Lessons to learn from love lost at sea

It doesn't matter to Chontelle Delacroix that her partner, Greg Thirkettle, was at sea in an unstable boat, underqualified and probably high on cannabis - it won't bring him back.
Mr Thirkettle, 25, and his cousin, Mark Scott, 24, died after the 18-metre tuna boat the Iron Maiden sank in heavy weather off North Cape last August 16. A Maritime Safety Authority report into the sinking notes:
* Mr Thirkettle was qualified to skipper only boats up to 15m.
* He had smoked cannabis before he died.
* The Iron Maiden was underweight and unstable.
* The voyage had been poorly planned.
* The boat's life raft was poorly positioned.
The report criticises the boat's owner, Andrew McMillan, for not checking his skipper's qualifications and for not ensuring the boat was safer. Whangarei firm Nortel (1998) was criticised for issuing Iron Maiden a temporary Safe Ship Management Certificate - similar to a car's Warrant of Fitness - without inspecting it. The boat was later checked and issued with a full certificate.
Both parties will be censured by the Director-General of Maritime Safety, but Ms Delacroix wants no further action taken. "I don't blame the owner. There were many things that went wrong but (the owner) could have done things a lot better," she said. "He was responsible for these boys and he could have done things better, as the report says. There are valuable lessons to be learned from this."
She said fishing boats needed to be better maintained and Safe Ship Management (inspectors) needed to give boats far greater scrutiny before clearing them, she said.
"But there's no need to pursue anybody for it. We just have to make sure it doesn't happen again so that no other little fellow has to go through (what Greg jr) will have to go through. Pursuing people through the courts won't bring Greg or Mark back."
Ms Delacroix said she would tell Greg jr what had happened to his dad ... "and that his dad was a great man". She would not comment on the finding Mr Thirkettle smoked cannabis on the voyage.
The report found the Iron Maiden sank because of damage to, or destruction of, a hatch cover on deck that let in water. The boat's stability, marginal when it left Mangonui, would have eroded as it used fuel and became lighter.
The Iron Maiden was not supposed to go to sea with less than 10 tonnes deadweight on board, but she was estimated to have had only seven tonnes when she left Mangonui, the report said, adding that rough seas, an unstable vessel and lack of preparation contributed to the deaths.
The report said the crew did not have time to familiarise themselves with the vessel before making the trip. It also questioned the boat's stability in conditions of gale-force winds and four-metre swells, and the skipper's decision not to seek shelter in rough seas.
The vessel's life-raft was on the wheelhouse, making it difficult to get to in an emergency, the report said.
The investigation found Mr Thirkettle had cannabis in his blood - he had smoked cannabis one to seven hours before his death - but it could not say what level of intoxication or impairment, if any, it had led to.
Mr Thirkettle's body was found the day after the sinking but the body of Mr Scott, of Helensville, and the Iron Maiden have never been found.
* Rebukes loom over sinking
The owner of a fishing boat that sank off Northland is to be censured after the unstable vessel took to sea in a gale with an underqualified captain possibly high on cannabis.
As well, a Whangarei firm that cleared the boat for sea is to be censured for giving it an interim Safe Ship Management Certificate - a boat's warrant of fitness - before actually inspecting the vessel.
The report recommended that the Director General of Maritime Safety censure the boat's owner Andrew McMillan for failings under maritime rules - in particular for not taking a proactive role in the Ship Safe Management of the vessel and for failing to check the skipper Greg Thirkettle's qualifications or taking any steps to ensure he was properly qualified for the voyage.
Mr McMillan did not return calls from The Northern Advocate for comment on the MSA findings and censure.
The report further recommended that the director-general censure Whangarei firm Nortel (1998) for minor failings under the rules, in particular for issuing an interim Ship Safe Management Certificate on April 28, 2004, for the Iron Maiden when it had not inspected the boat.
Nortel (1998) later issued a full SSM certificate after an inspection on July 30, 2004, before its last voyage.
Nortel (1998) managing director Steve Mabbett said the company did fulfil all of the aspects of the SSM system before the ship left on its last fateful voyage and had given the owner one month to fix some minor problems.
An MSA spokesman said the censures were the lowest level of actions it could take.
If the breaches were considered serious, more serious action would likely have been taken against both parties.
What form the censure will take has yet to be determined.
The MSA report said emergency services had been alerted to the plight of the men soon after 7pm on August 16, 2004, when the coastguard received a distress call from the Iron Maiden saying, "Mayday ... we're taking on water so fast."
MSA director Russell Kilvington said the tragedy showed how dangerous the maritime environment could be.
"It also underlines how important it is for operators, owners and the sector as a whole to do everything possible to lessen the risks and for the MSA to support them to do this," he said.
Mr Kilvington said the authority would ensure the report's lessons were used to try to prevent the same thing happening again.