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Sailors rescued from life raft after yacht sinks near Whitianga


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Four sailors have been rescued from a drifting life raft after their yacht sank off the coast of Whitianga.

The stricken sailors – two men and two women – had to abandon their yacht, The Squander, as they were returning to New Zealand from Tonga.

About 9.30am on Sunday, the Rescue Coordination Centre NZ (RCCNZ), received a distress alert – the four sailors had been forced to get into a life raft.

 

Been a long time since I've heard of a liferaft be used in anger in Coastal NZ waters.

No mention of use of flares.

lots of mention of electronic coms

 

"This crew were well equipped for the specific journey they were undertaking and had a distress beacon, satellite phone, HF radio and VHF radio.

 

Bit odd for a boat to just sink. Especially en-route from Tonga to NZ.

 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113443649/sailors-rescued-from-life-raft-after-yacht-sinks-near-whitianga

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Completely different story from Stuff  on RNZ


Four sailors were rescued from a life raft this afternoon after abandoning their yacht off Great Barrier Island.


The yacht was on its way to Tonga when it sustained rigging damage, and was returning to New Zealand.


At 9.30am, the Rescue Co-ordination Centre received a distress alert sent from the crew's emergency beacon after they had abandoned their yacht.


The four crew members were winched into two Auckland Westpac Rescue helicopters and flown back to Auckland.


RCCNZ manager Mike Hill said the rescue highlighted how important it was to carry appropriate emergency communications equipment.


He said they advised boaties to carry at least two types of reliable emergency communications which would still work when wet.


 


https://www.rnz.co.n...damage-to-yacht

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SQUANDER, part of this year's Pacific Circuit Rally. The four crew of Squander were airlifted from the vessel today. Squander was on passage back to New Zealand under jury rig following a rig failure enroute to Tonga. The mast was still up but unable to sail on a port tack. Today they were due to run out of fuel. Container ship MAERSK LAUNCESTON unsuccessfully attempted to give them fuel about 60nm 073° from Needle Point, Great Barrier. The crew had been attempting to reach Tauranga, however it was decided to airlift them to land after the fuel transfer attempt failed. All four are safe and well and at the Rescue Centre, Auckland. Heart felt love and good wishes are sent from us and all the participants of the 2019 Pacific Circuit Rally.

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That must be so incredibly frustrating for the skipper and crew, to get nearly back to shore after a rig failure, then to not make it.

Just a bit of different weather, or some more diesel, what would have been....

 

I'm taking a punt that being 60 nm east of Gt Barrier, there would be some thoughts around a salvage? either getting diesel onboard, or a tow (assuming an ocean capable fizz boat or launch to get out there). I wouldn't be surprised if the insurance company takes over now, and things start getting less straight forward?

The weather is supposed to settle a bit about Tuesday / Wed. Just enough time to do some planning, sort the logistics and then execute the plan?

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Conversely, the skipper and crew can be justifiably happy and proud they got to within helicopter range before having to get off.

I'd far prefer a free ride in a helicopter than the challenge of getting alongside and then climbing up the side of one of those box ships. Not saying getting into the liferaft and helicopter is a walk in the park. But I know which I'd prefer if given an option.

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as an aside a life -raft was used in anger down here off Banks Peninsula a few weeks back when a 50ft yacht appeared to have hit a charted rock and sank very quickly, two crew rescued from the raft by local Westpac rescue

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Squander was on her second attempt to go north. She had started with the rally fleet on 28 May but blew her mainsail out the same day in a 50+kt squall leaving the Bay of Is and returned to Opua for repairs.

Pure speculation but I wonder if that incident had caused some damage to the rigging.

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Some additional details... https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12241188

 

The article doesn't mention the original unsuccessful attempt, but this...

 

The Squander was in "better shape" than when the couple bought it. They'd spent tens of thousands of dollars on it and had its rigging inspected before leaving Opua in the Bay of Islands on June 9.

 
Ironically, it was the rigging that would fail just three days later.
 
A steel rod connecting a metal plate at the base of the mast to the boat's superstructure snapped late on the afternoon on June 12, leaving the mast lurching and cracks and splits appearing in the deck.

 

Who did the rigging inspection?

 

"And with the type of mast it is, there was a very real possibility … the foot of the mast could have cleared the decks and taken out the liferaft."

 

What does this refer to? A deck-stepped mast?

 

Also interesting that they did manage to get 160 litres of fuel transferred from the container ship, so presumably if they'd been able to cut the rig free they could have motored to safety?

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Sounds more like a mastbase/compression post issue than an actual rigging failure?

Quite common in these older production boats with deck stepped masts. Either the posts fail or the deck delaminates when the wood core rots.

Usually a rigging check will probably not pick this up as its a structural boat issue and regardless rigging checks are pretty limited to spotting anything thats actually already broken. 

 

I would not go offshore on a boat with rigging older than 10 years even if it had a satisfactory rigging survey/check.

On our trip from france, 5 boats we cruised with (including us) had rigging either completley fail (one dismasting) or broken strands at the swage.

We broke 5 strands in our D1 stay between Suwarrow and Nuie and were lucky not to loose the whole lot.

One of our friends was not that lucky and lost the rig just out of Tonga and insurance will not pay out due to the fitting that failed being over 10 years old.

Interesting to note that in this case the stay had been replaced but not the rigging screw and it was the rigging screw that failed so no insurance....

 

Sounds like these guys did have a well setup and maintained yacht and knew what they were doing. Glad no one was hurt but they have lost their yacht which was also their home I believe. Sad story and I hope they have some luck with a salvage or are well insured. 

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I don't think it sounds like the rigging screw failing.  On a lot of those Euro production boats the lower end of the rigging is connected to a rod that connects to the hull behind the saloon seats.  "A steel rod connecting a metal plate at the base of the mast to the boat's superstructure snapped"  sounds to me as though they had a failure in that rod, or more likely one of the ends.  This would be backed up by their fix of running a line under the hull.  If a rigging screw had failed their fix would have used the existing chainplate/rod.

 

This would also explain why a rig inspection would not have picked up an issue with the connecting rod - it would be a reasonable expectation that this part of the rig was fine, and you most likely couldn't inspect it unless you pulled the entire assembly out.

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I don't think it sounds like the rigging screw failing.  On a lot of those Euro production boats the lower end of the rigging is connected to a rod that connects to the hull behind the saloon seats.  "A steel rod connecting a metal plate at the base of the mast to the boat's superstructure snapped

Yep, one of those suckers there.......

img12409.jpg

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I read on another web site that they were still able to sail on starboard tack but unable to sail on port, which ultimately led to them getting blown further off shore. However its refreshing to hear of a crew at least trying to make it back. I guess the real story of why they abandoned after the rig ultimately failed will come out in due course.

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Reading between the lines of that Herald article,  I wonder if the ships crane fouled the mast and brought it down?

I am assuming they were using a crane to transfer the diesel, as it states they had it on a pallet, and had already transferred 160 l.

It would be very easy to foul a mast with a ships crane in the type of sea state they had described.

It would also explain the rapidly changing proposition, and need to be evacuated quickly, after working to bring her back to land for so long.

 

At 8am yesterday, the captain of the giant container ship – "with incredible seamanship" - brought his vessel in close and successfully offloaded 160 litres of fuel.

But it was a final load of 40L of fuel floating on a wooden pallet that proved the Squander's undoing.

Petrie had just tied it to the back of his yacht and was wondering what to do with it when the ropes snapped at the same time as the mast shuddered and finally gave way.

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