More on 'Look out': Frantic!

I am still pondering PicoMicroYacht's tactic when sensing the possibility of an imminent collision (see the post, 'Look Out'). I decided to find YouTube videos of  small boat crashes. I select three to show here, both caused by the person on the helm 'not seeing' the boat they crashed into

In the first, people are fishing and we see their dawning realisation that a boat was to crash, which happened just 40 seconds later. Initially they shouted and almost immediately they moved to the opposite side of the boat from the perceived crash, probably the only effective thing they could have done.  They were nine miles out to sea. 

The second one happens very fast. Again it is people fishing, who immediately start shouting, and one person stands up on the stern and waves. The camera shows they cannot see the helm of the approaching boat, so the helm could not see them.  They are stern on. The only escape from possible death and certain serious injury was to jump into the water, which they did, taking three seconds. They landed in the frigid water of the Columbia River with no life jackets on and all were injured.

The back story is provided in the post.

Clatsop County sheriff’s deputies accused boat driver Marlin Lee Larsen of several crimes after the 75-year-old told investigators he couldn’t see where he was driving because he was sitting down and the dash of his boat was blocking his view. Larsen said he probably should have been standing, according to the sheriff’s report, which notes Larsen uses a motorized scooter to get around on land. Larsen’s son-in-law, who also was on the boat, told investigators that he had warned his father-in-law to pay attention, that he sometimes sees his father-in-law using his cell phone while driving the boat and that his father-in-law had been off-and-on his cell phone the morning of the crash, according to the sheriff’s report. Although Oregon law heavily restricts cell phone use while driving, there are no such specific laws governing boating. But it is against the law to operate a boat without due care.

In this final one a fishing kayak only just managed to avoid being rammed by an smallish open motorboat (see from 7.00 minutes). The kayak fisher seemed relatively cool about what happened, and was then distracted by landing an enormous fish. I wonder if he fully realised he had avoided possible serious injury by two seconds, the time he took to take evasive action before the collision.

He was in  a group of  fishing kayaks - I speculate the motorboat driver was distracted by looking at another kayak.

I found it sobering to view these videos and they reminded me to improve the PicoMicroYacht lookout and also plan for various scenarios.