Boats and crew in Bermuda will be required to meet tougher safety standards, an inquiry into the sinking of the fishing vessel New Nuts has recommended.

The report did not ascribe blame to skipper Robert (Bobby) Lambe for the sinking which claimed the lives of two of his friends, but Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown said yesterday the Island's maritime safety standards were below international levels.

“By international standards, I would say that we were lacking, and this effort is to improve... to do something better and hopefully get a better result,” he said.

Boats and crew will need to meet a nine point “fitness for purpose” criteria which includes prescribed safety and communications equipment, annual inspections of hulls and machinery, complete surveys of every vessel every four years, and competence based qualifications for the master and crew. Mariners will also be educated about the limitations of their vessels in poor weather conditions.

Marine and Ports director Barry Coupland said boats currently have to meet a checklist for equipment when given licences by the Department of Environment, but there is no mechanism to enforce the rules.

“Fishing boats submit to licence criteria and there are safety equipment lists, but there is no mechanism to enforce the compliance,” he said.

Dr. Brown said if all nine recommendations from the inquiry had been in place on the New Nuts, it may have made a difference, but it would never be known. Mr. Coupland carried out the inquiry into the sinking of the New Nuts, which went down 90 miles north-east of Bermuda on January 7 when it was hit by a freak wave while on a salvage operation to find the yacht Altair.

Mr. Lambe, 34, survived in the water for more than 20 hours before being rescued by the US Navy hospital Ship Comfort, but fellow crewmen Alan Edness, 56, and Micah Battersbee, 29, were not seen again and are presumed dead. A small craft warning was in place the day before the sinking and a gale warning issued on the day of the tragedy, with winds of 25-35 knots and 12-16 foot seas, the report found.

The report recommends all commercial boats will be forced to comply with the regulations, but non-commercial craft which follow the rules might be entitled to a non-specified “benefit status”. The Ministry of Transport and Department of Marine and Port Services is to embark on an education blitz to ensure mariners are aware of the new requirements. Government plans to consult the maritime community about the proposals and Cabinet has still to rubber stamp them.

When asked yesterday if he thought the New Nuts' sinking could have been averted if the recommendations had been in place, Dr. Brown said: “We don't know. It's possible they might have made a difference but we need to move away from the exercise of trying to associate blame at this time.

“The tragedy has occurred, the experience has been had by the families and it would be not constructive to engage in what might have happened with New Nuts. Just as we modernise and amend legislation in the area of motor vehicles, we are now (paying) the same attention to modernise the environment of our sea as an effort, undoubtedly spurred on by the tragedy, of trying to improve and modernise and hopefully reduce the number of tragedies that occur.

“Fairly good is not good enough. Excellence is our goal.”

Mr. Coupland said the inquiry found no evidence the New Nuts was unseaworthy. Referring to the new licensing conditions recommended in the report, Mr. Coupland said: “It would be a term of their licence that they had to comply with the main safety standards based on international experience.

“It is not a wish list that we've dreamed up. It has been formulated over years, probably over a century, and we seek nothing here that has not been undertaken in other jurisdictions to educate seafarers. (This will look at) what limitations vessels are reasonably able to stand or withstand. At the moment there is lots of experience and we seek to educate people so that that they recognise the limitations of the vessel before they attempt to go to an area that's been rated above the limit.”

When asked if the inquiry attached any blame to Mr. Lambe, who was debriefed by Marine and Ports as part of the investigation, Dr. Brown said: “As far as we are concerned, we have no reason other than to ask Mr. Lambe to assist us in establishing a safer marine environment.”