Today's Vancouver Sun has the following comment:

"a mechanical failure that shut down one of the two main engines on the
Queen of Oak Bay disabled the four clutches and caused the reverse thrust
propellers to stop"

So it seems it was an engine failure, cause still unknown. These ferries
have complete engine/rudder/steering systems at each end. You would think
if the engine currently used to go forward shut down you could put the other
engine in reverse and stop yourself. Why would ALL the clutches be
disabled?

As for anchoring, by the time you let out enough scope to stop a ferry this
size moving at 3 knots you would be on the beach. Also, I think dropping an
anchor would sacrifice steering control and may have made the situation
worse.

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
engsol wrote in
:

As bad as it was, the skipper did the right thing in my view. If he
had run into the ferry landing, a whole bunch of cars would have
mashed up to the front, possibly killing a few people....but maybe
not...the speed at impact hasn't been reported to my knowledge, which
should have pretty slow. Norm B



If the crew's labour union can convince the government it was the trouble
with the clutches the union engineers had reported before, heads might
roll
and cost the company big money....

--
Larry

You know you've had a rough night when you wake up and you're outlined in
chalk.