NTSB: One Check Valve May Not Be Enough to Keep Your Vessel Afloat

An open overboard shutoff valve and a failed check valve led to the sinking of a laid-up towboat at a yard in New Orleans last year, the NTSB has concluded. 

At about 0600 in the morning on June 25, 2023, an employee found the towboat Joanne Marie listing heavily and partially flooded at the Bollinger Quick Repair Shipyard outside New Orleans. The ship was in layup at the time, without power or crew, and no one was injured in the partial sinking.   

The Joanne Marie was an occasional-use vessel for the operator...