A superyacht chief engineer was electrocuted when he came into contact with a live electrical circuit while repairing a failed ventilation damper.
Roy Temme was 47 years old and was employed by Burgess Crew Services, a subsidiary of Burgess, on the Isle of Man registered motor yacht Baton Rouge.
The accident happened in February 2024 while the chief engineer was working on the vessel’s engine room ventilation system.
He was replacing a damper actuator, which was situated in a ventilation overpressure duct compartment.
When the alarm was raised, crew carried out CPR and tried to resuscitate Mr Temme’s heart but were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead later that morning.
An investigation by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) found that the chief engineer began the actuator replacement without isolating the electric supply and without a permit to work for electrical maintenance in place.
Limitations
The report found this was likely because he had rationalised the risk and wanted to avoid the limitations of restricting the vessel to emergency power.
“Isolating the damper actuator circuit involved shutting down the main generators and running on emergency power until the job was completed,” stated the report.
“This meant that hotel services and air conditioning systems could not operate while the repair was in progress.
“The desire to avoid shutting down the hotel services and ventilation, and that the voltage was only 230VAC, the same as UK domestic voltage, possibly led the C/E to rationalise the job as being low risk.”
Enclosed space
The accident report also states that the location of the overpressure duct compartment and the means of access to it met the definition of an enclosed space in industry guidance. However, the definition in the yacht’s onboard safety management system was not aligned to this and instead focused on toxic atmospheres.
As a result, the crew did not consider the overpressure duct compartment to be an enclosed space and did not follow enclosed space working and entry procedures.
Since the accident, the MAIB reports that the yacht’s manager, Nigel Burgess Limited, has updated its permit to work guidance for electrical systems.
The company has also revised the enclosed space definition in the safety management systems of vessels under its management and issued fleet guidance on the changes to the enclosed space definition, permits to work and the need for on board risk controls, training and drills.
