More sailing rescues on the horizon: Comment

The three South African nationals rescued from their stricken yacht in the southern Indian Ocean by Royal Australian Navy warship HMAS Parramatta on March 18, 2017, highlights what may be a growing trend in the long-range rescue of (mis)adventurous cruising sailors.

This was the second major yacht rescue coordinated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) in as many weeks, following the dramatic yacht rescue
of two internationals aboard the sailing vessel Val on March 8 in high seas about 400 kilometres north-east of Sydney.

In the latest high-seas drama, AMSA’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) in Canberra jumped into action after detecting a distress beacon registered to the 13m yacht Jedi 1 around 7pm AEDT on Thursday, March 17.

The yacht was located more than 1300 kilometres southwest of Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia on a journey from South Africa to New Zealand.

JET AND NAVY RESCUE
AMSA deployed its Perth-based Challenger search and rescue jet to the yacht’s location, which arrived on scene around midnight on Thursday and established VHF radio communication with the crew.

The three male crew members of the Jedi 1 confirmed their yacht had been dismasted and their intention to abandon the stricken vessel.

Given the yacht’s remote location, AMSA engaged the Royal Australian Navy for assistance in rescuing the Jedi 1 crew and HMAS Parramatta was deployed shortly after 2 am on Friday, March 18.

In a second sortie on Friday afternoon, AMSA’s Challenger jet successfully dropped satellite and radio communication equipment to the crew.

AMSA maintained regular communication with the crew until the arrival of the HMAS Parramatta at 9 pm on Saturday evening.

HMAS Parramatta’s Seahawk helicopter successfully winched all three crewmembers to safety and they were reported to be in good health.

LURE OF SEA IS INCREASING
As today's amateur sailors have access to affordable marine electronics with hitherto new levels of push-button navigational ability, encouraged by things like AIS that spots ships and radar that performs 'watch' while autopilots steer, rescue authorities might well ponder if a rash of long-range rescues is on the horizon.

With the cost of buying a house through the roof, the pull of the sea and the lure of living aboard and sailing off into the sunset has never been greater. There is a surfeit of older pre-GFC cuising yachts coming onto the market with keen pricing, too. Affordable, movable housing as such.

You can even work as you go and gain instant social media fame without any prior sailing knowledge or skill just by uploading the footage of your around-the-world sailing adventure to your Youtube channel. Hey, you could even score a new yacht gratis or a heavily discounted one if you attract a big enough audience like Sailing La Vagabonde, the Aussie social media sailing stars, who scored a luxury cat deal with Outremer.

Social media groups for liveaboard yachties are increasingly populated with newbies asking elementary questions that make seasoned cruising sailors recoil. The thing about yachts is that they need constant maintenance of their rigs, keel bolts, sails and engines. You also need to know what to do in a storm.

Of course, Australian sailors are some of the most capable in the world, what with the Sydney-Hobart and suchlike. But it's the global greenhorns in cheap yachts that are lining up like lambs to the slaughter and who could keep rescue authorities busy in years to come.

MORE SPEED BUMPS
Meantime, as the pros in the Vendee Globe Yacht solo around-the-world race found earlier this year, rafts of flotsam, jetsam and shipping containers choke our oceans, along with perhaps more abandoned yachts.

But the big speeds bumps are the whales, whose numbers are increasing 10 per cent a year off Australia. You can't miss them, right?

All of which might lead to increasing rescues of sailors. And at what cost? Besides the human one, perish the thought, there is the massive cost of sending Navy warships and long-range jets hundred of miles to sea.

As if to suggest more brazen transoceanic sailors will need rescuing, maritime authorities like AMSA have increased their rescue range beyond Australia through the adoption of new search and rescue jets as we reported in this news story.

The Water Police are also gearing up with bigger and newer craft. Drug importation syndicates love sailing, as we reported on this year (again) when these
cruising sailors were caught with biggest drug haul ever. However, you can bet these yachts are well maintained to avoid rescue.

EPIRBS SAVE THE DAY
The take home good news here is that all the foundering sailors were saved thanks to the efforts of Australian maritime authorities responding to EPIRB activation. Those emergency beacons are worth their weight in gold.

I guess you could look at the flip side and say transoceanic sailing has never been safer thanks to the wonderful efforts of our rescue authorities.

More at AMSA's Emergency Beacon page.

Credit: Rescue report and photos from AMSA.