Washington came to two main conclusions: firstly, that the open-hulled design of the fishing boats was deficient, leading to their susceptibility to swamping in heavy seas, and was a significant factor in the tragedy; secondly, that there was a shortage of good quality harbours accessible to fishing vessels in all tidal conditions.
Washington arrived at two main findings: firstly, that the open-hulled design of the fishing boats was defective, leading to their vulnerability to capsizing in stormy seas and being a key factor in the incident; secondly, that there were insufficient good-quality harbours available for fishing vessels regardless of tidal conditions.