Tag Archives: Judge Tony Couch
A skipper named ‘Crazy Horse’, a ‘dicky’ autopilot and a sailing trip that foundered on a beach
After hours of sailing a 14m fishing vessel on “an extremely erratic” course up the coast towards Christchurch, doubling back and then turning around again to head in the same direction closer to the shore, skipper David “Crazy Horse” Atkinson was lost. It was 9pm, he was not sure where he was, and he only had rudimentary knowledge of how to use the boat’s navigational equipment. His crew aboard the trawler, the F/V Debbie Jane, consisted of a 41-year-old woman and a 73-year-old retired school teacher who was living with him – neither of whom had any commercial fishing experience. >click to read< 08:03
Trawler skipper who got lost off Christchurch admits safety breaches
Shortly before a trawler skipper lost his bearings in gathering darkness off the Christchurch coast, one of his crew had rolled him a cannabis joint. Maritime New Zealand’s summary of facts does not say whether the skipper, 67-year-old David Anderson, actually smoked the joint, but the trawler ran aground on Waimairi Beach a few hours later. The F/V Debbie Jane’s disastrous trip from Akaroa to Nelson in December 2019 was detailed in the Christchurch District Court, when Anderson admitted two charges. >click to read< 07:48
New Zealand: Reparation sought for family of man who died on Sanford factory trawler
New Plymouth man Steffan Antony Stewart, 26, was discovered fatally injured on the factory deck of the San Granit on November 14, 2018, after becoming trapped in a piece of machinery aboard the New Zealand-registered deep-sea factory trawler. The deckhand immediately raised the alarm, but after Stewart was removed from the accumulator the ship’s medic found no signs of life. The 67-metre vessel, which had been trawling 102 kilometres east of Banks Peninsula, immediately returned to Timaru’s port, arriving about 4pm that day. Representatives of Maritime New Zealand and Sanford appeared before Judge Tony Couch in the Timaru District Court on Thursday. >click to read< 09:25
