The Belgian beam trawler Rubens Z67 (seen here in Newlyn a few years ago) forced a Cornish trawler to run off the warps of her trawls in order to save both boats becoming entangled by their respective gear. This was potentially life threatening as the larger and much more powerful Belgian boat towed her heavy beam trawls directly over the trawl bridles and net of the smaller vessel. Under such circumstances such a small trawler has no choice other than to run off the warps so that the boat does not capsize. Videoing the incident might help in any legal action but almost impossible under the circumstances with a small crew focussed wholly on preserving the boat and their lives.
Some very poor seamanship this morning .
Seems the watchkeeper of the Rubens has never seen a trawler .£4K damage ,but we are all safe .
— Brian Davey (@Trawler1x1) July 26, 2019
