Three lifted to safety as yacht sinks

by Linda Smith on 6 Nov 2005 Three men were plucked from a life raft after abandoning their sinking cruising yacht in a dramatic rescue off Tasmania's East Coast yesterday.

Disaster struck the uninsured 50-foot schooner Tonga early yesterday morning, 20 miles off Cape Tourville, near Coles Bay, after an engine mount broke and tore a hole in the bottom of the boat.

Initially, the crew reported that pumps aboard the $30,000 ferro-cement yacht were handling the water intake and that they were not in any danger. But the vessel started to sink about 11am when the pumps could not keep up with the amount of water coming onboard.

The men were then forced to make a mayday call and abandon the sinking yacht, waiting in a life raft until the police helicopter arrived to winch them to safety. The men were unhurt, and after medical checks at Bicheno returned by helicopter to Hobart.

The sinking was a blow to Doug McIntyre, of Port Arthur, who bought the 40-tonne yacht in Sydney only three weeks ago.The three Hobart men were sailing the boat home for him.

Despite the yacht being uninsured, Mr McIntyre said he was just happy his friends -- whom he named only as Wally, John and Leonard -- were safe. `They're home, that's the main thing,’ he said. `They haven't been hurt. `The police did really well.’

He said until disaster struck the men had experienced `smooth sailing’ and he had been relaxing at home excitedly waiting for them to arrive when got a phone call to say they were having problems. `It was a bit of a shock,’ he said.

`They all have senior skippers' tickets and have 70 years of fishing experience between them.’

He said the men had left Flinders Island on Thursday after stopping to make some repairs to the starter motor and gearbox. But he said yesterday's problems had started after the engine mount broke, which then broke the shaft and tore a hole in the hull.``They had the situation under control for four or five hours and were doing a good job,’ he said. `But it eventually got too much for them. ``They were just unlucky. It just tore too big a hole in the bottom of the boat for the pumps to keep up.’

Police Search and Rescue Acting Sergeant Damian Bidgood said it was an unusual type of rescue but everything went well. It took police about 45 minutes to get to the men, about 20 minutes to winch them to safety and another 45 minutes to get them back to Hobart.

`It's not very common that we're picking people up out of a life raft,’ he said. `There were no boats in the area so if it wasn't for us going out there they would have been floating around for quite a while.’

He praised the men for their conduct during the ordeal. `They did everything right, they activated the EPIRB [radio safety beacon] and took it with them into the raft and they had all the safety gear,’ he said. It is not known whether the boat is salvageable.

The men, barefoot and visibly shaken, and carrying a garbage bag containing their few saved possessions, did not want to comment and quickly left in two waiting 4WDs after getting out of the helicopter.