Depending on the usage too little power can be as dangerous as too much. Lot of skiff/small boat accidents come from people assuming they can make the same speed overloaded that they’ve made before and beat the weather or the weather slows them down and they’re not able to make shelter with an underpowered boat. Not really applicable to something getting used as a no dock space for the big boat take the skiff in situation. Speed can kill, but when you’re watching 50 knots whip down from the ship after returning safely in the skiff 20 minutes ago you realize it can save too.
It goes back to the same old story. The licensure/exam system is badly broken. The training classes mandated are useless. People die because they are too busy taking badly conceived and conducted training to learn good seamanship in the trade they are in.
As far as what happened to the skiff in the OP, that area has really shifting channels. The deck boss probably had run through that area at full speed before in a previous season/few weeks ago even and ran full bore onto a bar, flipped the skiff and that was that.
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