Brief intro about case study

SV Sean Seamour 11 is an interesting and complicated case. This is the first in series of
very serious and important reports on one of the mysteries that havent discussed about the
sinking of the SV Sean Seamour 11 and the harrowing rescue of its crew. The potential
malfunction of one of the EPIRB that was activated after the sailboat was struck and sunk by a
very powerful wave during Subtropical Storm Andrea. First of all EPIRB stands for Emergency
Position Indicating Radio Beacon. An EPIRB is meant to help rescuers locate you in an
emergency situation, and these radios have saved many lives since their creation in the 1970s.
Boaters are the main users of EPIRBs.
It seems that the boats main EPIRB, a 4.5 year old ACR, only worked for a while and
that it either sent out the wrong ID (according to Robin in a Messing with ships podcast) or the
database registration was somehow messed up possibly by the boat owner. An 11 years old
backup ACR worked for 10 hours and led to a dramatic rescue. In doing the case study and
deciding to write about the issue, let us very clear. It is not our intention to single out any one
manufacturer of EPIRBs, since there has been many problems and concerns with a host of
EPIRBs throughout their development and deployment. But this SV Sean Seamour has some
very critical ramifications and lessons for all the mariners and seafarers who use any type of
EPIRB.

Lesson learned from SV Sean Seamour 11

There is two fault that can be clearly seen in the SV Sean Seamour 11. The first fault is
relating to the registration of the EPIRB, this was done by the UK Company and the second fault
is manufacturer accredited service station who pronounced the unit valid.
First and foremost the registration of EPIRB. Proper registration of 406 MHz satellite
emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) is intended to save mariners life, and is
mandated by Federal Communications Commission regulations. The Coast Guard is enforcing
this FCC registration rule. The life may be saved as a result of registered emergency information.
This information can be very helpful in confirming that a distress situation exists, and in
arranging appropriate rescue efforts. Also, GOES, a geostationary National Oceanic &
Atmospheric Administration weather satellite system can pick up and relay an EPIRB distress
alert to the Coast Guard well before the international COSPAS-SARSAT satellite can provide
location information. If the EPIRB is properly registered, the Coast Guard will be able to use the
registration information to immediately begin action on the case. If the EPIRB is unregistered, a
distress alert may take as much as two hours longer to reach the Coast Guard over the
international satellite system. If an unregistered EPIRB transmission is abbreviated for any
reason, the satellite will be unable to determine the EPIRB's location, and the Coast Guard will
be unable to respond to the distress alert. Unregistered EPIRBs have needlessly cost the lives of

several mariners since the satellite system became operational. As we can see the Master of the
SV Sean Seamour II painstakingly pre-planned for his voyage but to his luck his redundancy of
equipment paid off and save both his and his crews lives. This is important to establish that the
Master of the SV Sean Seamour II did everything he should have done to ensure the safety of not
just his vessel but his crew as well.
Last but not least lets review some of the reported facts in this case and make note of,
"Re-certification of life raft and check of EPIRB (good to November 2007)." The ACR
Globalfix"406EPIRB in question was re-certified as being in compliance and in good working
order by a certified outside vendor. The ACR Globalfix" 406 EPIRB in question was purchased
in October of 2002 and the UK vendor registered it with NOAA and supplied it to the SV Sean
Seamour II at the time still in the Mediterranean. This EPIRB was always kept in its cradle
affixed to the inside of the companionway whenever the boat was in use. Prior to leaving for the
May crossing back to Europe the SV Sean Seamour II had a shipyard send the EPIRB with the
life raft for re-certification, the accredited service center informed the Master through the yard
that the unit was fully operational and certified until next November. The EPIRB started to
function normally when initiated at about 02:45hours on the 7th, between the knockdown of the
SV Sean Seamour II, its crew and the EPIRB, it was put back in its cradle for safekeeping and
accessibility should the need to abandon ship occur, less than 30 minutes later it reportedly
ceased functioning. The Coast Guard received the signal initially, but the hexadecimal code it
received was that of another vessel in Alabama. The USCG never received a distress signal from
the s/v Sean Seamour II as there appears to have been no Sean Seamour II vessel registered in
their database. Once the USCG ascertained that the ID code received was that of a non-initiated
EPIRB, under the principle that every EPIRB has a unique hexadecimal code plus the
interruption of the signal, further search on this distress signal was abandoned. Had the Master of
the SV Sean Seamour II not kept an 11 year old EPIRB (another ACR 406 with its original
battery that functioned over ten hours) from one of his prior vessels the crew would be yet
another set of lost at sea statistics and all of the above would not be known. How this happened
is now under investigation by the USCG and the Master of the Sean Seamour II. But the
ramifications of such a failure do impact the entire maritime community. Hence the manufacturer
of the EPIRB should be alert and follow all the authority to certify the device is valid and safe to
use. Not only the EPIRB but also all the electronic devices that used in vessel because a small
failure might affect the life of the all crew on board the ship.

Reference
http://robinstorm.blogspot.com/2007/07/webexclusive-epirbs-and-sv-sean-seamour_27.html
http://www.soundingsonline.com/features/profiles/191-deaths-door
http://www.panbo.com/archives/2008/05/epirb_failures_wheres_the_meat.html