Team Vestas Wind getting some flak in Danish newspaper

Christian

Super Anarchist
Here is a news article from a danish newspaper.

In the piece there are several pretty harsh comments:

"the boat is promoted as a Danish boat - and a skipper on a boat like TVW must, according to Danish Law, have the highest Danish navigational formal education. Breaking this law means fines and/or jail time for the skipper and the responsible at Vestas - if the ship is Danish" Guess they skirted that one by the boat being registered in the Cayman Islands, which has a much more lax law governing ships and it's crew.

The piece continues to bash TWW for circumventing Danish and International law for seafaring vessels by having the boat registered in the Caymans - "the important issue is that the boat and its crew was put in a dangerous situation, which would have not been the case if Danish "Sea Law" had been followed"

"Wouter has carried the responsibility for what happened on his shoulders. He has admitted mistakes, but the bigger and wider responsibility lies with the Skipper, Chris Nicholson" (Cambell Field)

"Chris Nicholson has taken on a task that he is not educated to take on and that he clearly could not carry out. He is responsible for the crash and has due to his incompetence and lack of ability to make the right calls put the crew in mortal danger" (Skafte-Holm)

"Vestas emphasizes that the crew must live up to the ethical guidance of the company Code of Conduct. In this it says - Vestas employees must only take on tasks that he/she has been trained for.

Both Knut and the Vestas Marketing Head both go on to say that they do not consider CN to be incompetent - mostly based on his previous VOR experience

Harsh words from some of my fellow countrymen - BUT - there is some truth to it IHMO.

Eksperter: Vestas brød regler i forlist milliondyrt bådeventyrVestas Wind blev promoveret som en dansk båd i Volvo Ocean Race, sejlsportens Formel 1, selv om den kun skal overholde lovgivningen på Cayman Islands. Det møder hård kritik fra eksperter.



TROELS HENRIKSEN
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TOBIAS ROED JENSEN
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Da Vestas Wind i november 2014 forliste i Det Indiske Ocean i sejlsportens Formel 1, Volvo Ocean Race, skete det med en skipper, der ikke er uddannet navigatør.

Båden er blevet promoveret som dansk, og en skipper på en båd som Vestas Wind skal ifølge dansk lovgivning netop have Danmark højeste navigationsuddannelse. Et brud på loven giver bøde eller fængsel til skipperen, Chris Nicholson, samt de ansvarlige hos rederen, der ifølge søfartsstyrelsen i dette tilfælde er Vestas, hvis båden er dansk.

»Vi fik ikke zoomet nok ind på øen«

Dansk lov er bare ikke brudt. Vestas Winds spanske ejer under Volvo har registreret den på Cayman Islands, og dermed gælder ø-statens lempeligere lovgivning.

Flere eksperter anklager i forlængelse af valget med Chris Nicholson som skipper og registreringen på Cayman Islands Vestas og Nicholson for at bryde "den vigtigste" af De Internationale Søfartsregler.

"Det helt afgørende er, at jeg mener, at skibet og skibets besætning er blevet bragt i en faresituation, som de ikke havde været i, hvis man havde fulgt dansk lovgivning. Så havde man haft en bedre uddannet besætning om bord," siger Peter Ingham, dansk skibsingeniør, navigatør og uddanner af navigatører på egen søfartsskole.

»Vi er stødt på grund, og vi bliver presset op mod et koralrev«

Han suppleres af den new zealandske navigatør Campbell Field, som i forskellige roller har deltaget i fire udgaver af Volvo Ocean Race. Navigatøren på Vestas Wind, Wouter Verbraak, var den eneste, som blev fyret efter forliset, og Field mener, at han blev gjort til syndebuk.

"Wouter Verbraak har båret ansvaret på sine skuldre for, hvad der skete. Han har indrømmet fejl, men der er et bredere ansvar, og det ligger hos skipperen Chris Nicholson," siger Campbell Field.

Vestas understreger, at besætningen skal leve op til virksomhedens etiske retningslinjer ”Code of Conduct”. I den står, at Vestas-medarbejdere kun må påtage sig opgaver, »han/hun er trænet til.«

Vestas-kaptajn glæder sig over besætning i god behold

Det bider navigatør Philipp Skafte-Holm mærke i. Han har sejlet over 100.000 sømil og deltaget i fire Admiral Cups, der tidligere var sejlsportens uofficielle verdensmesterskab i havkapsejlads.

