1984 I was running a fleet of tourist
boats in the Whitsunday Islands,
Great Barrier Reef,
Australia.
One night we get an
emergency call, a couple of
boats have turned over just outside the islands. I grabbed our biggest boat, a 30
knot 29 meter international cat, powered by a couple of 16V92 GM diesels, & a few make up crew, &
head out there. We were one of 5 boats going to help.
More information came in, it was 3 multi hulls part of a
race fleet heading for Cairns, & a couple of the fleet had stopped, picked up the crews, & were standing by. We picked up the crew from one, a 36 ft
trimaran which had
pitch polled suddenly. In about 20/25 knots it was running fast but comfortably under small
spinnaker & full main when it happened.
They directed us to the area where the boat was. We took it in tow upside down, & headed in to sheltered
water at about 2 knots. The
sails were still set, underwater of course. The area is inside the reef, so there were no ocean swells involved, & the sea was not particularly nasty. There are some shoals around & the flood tide against the
trade winds around a shoal can get nasty.
We did not meet the other crews, but gather both boats were cats, & one broached & rolled. We didn't get any story about the other.
There must have been something to cause 3 boats to capsise in the same area in a 600 mile
race. The try was righted the next day. The
spinnaker was shredded, but other damage was very light.
This was the only time we had to
rescue sailers. We were regularly called out to help find
outboard powered boats, & occasionally larger launches.