Mummbo and crew safe

by Rob Kothe on 17 Dec 2007 The crew of the Mumm 36 Mummbo that suffered a cracked keel off Newcastle, in the New South Wales Hunter region, is safely in port.

Sydney sailor Greg Kearns bought Mummbo after the Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week series and was sailing it from Townsville to Sydney with four friends when it was hit by a large wave in the pre-dawn hours.

'It was pretty rough out there, with large swell,' he said. 'At about 4:00am, we fell off a large wave.

There was a lot of creaking and the whole keel was sort of wobbly.

We got on the radio pretty smartly.'

The Australian Navy’s HMAS Manoora was the closest vessel and she was soon on the scene, near Bird Island, south of Newcastle.

The warship stood by until the Water Police Launch arrived to escort her back to Newcastle.

Kearns commented, 'We made sure everyone was up on deck, we had our grab bag, we had our life raft ready to deploy - everyone has life vests and harnesses on anyway when their sailing - we were pretty much ready for the boat to capsize at any moment,' he said.

Mummbo is now berthed at Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club.