»Chris Nicholson har påtaget sig en opgave som han ikke er uddannet til og som han tydeligvis ikke kunne udføre. Han er ansvarlig for Vestas forlis og har på grund af sin inkompetence og manglende dømmekraft udsat besætningen for livsfare,« siger Skafte-Holm.

Volvo Ocean Race henviser til, at Chris Nicholson er en yderst erfaren sejler med blandt andet fire Volvo Ocean Races bag sig.

"Tror du, at skipperen på Vestas ikke lever op til et givent niveau? Hvis folk mener det, er det folk, som ikke ved, hvad de taler om. Skipperen på Volvo Ocean Race har fuldført fire Volvo Ocean Races. Han blev nummer to i det seneste som skipper for det mest respekterede hold i sejlads nemlig Team New Zealand. Hvis du mener, at han ville blive udvalgt som skipper for Team New Zealand uden at være en kvalificeret skipper, vil jeg gerne høre, hvem i Danmark, der mener, at en anden er bedre, og hvem de så peger på," siger organisationens adm. direktør Knut Frostad.

Vestas afviser også kritikken.

"Vi har igennem hele forløbet haft fuld til vores skipper Chris Nicholson," udtaler kommunikationsdirektør for Vestas Wind, Morten Kamp Jørgensen.


 

AndreasE

Member
246
8
another thing, if the boat is registerd in the Caymans, they are nor allowed to fly a Dansih flag of the transom..... probably applies to most boats in the fleet

A

 

richiec

Super Anarchist
1,321
50
Sydney
What a ridiculous article.

"Chris Nicholson has taken on a task that he is not educated to take on and that he clearly could not carry out. He is responsible for the crash and has due to his incompetence and lack of ability to make the right calls put the crew in mortal danger" (Skafte-Holm)

So every driver that has ever been in a car accident (pilot of a plane - insert other disaster scenario here) ... is incompetent and lacks an ability to make the right call.

 
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Rawhide

Super Anarchist
1,908
109
Pittwater
Unfortunately the world seems to be moving to a place where a piece of paper is the only proof that you are competent in anything, so we get people whose only knowledge is theoretical and have never actually done anything holding themselves out as experts.

 

MR.CLEAN

Moderator
That's an old quote, first made here or on CF's blog if i remember correctly. Not speaking Danish, I am asking if there is anything factually accurate in the article that isn't something someone else wrote months ago? Christian says 'some truth.' Which truth?

Which part is true?

Harsh words from some of my fellow countrymen - BUT - there is some truth to it IHMO.
What about this?

"Wouter has carried the responsibility for what happened on his shoulders. He has admitted mistakes, but the bigger and wider responsibility lies with the Skipper, Chris Nicholson" (Cambell Field)
 

terrymcd

New member
1
0
There are very few ships and cargo vessels that are registered in the country that they are associated with, most are registered under "flags of convenience" like Monrovia, the Cayman Islands or Bermuda so no surprise that Volvo boats are registered in the Caymans. I worked as a navigating officer for a large British oil company and at that time all but one of their fleet of 25 or so ships was registered under a foreign flag.

I would imagine that the guys that race these boats round the world are eminently more qualified to complete their task than any fully qualified ship captain. Paper doesn't make you competent. Shit, I was navigating a 300,000 ton oil tanker all over the globe for eight hours a day at 20 yrs old.

Bottom line, the guy screwed up. I'm going to read the book and as long as he owns his mistake then thats ok by me.

 

rgeek

Super Anarchist
2,722
135
There are very few ships and cargo vessels that are registered in the country that they are associated with, most are registered under "flags of convenience" like Monrovia, the Cayman Islands or Bermuda so no surprise that Volvo boats are registered in the Caymans. I worked as a navigating officer for a large British oil company and at that time all but one of their fleet of 25 or so ships was registered under a foreign flag.

I would imagine that the guys that race these boats round the world are eminently more qualified to complete their task than any fully qualified ship captain. Paper doesn't make you competent. Shit, I was navigating a 300,000 ton oil tanker all over the globe for eight hours a day at 20 yrs old.

Bottom line, the guy screwed up. I'm going to read the book and as long as he owns his mistake then thats ok by me.
That's too literal and argument I think. The general tone seems to be "It's got a Danish flag on it yet the behavior of the team and sponsor does not reflect Danish standards of behavior or our long standing maritime tradition", That would resonate with the Danes I know. They are pretty protective of their flag and national identity.

 
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