Spirit of Sooke V

The Victoria Times Colonist reported "On February 7, 2019, the Spirit of Sooke, a rigid hull inflatable jet boat, departed Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Station 37 in Sooke at about 8 p.m. with a coxswain in charge and three crew members, two of whom were new — a woman with nine hours of training and a man with six. The trip to a fuelling depot in the Sooke basin, the body of water between Sooke and East Sooke, was an opportunity to train the new crew members in navigation and communications procedures, the report says. The vessel set out on its return trip at 9:15 p.m. with a crew member at the helm and the coxswain navigating. The two new crew members had been assigned to maintain lookout in the middle and rear of the vessel. As the vessel approached Christie Point, the coxswain monitored the radar display and instructed the one experienced crew member at the helm to make a course alteration. Seconds later, the coxswain “urgently” shouted the same course change when “almost immediately,” the Spirit of Sooke ran into shoreline rocks near Sooke. “The vessel launched into the air and hit the ground stern first before sliding along the shore for approximately 25 metres and coming to rest on its starboard side, resulting in the crew members being thrown around the cabin in a violent manner and causing serious injuries,” the TSB report says. The crew suffered head, neck and leg injuries, in part because they did not wear four-point harnesses and helmets on the vessel. The lookout was unable to see Christie Point because of darkness and absence of lit navigation devices. “Additionally, there was no experienced crew member available to actively monitor the vessel’s position and detect navigation error,” the report says. Once the crew realized the vessel was about to hit the shore, there was not enough time to avoid it, given the vessel’s high speed."