Rescued Austrian Skipper Denies Voyage Was a Charter
Men on Board Were 'Friends of Mine,' Hackspiel Says
Update at 12:57 p.m. Friday, January 3: After the story was published, Thomas Hackspiel clarified details about the other people on board. This version of the story reflects that information.
The Austrian sailor who abandoned a Beneteau sailboat 150 miles off the Carolinas said the two other men hoisted into a Coast Guard helicopter with him were not paying passengers but bonafide friends.
According to Thomas Hackspiel, the two men were on Time Aut during its transit from Norfolk to Florida, a detour in an east-west circumnavigation that began in Europe. There were other guests while transiting U.S. waters, and they didn’t pay either, Hackspiel said.
According to AIS location service Vessel Finder, Hackspiel’s Oceanis 523 is an Austrian-flagged vessel. The Time Aut website devoted to the circumnavigation advertised single berths for $886 week or $1,565 for a cabin, prices similar to those advertised by the Maine Windjammer charter fleet, even though Hackspiel characterized those sums not as fees but expense sharing.
Todd Lochner, an admiralty attorney in Annapolis, said the distinction matters. He said that if the men were deemed to be paying passengers, then Time Aut’s American leg was likely unlawful. Lockner:
He arrived Norfolk on October 30; we know that. For sure he was there for 39 days before departing. The question is: Where did his voyage which ended in Norfolk begin?
You see why it's important, because he may have already been in violation if he went, for example, from Port Everglades to Norfolk and he had some one of these, you know, “friends and family” paying for their way.
That might be a violation of the U.S. Jones Act. He wouldn't have been able to have actually operated that at all as a foreign flag vessel with him at the helm. That's a time charter that would have been illegal.
The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, commonly referred to as the Jones Act, regulates commerce between U.S. ports.
According to Vessel Finder, Time Aut went to sea on December 8. The abandon-ship and rescue happened on December 12. Here’s how the Time Aut website pitches the applicable section of its itinerary:
We will sail along the scenically very beautiful U.S. East Coast, starting with Florida and using the ICW Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway and various bays such as Cheasepeake Bay to New York/Maine/Halifax, possibly also to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. In November/December we will be back in the Caribbean to prepare for the passage through the Panama Canal towards the Pacific.
Reached earlier this week, Hackspiel denied his guys during the rescue were paying customers. “There was no paying crew on board of Time AUT,” he said, responding to an email. “The two young Americans that were on board are friends of mine. One of them already crossed the Atlantic with me.”
Earlier, on his way northward from Florida to Norfolk, Hackspiel said different people were on board—an American couple trying out the cruising lifestyle. “They wanted to experience sailing, as they thought about buying a boat and living for some time on the boat. Also, these two didn’t pay for that trip,” Hackspiel said in an email today.
As far as the torturous southbound leg that ended in rescue: If the men had been paying Hackspiel, that might have violated Austrian law, depending on how that nation addresses the topic of chartering, Lochner said. For reasons having to do with the fact that it is a landlocked nations, Austria only flags recreational craft.
“And if there were something in the Austrian code which required him to be inspected, then theoretically STCW may have applied—standards for training and watchkeeping,” Lochner said. The international Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers sets a seriously high bar in terms of training and actual service at sea.
What About the Forecast?
For the original story, Loose Cannon was not able to reach Hackspiel to ask why he decided to set out from Norfolk, Virginia, despite a forecast calling for really crappy weather. Asked that question earlier this week, Hackspiel gave an answer suggesting he had not seen or not understood the forecast issued the day before his departure.
“The storm warning of the U.S. Coast Guard came in on December 10th. At that time we have all ready been far out of Cape Hatteras,” Hackspiel wrote. Generally, a forecast predicts future conditions, while storm warning indicates that severe weather is imminent or already happening.
“I’d been in contact with the U.S. Coast Guard from the moment they issued the Storm Warning and was settled to a schedule of three hours to report about the situation on board and weather conditions,” Hackspiel said. “Everything was discussed with the Coast Guard, including the rescue operation.”
At this point, the question of whether Time Aut’s transits were “time charters” must be considered academic. However, according to Lochner, it could have been a different story had either of the two men been injured and asked a federal court to award damages for liability.
Austria, as a landlocked country, does not maintain a shipping administration for inspections, trainings etc. This is why Austria flags only small recreational vessels. Austria does not allow gainful charter under its flag. I don’t think that Austria considers honest cost-sharing as charter though.
I think you once stated Hackspiel was from the insurance industry. The irony is he now finds himself in a situation where because of potential policy violations he may not receive any settlement (assuming he had insurance)