They were from Goolwa so you may assume they might have tried to get through the mouth. I agree that now they are probably into phone range but they would have been in phone range going through backstairs passage so I daresay they were happy while they were going in the right dorection. Now they have missed their mark to get to the mouth they needed help.
Agree that AIS and VHF (and the knowledge/sense to use it) should be mandatory.
The SAR cost is irrelevant. The excercise that the SAR crews run through is expereince that you cannot buy or get with training, they will now be better prepared for the next incident. Having said that, I am sure they would have rather been at home with their families than flying around so a $700 AIS would have solved that problem.
As a previous poster said there have been a number of lost boats in SA recently and I would put it out there that at least 2 of these seem (from the outside) to have been exteremely inexperienced people using unseaworthy boats that they had just bought or been given. Suggests to me that there needs to be better licensing requirements including some kind of seamanship training.
Looks like they are under tow to Victor Harbour. Depending on if the mouth of the Murray is'nt silted up, looking at satellite pics you might get through on a good day and a high tide.
Still looks like finding them was a bit of a needle in a haystack this morning , I wonder if they asked them to activate the EPIRB?
I think there's going to be a media frenzy at the granite island jetty soon. Very divided outcome from what I'm seeing.
The video footage on the ABC shows their motor was going and the prop was pushing water. I'm wondering why they had overshot their destination. They were 20 NM SE. Did they go through the passage or outside the Island? Why didn't they call in to Kingscote, Penneshaw or American River? Was the prop slipping on the shaft? Maybe they took a dive overboard and fixed it a bit?
" live " footage now showing bilge pump active constantly,
And someone holding another bilge " pump " hose over the side...
Will the vessel take on more water than " two scared men with buckets " can handle?
Will the dolphins then go to the tow boat...or just go?
Will the waiting family members belt the bejeebus out of the missing men or just hug 'em?
More drama than a Home and Away epsiode...and where is the Blaxland...and Alf when ya really, really need them?
One lesson I learnt from being in the same area 2 months ago with a leak I couldn't find and a pump that wouldn't pump was to have one of these in the locker! Never again will I set sail without a new bilge pump as a spare!
They need to throw the book at these guys to send a message to anyone else thinking about putting to sea in unseaworthy boats and with little experience.
It looked seaworthy on the TV clips, no damage, engine and prop working, no torn sails, no frazzled sailors, no panic.
Maybe they had engine problems, slipped propellor - too early to speculate and blame. The only fault I see is failing to have a great passage plan with a relative, a panicking relative, and/or no update to the relative via VHF or phone message. Apart from that, like in pre-electronics days, they were safe and it just took a little extra time to deal with the weather or motor.
I'd prefer to have a working set of sails, as a back up, as well as more peaceful than constant motor noise.
Apparently the boat hit something Friday night that damaged the prop so they turned off the engine.
A Westernport fisherman I knew hit a submerged object on his way to fish the Glennies off Wilsons Prom in the early 90's. He said he thought the vibration caused by the bent prop and shaft would shake the boat to bits! In desperation he beached the boat in Wisky bay using a stern anchor, as luckily there was minimal swell, and a low tide, radioed Welshpool for a tow and did his best to straighten the prop and shaft and slow the leak around the stern gland.
He got a successful tow and saved his boat. He was as good as certain it was a partially submerged shipping container that he hit.
Superb effort by AMSA and the RAAF as well as all others involved to find these two.
www.9news.com.au/national/missing-south-australia-fishermen-found-alive-in-waters-near-goolwa-after-police-search/fd8bc5a8-8c8d-4ffe-ad5f-87b09b9fed3e
As per Guitz let's not pre-judge or slag these two before we know all the facts - and even then don't do that but learn from this event and go forward with continuous improvement as relevant.
Guitz that fisherman you knew must have been as strong as an ox and a better seaman than James Cook to get out of that situation in the early 90s.
Lean and strong. He was a battler with an old rough looking boat but the essentials where in good order. One of the last to fish Bass Strait out of Hastings. Luck was on his side but he would have survived if the boat went down. His other option was to beach her on the shore of Gt Glenny Is where the anchorage is out of the south westerlies.
Another example of a rough looking boat you would shake your head at with a close look was Alf Stackhouse's Alcheringa 2. A 44 gallon drum for fuel tank etc, old school engineering, but it was as strong a boat that anyone would want. Alf had the lease on Badger Island and if you saw him on the street in Melbourne you would think he just got out of the salvos shelter if you were quick to judge a man. He had his pilots licence as well and his own plane and was no fool. www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-27/alf-stackhouse-the-king-of-badger-island/8058508
That said I do think these men might have lacked experience and should have had better communication and luck was on their side with the weather.
The open non draining cockpit is a debatable issue as there are many boats I know, of that design with skippers who have experience that have done multiple Bass Strait crossings using the weather window usually staying at an anchorage each night. Port Phillip to the Glennies on to Deal then to Flinders Is west or east coast and on down the east coast of Tassy. Give yourself two and a half weeks and it's a great trip. A heavy displacement long keel boat is wonderful way to go!
The boat in this story looks like it was built by Axel Stenross from Port Lincoln. Axel was a ships carpenter on the South Australian Grain Traders, the last sailing ships to work the trade up until the 2nd world war. They were built in the Aland Islands of Finland as a way of supplementing the income of the farmers there. He was from generations of boatbuilders. He got paid off the ship in Port Lincoln because he fell in love with the place and built boats in the tradition of his home with obvious viking heritage. They were unique and different to boats built by Australian boat builders. I had one of his canoe stern boats like this one for a while. It fished out of American River, Kangaroo Island in the 1950's. If, as I suspect it is, I hope this boat gets a good restoration because it is a piece of Australia's maritime history.
Yes assumed as much - lean and strong, resourceful, always had a plan B.
The name Alcheringa tweaked a memory cell - see the first one in the 66 Hobart. As per the programme at the below link below stock up on your Craven Filter and go buy your Renault car when you get back..............
archive.cyca.com.au/media/3435156/1966-sydney-hobart-official-programme.pdf
Top story there re Alf and Badger Island.
Personally I thought AMSA jumped the gun a bit on Monday morning. Without a distress message sent other than a phone call.
My thoughts are also they searched In the wrong place it was quite easy to do passage plan once they disclosed the time of the call Friday night heading to KI . I personally got phone covarge as far as Neptune islands on a good day. From there 24 to 48 hrs to SW KI @6 knots basicly by Monday when the strong NE they would have been in the shelter of southern KI while the planes where searching the gulf and Neptune island area. He did get fined $1000 for out of date EPIRB and flares but that's not the reason this was a total screw up.