Melbourne to Hobart Westcoaster Race yacht aground on return voyage

by Peter Campbell on 5 Jan 2015 Melbourne to Hobart Westcoaster Race winner, the Victorian yacht Seduction, early today ran aground on Gull Island in the Furneaux Islands on the return voyage from Hobart to Melbourne, with the delivery crew of five rescued by a Police launch within two hours.

The Ocean Racing Club of Victoria’s incident management team has confirmed that all five crew onboard are safe and well.

Seduction is owned and was being skippered back to Melbourne by Richard Nichols with a crew comprising Sean Miles, Howard Hedley, Steve Dale and Sam Bostock-Young.

A statement released by the ORCV said Seduction had, at approximately 0440 hours this morning, Monday 5 January 2015, run aground at Gull Island, which is east of Cape Barren Island and south of Flinders Island in the Furneaux Group in eastern Bass Strait.

The yacht was returning to Melbourne after competing in the ORCV 2014 Melbourne to Hobart ocean yacht race and was en route to Lady Barron on Flinders Island.

The crew was rescued by the Flinders Island police boat at approximately 0640 hours this morning and taken to Lady Barron where they were accommodated at the Furneaux Tavern.

Other yachts in the vicinity heard their Mayday call, including two ORCV yachts returning from Hobart, Trybooking and Cartouche, which were then about four hours away on the west side of Cape Barren Island, but were not required in the rescue operation.

The crew of Seduction also activated their EPIRB which was detected by the Rescue Coordination Centre at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) who alerted the water police at Lady Barron.

The yacht is currently still aground and investigations are under way regarding a salvage operation, including minimising the impact on the environment.

Seduction won the ORCV 2014 Melbourne to Hobart Westcoaster in all three handicap divisions (AMS, IRC and PHS) and also won the Sovereign Series which also included to Cock of the Bay and the King of the Derwent races in all three handicap divisions.

Commodore Neville Rose of the ORCV this afternoon thanked the many marine rescue authorities involved and yachts in the area which had offered assistance, particularly the Tasmanian Police on Flinders Island 'who did a fantastic job.' He also thanked the Furneaux Tavern for assisting the shipwrecked crew on their arrival at Lady Barron on Flinders Event website