of weight by adding sandbags.
“The submarine operates better when it is heavier, and due to momentum, in this situation, it was not possible to slow the rate of ascent before we made contact with the hull of the dive boat,” he said.
After the collision, Alexeenko sent a member of his team into the water to check the condition of the submarine, and to look for any signs of damage to the hull of the yacht. The diver confirmed that the main cabin of the submarine was not impacted, however the collision resulted in some minor scratches to the fiberglass exterior of the sub. Alexeenko stressed that the safety and integrity of the submarine was not affected.
He said the diver also confirmed there was no visible signs of damage to rudder, propellors or the underside of the steel hull of the Cayman Aggressor IV liveaboard.
Larry Speaker, vice president operations at the Aggressor dive company, said he was unable to comment about the incident, “Any statement would have to come from the owner of the yacht,” he said. Compass has not yet heard back from the owner.
A check of the Marine Traffic website, which shows the movement of vessels, showed that on 7 January the Aggressor IV yacht was no longer operating on the west side of Grand Cayman and had moved around to the north side of the island; so, it would appear that it is operating normally.
The day after the collision, Alexeenko had a meeting about the incident with Saagar Kadiyala, the Principal Surveyor at the Cayman Islands Shipping Registry.
The Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands later provided a statement to Compass Media, saying the Authority, “has been made aware of recent incidents involving a submersible in Cayman Islands water. These matters are currently being investigated, and no further comment can be provided at this time.”
After the meeting with the representatives of the Maritime Authority, Alexeenko told the Compass, “We will now be looking for a suitable site south of Jackson Point on the west side of Grand Cayman, in an area that doesn’t currently have a mooring ball, and which is not regularly used by other local watersports operators.”
He added, “I have also apologised to the Captain of the Cayman Aggressor for the unfortunate incident.”