Sunken ketch at Balmain, Sydney

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DrRog
DrRog
NSW
608 posts
NSW, 608 posts
1 Aug 2013 11:36pm
Went for a stroll at lunch today and was horrified to see two ketch masts protruding from the water between Elliot St Wharf and Balmain Secondary School. Gosh that's a horrid and sobering sight. The worst part was half a tethered dinghy protruding from the water!

Called the local Maritime guy (Warwick Scott) who said it was being floated tomorrow. Mentioned the dinghy and he said they'd had police divers in already to check. I got off the phone quickly as I was busy and realised I forgot to ask if they'd found anyone (why would they check if they'd been able to contact the owner?).

Anyone know any more?

Wish I took my phone (camera) so I could share a pic. Nothing like the sight of a sunken yacht to make you think about seacocks and whatnot.
Ramona
Ramona
NSW
7757 posts
NSW, 7757 posts
2 Aug 2013 8:54am
Good of you to make the call.

We had a yacht come off a mooring here a fortnight ago at about 0630 and drift down the river before running aground on a sandbar. Security bloke on his way to work saw it at 0630 and rang the rescue association. 0930 I was told about it as I was walking my dog and checked its position. I rang the owner who was in Hobart to tell him and he had just received a call from another resident who had noticed the yacht as he looked out his window.
All the rescue association did was leave a message with the MSB [it was a Sunday morning] Dozens of locals and visitors had walked along this walk and not done a thing! They had talked among them selves of course.
Three hours after the boat came off the mooring my mate and I went aboard and we set the anchor out in deep water. Later that evening one of the local commercial fishing vessels towed her clear.
The rescue association refused to help. They also refused to help another yachtsman a fortnight earlier when we had a flood and a tree carried his yacht and mooring down the river. Both days they sat about in the two large vessels we paid for in their impressive uniforms!
I run a community Facebook page for the local yachts. Several of the owners live elsewhere, Canberra, Goulburn, Sydney, Wollongong etc and if something goes wrong I can contact them through that. The MSB will not give out numbers which is fair enough. Its very much a case of neighbours looking after each other.
cisco
cisco
QLD
12365 posts
QLD, 12365 posts
2 Aug 2013 11:06am
Ramona said..

The rescue association refused to help. They also refused to help another yachtsman a fortnight earlier when we had a flood and a tree carried his yacht and mooring down the river. Both days they sat about in the two large vessels we paid for in their impressive uniforms!


Its very much a case of neighbours looking after each other.


We have the same situation here. Marine Rescue will only rescue people in a distress situation and that is all. They won't rescue unmanned vessels for fear of being sued because their insurance will not cover them in that situation.

Maritime Safety Queensland is equally uninterested.

Just crazy. A "Neighbourhood Watch" is great if you can pull it off.

TKNick
TKNick
NSW
123 posts
NSW, 123 posts
2 Aug 2013 5:27pm
Sadly Marine Rescue were sued by a yacht owner. This owners yacht broke loose while he was absent. Marine rescue recovered the vessel which was placed on another mooring only to have it brake loose again and this time damaged. There insurance won't cover the cost of damage that occurs after they take charge of an unoccupied vessel. Perhaps they should have applied international salvage law when dealing with litigation loving '''holes.
Don't blame Marine Rescue. These guys do a great job promoting boating safety, keeping us safe, rescue of you and your vessel. They don't get paid for this and put their own lives on the line to save yours. I recently returned from Cornwall in the UK. There I visited two Royal Life Boat stations, one at Mousehole, the other at Saint Ives. Both these stations have lost entire crews attempting to save lives. I hope Australian MR groups never suffer the same loss.
brizzydave
brizzydave
406 posts
406 posts
2 Aug 2013 5:21pm
Karragarra beach still has a nice little 25(something) foot sloop resting on its side above the high water mark due to the cyclone (that wasn't a cyclone wtf).

I bet the marine rescue guys wish they could zip out make fast any loose boats .....must annoy the hell out of them. Bummer.
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