Dad and Daughter missing

[wheels 543]

At the risk of confusing the discussion on another thread, I thought I would start this one afresh.
News last night said two Fishermen were missing after not returning from a Trip. There was a competition being run out at the Barrier. They had departed from Tryphena Harbour.
The latest news on stiff says it is not two Men, but a Father and Daughter.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/103465317/search-continues-for-fishermen-missing-off-great-barrier-island-since-friday

[Fish 0]

The missing boat was an eight metre-long white timber launch fitted with a blue canopy.

 

Unless they have miraculously tucked into a remote bay somewhere, I rather fear this wont end well.

Were due back at 5 pm on Friday, reported overdue around midday Saturday.

[Dtwo 157]

Not much news but a good result

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12041594

[Fish 0]

Thats great news. Obviously holed up somewhere safe and sitting out the weather.

 

Edit:

Stuff says:

The pair, aged 42 and 17, were found near Waiheke Island by police on Sunday morning, a Coastguard spokeswoman said.

[jonathan 4]

great result, damn lucky

[smithy09 50]

Excellent ending. I wouldn't have wanted to be drifting in a launch on a Lee shore in that! Really happy for them..

[wheels 543]

Phew!, Awesome ending

[MarkMT 68]

More details and video - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12041730

[Fish 0]

So no one saw his flares...

 

Surprising. I thought flares were more reliable than Locator Beacons.

Shame he didn't have any foil sheets with him either.

[wheels 543]

Watching his TV News interview, they were on a thin edge of it going really bad. They were wallowing around in huge seas that had broken Windows. But most worrying is the comment that they were about ready to jump from the boat. They simply would not have survived that water in that time and likely would not have been found in that kind of sea anyway. NEVER LEAVE your boat unless it sinks out from under you.

I wonder how much flack will now come back on the contest organisers for allowing a competition to go ahead in such bad weather

[Fish 0]

I wonder how much flack will now come back on the contest organisers for allowing a competition to go ahead in such bad weather

The weather on Friday wasn't that bad, 25 gusting 35, on the west side of Barrier it would have been fairly pleasant (North Easter, more sheltered than normal along that coast). Saturday was sh*t house.

I don't see the event organisers have anything to do with this. It is always the skippers responsibility to put to sea, and if he does, he needs to make sure his boat is prepared for the conditions, and has sufficient gear (comms, propulsion, anchoring etc) should things not go to plan. Oh, and carries more than 1/2 a bottle of water.

 

There was one other large and fairly high profile event on the water that started Friday night. All those that entered that made the correct call, had mandated safety gear on their boats, comms, LJ's, clip lines, life rafts etc. Further, the race officer for that event made adaptions to the course to account for the forecast.

 

I wouldn't go around questioning / criticising organisers. It has been a long established principal that the skipper is responsible for his boat, not someone somewhere else.

[erice 732]

wonder how much of their electrical blackout was dodgy wiring

 

as he got a light working eventually...

[muzled 140]

General question - Say you ended up as this guy in that situation, what would you do?

 

My first thought was to set up some sort of a drogue to keep the bow into the wind.  Would you leave the anchor out (say hanging down 50' or so, or more?).  Or would it be better with just something tied on the end of the warp?

 

On a yacht you'd have plenty of spare sheets to use but a launch probably not so much.

[Fish 0]

General question - Say you ended up as this guy in that situation, what would you do?

 

That's a tough question, I'd struggle to see myself in the same situation, being that I'd take more communications gear, i.e. more than some flares and a flat cell phone. Granted that phones go flat fast when searching for signal. A handheld VHF and a PLB as a minimum. I even take them in the dingy if I'm going for an explore.

You can get a new EPIRB with a 10 yr battery life for $400 now. Thats $40 / yr.

 

But if I were in that situation, I would have got the anchor down before mucking around trying to sort the engine. I would have left all chain / rope out, in the hope of catching the bottom. He commented he tried two anchors. I would have tied the chain / rope together to increase length. I'd hope this would act as a drogue to keep the bow into the waves (reduce risk of capsize), and of course catch the ground before hitting a lee shore.

[Steve Pope 253]

I wonder how many times he had done something similar and not had a problem, things can go wrong even on the best prepared boats, don't have to look far for examples.

[philstar 61]

Apparently he was a barrier local went just off tryphena for a fish in the comp with his daughter and everything died. 

Yes its not the world best boat but he wasn't far offshore when he had the engine / electrical issue.

Then he dragged his anchor for 2 nights to Waiheke!!

 

I'm glad my boat has an epirb, vhf, handheld vhf and we have a couple of waterproof phones as well. 

Maybe hard to achieve on a tight budget. I bet he'll buy an epirb now!!

 

Thank goodness it was a good outcome

[erice 732]

certainly an epirb would be good

 

and if that was too expensive good wiring, a little knowledge 

 

and a $3 cell phone charger +cable would also go a long way 

[Myjane 40]

I think you would find looking at the boat it was a bit of a bro boat ,lacking in maintainance ,it looks like an old Carl Augustan 28 roll it’s guts out and dead flat in the stern ,and a roll tuck stern so with out power it would not be fun , maintainance stop all these problems ,

[harrytom 677]

Another case to push Wof type thing on to us or skipper licencing

[Island Time 1,284]

Bet that would make zero difference to a boater from Great Barrier...

It never ceases to amaze me the number of boats that have no useful safety gear once they lose power. At least he had flares, although in this case they didn't help.  A sea anchor, and an epirb and they would have been fine, and rescued a lot quicker.