Yacht rescue off Dampier
Updated November 16, 2011 09:06:39
A 59-year-old man rescued off the Pilbara coast says his 13 metre yacht sank quickly after hitting something in the water.
Don Drabble was sailing from Dampier to the Monte Bello Islands last night and was 45 nautical miles off the coast when his yacht started to sink.
He set off an emergency beacon and set to sea in a dinghy he was towing and then waited four hours to be rescued.
Mr Drabble has told the ABC he is not sure what his yacht hit.
"I don't think it was a whale, I was in 45 to 50 metres of water at the time," he said.
"I'm surmising it was a container but it's very hard to tell, I didn't have time to look around in the water."
Constable Jeremy Smith says Mr Drabble used his phone after setting off the emergency beacon, to notify a friend in Dampier of his predicament.
"He got a text message through to one of his friends in Hampton Harbour just saying my boat has sunk and I'm in my tender," he said.
The distress beacon was picked up by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in Canberra which sent two boats and an aircraft to search for him.
Two other boats then joined the search.
The authority's Carly Lusk says he was found early this morning.
"The Dornia aircraft located the man in his dinghy and the police vessel being the fastest vessel proceeded to the scene," he said.
"He's not injured, they've taken him onboard and towed his dinghy back to Dampier.
She says Mr Drabble is a very lucky man.
"Without his EPIRB we wouldn't have known about it, so he's done the right thing; he's got his distress beacon, he's set it off, obviously he was in his dinghy, he was safe and sound and he did all the right things," she said.
bod
Posts: 2318
Date Joined: 03/05/06
cool calm and collected
Article says he was a very lucky man but my take on the interview I heard this morning with him is that luck played a minor role next to him being very organised, capable and remaining calm. He evaluated the lifeboat against the tender and with two full jerry cans decided on the tender. Tied himself off the back of the yacht for two hours to be sure it sunk and didn't become an obstacle itself. He then set out on the long journey back to Dampier, fortunately able to use his mobile. The EPIRB has a light and the plane was able to pick up the light and circled until a rescue boat arrived.
Maybe he was very lucky in that the ocean was flat calm, otherwise that certainly would have changed things. Pretty distressing watching the yacht go down though.
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
good write up on how the
good write up on how the system works, good response from sea rescue / police.
carnarvonite
Posts: 8627
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Dornier
The dornier search plane is equipped with Flir [infra red camera] and radio direction finder to home in on the 121 signal emitted from his epirb which would have made it easy for them to find him.
Would have been a great feeling amongst the police boat crew when they spotted him alive and well.
Brucesta
Posts: 1721
Date Joined: 29/05/09
121 signal? what about
121 signal? what about 406MHz? i know planes still monitor it and you MAY be picked up on the old EPIRB's but surely a search would have had a 406 receiver onboard?
good to see all went well in the mind you
Las Vegas - Rolling the dice and trying your luck. 1M+ Barra summer target. 100kg Black Marlin winter target
carnarvonite
Posts: 8627
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Combined
The 406 epirbs send a signal on 121 as well, this allows planes to receive them an home in on it.