Hi Guys Flashman here again,
yes I was the engineer on board at the time. A wave dumped into the cockpit of Lady Anna filling it up, the engine room door entrance which was in the cockpit had 3 ft of water against it and impossible to open, the emergency entrance/exit to the engine room had a cupboard built over it, not accessible, looking through the porthole the engine room was now in 4 ft of water from the common bilge set up. genny still going, the pumps could have easily handled the water but there was no pipe work connected to them!! Instead there was this little $20 plastic bilge pump that was not good for much. All waterproof bulk heads had 5” holes in them where pipes should have been and sealed. Hovnanian had his housing workers finish off the boat, consequently the plumbing was not good enough.
if the bilge pumps were connected and the bulkheads were watertight she would not have sunk, it would have been salvageable at worst. Personally I think Hov was out of his league and did not realise how much these larger boats cost to build and maintain and paid the price.
but here is the twist, the boat had been inspected and passed by Americans Bureau of Shipping Standards, the equivalent to Loyds of London, the ultimate insurers. There were so many things wrong with this boat it was unseaworthy yet ABSS had passed it, so now a year after the sinking and court cases and such, the blame starts heading in my direction, so I pointed out flaws and where they were in the boat making it unseaworthy, a remote controlled camera is sent down, my points are verified, sooo how did it get insured?? Suddenly everything went quiet, Hov got paid out, about half of what he paid, crew lost stuff but were not compensated, although Hov gave me a grand, I was the only guy that got along with him.
Another thing, the epirb was alarmed, the US coast guard did not respond initially, the press somehow got the distress signal, looking on the crews list they noticed an Australian was on board and thought this may be newsworthy and rang my parents in Australia to say their son was lost at sea, then rang my wife in Jersey City and said the same thing and then the press contacted the Canadian coast guard who later contacted the UScoast guard. A C130 spotted us the next day, sent out an army helicopter but had to return because it did not have enough fuel. 2 helicopters later I was rescued, but the trip back to land sent me into deep hyperthermia and permanent ear damage.
Lady Anna was truly a magnificent looking craft, inside and out, but lying in my bunk at the bow, boat doing 25 knots sleep was impossible. Hitting a partially submerged object would’ve made my life unpleasant.