A report on the sea tragedy that took the lives of two fishermen and saw another rescued after more than 20 hours is set to be handed to Government with a raft of new recommendations for boating standards.

New requirements for life saving and communication equipment on boats could be introduced, along with annual inspections on the hulls and machinery of commercial boats.

Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown said yesterday that an inquiry into the January incident was complete and he expected the recommendations to be made public.

Fishermen Micah Battersbee, 29, and Alan Edness, 56, are believed to have gone down with the fishing vessel New Nuts on January 7 after the boat was hit by a freak wave northeast of the Island.

However, skipper Bobby Lambe managed to make it out alive and was rescued after being spotted by the US Coast Guard some 20 hours later.

He was picked up by passing American naval ship the USNS Comfort, and was taken to Spain where he was dropped off the following week.

Since returning to the Island, Mr. Lambe has met with the Marine and Ports Authority to offer as much information about the incident as possible.

"There has been an inquiry and I expect a report on my desk within the next week or two," said Dr. Brown. "The emphasis on the report is of one lessons learned, rather than fault finding. We can look forward to some intensified efforts in marine education and on general public education about marine conditions.

"There will be recommendations from the inquiry, and I will make those available to the media as soon as I get them."

Dr. Brown said he anticipated no punitive action to come out of the inquiry, but hoped the recommendations would better protect people out in boats in the future.

Director of Marine and Ports Barry Coupland said he de-briefed Mr. Lambe after the tragedy and believed strongly that new, improved standards should be in place in future for people who own boats.

He said: "What we are aiming to do is to achieve prevention and the way to do that is through education. That would take the form of prescriptive lists which are boat specific, such as lists of life saving and communication equipment required for boats, depending on their size.

"I'm not dreaming here; these concepts are not new. They are in place in other countries. We are not going to stop ships getting into distress, but we can better educate people about the risks and what they should have on board their boats."

As part of the new recommendations, Mr. Coupland said it had been suggested that from now on boats have their hulls and machinery inspected every year before being licensed.

Again, he said that was typical in many jurisdictions. Mr. Coupland said the New Nuts was lacking in some of the equipment he believed it should have had, but, he said under the present regulations on the Island, it was not required.