Tasman Sea Rescue

[bobsadler]

Air Force to search for yacht - national | Stuff.co.nz

[dana-tenacity]

More here:

Crew.org.nz • View topic - Mayday

[Dale]

Originally Posted by dana-tenacity

More here:

Crew.org.nz • View topic - Mayday

I like this quote from the thread:

Slacko wrote:
Maybe there is a market for an EPIRB with 2 switches.
One for come get us we are sinking/fire/someone needs hospital.
The other one for ooh we are scared and need a helicoptor to drop off some hot chocolate, VB etc.
The second one is user pays at the discretion of the owner of the helicopter.

Rigger Wrote:
Not a bad idea, EPIRB versions of Mayday and PanPan,
then again.... mandatory updating of EPIRBs to comply with dual messages - additional costs to boaties,

and perhaps a third choice - pirate attack....

[bobsadler]

update: Yacht crew airlifted to safety - national | Stuff.co.nz

[MarkJ]

By 12.30pm today the yacht had made it to within 150 nautical miles (278km), but the crew reactivated the beacon telling rescuers they were concerned about their damaged communications gear and dwindling fuel supplies.

they must be joking. Leaving a yacht for the sake of 150 miles.

Wish we were in NZ we would beat them to the salvage.

[GordMay]

“... An emergency services helicopter took fuel to the boat but the crewmembers decided to abandon ship and were winched to safety about 5pm. They are now safe in Whangarei...”

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/storie...1/1245aa6b2503

[Dockhead]

"The first emergency beacon was activated on Monday afternoon, and an Air Force Orion established contact with the two men and one woman on board. It learned that the vessel's sail had been damaged
The crew had been told to continue heading for New Zealand, as the weather was moderate and they were believed to have enough fuel."

Abandon ship? In moderate weather? With fuel brought by helicopter? Because of a damaged sail and "damaged communications gear"? 150 miles offshore? Hmmmm. I wonder if their insurance will pay in such a case, and what it does to everyone's insurance rates.

Exhaustion of course will do funny things to your mind, but abandoning ship . . .

[dana-tenacity]

From Crew.org.nz


Turns out the female on the boat works at my comapny and a guy that sits fairly close to me has talked to her this morning. All of this information is 2nd hand from a non-boatie so applogies if it's not quite correct or there's some wires crossed.

They'd been in heavy weather for about 11 days and were pretty knackered. Her and her husband had just bought the boat in QLD and were both experiened sailors. The third guy was a novice and was pretty much incapacitated by the conditions. She's apparently pretty slight, so it was really only her husband that had been doing the heavy work to keep the boat going.

Her husband had been with the boat 10 days prior to departure and they'd done a pretty comprehensive check and preperation before departure. There were people in NZ who had plans of the intended passage etc who've been working with CG etc over the last few days to help locate and assist them. Seems like they'd done all the right things before setting off.

In terms of sails, the heavy weather had broken/jammed all halyards and they weren't able to get them fixed without someone free climbing the mast. Given the condiitions they weren't keen to risk serious injury.

Plenty of deisel on board for the trip in two tanks. First one used up and ready to switch to the 2nd when they discovered it had been contaminated. Orion offered to drop down 44 gallion drums of fuel to them, but they didn't feel they had the manpower to get them on board safely.

Tough call to make but they decided to play it safe and get off the boat with weather going to deteriorate over the next few days.

[Eleven]

That reminds me, I'd planned to add a connection to allow recircing fuel through a filter and water remover by electric/hand pump (not the engine) so I can monitor the fuel I've just loaded and remove sediment/water from the tank occasionally.
Simple, obvious, and i still haven't done it!
Anyone else?