It's a long story so I'll cut straight to the point. On Saturday, after a long sequence of events I found myself going to the rescue of one of the large Auckland coastguard RIBs. It was blowing 30-40kts and only stupid idiots like me were out which turned out to be extremely fortunate for the CG boys. Their RIB sprung an engine fire and after failing to contain it the 5 man crew had to jump into the sea. Luckily at that stage I was less than 0.5nm away and was eventually able to pick them out of the water onto my yacht. But the key lesson learnt are as follows:
1. We agreed over VHF that they would take to the water and as I approached they should try to climb aboard my boat via the boarding ladder over my sugar-scoop stern. No problem there.
2. We agreed that initially they would jump into sea and stay in a large group for visibiluty purposes - again no problem so far.
3. But I didn't specifically request that as I approached their position they should move clear of the burning RIB to allow me to operate in clear water. I thought that bit was obvious. It wasn't to them.
4. Hence I was forced to approach close to the burning RIB to pick them up. In fact I was actually bumping alongside it on several occasions and the impact even punctured one of the pontoons. It was a large 9.5m, 5 ton RIB so had quite an impact as we rolled in the chop.
5. Despite trying to stay head to wind I found the boat inevitably weather-cocked around and the bow fell off downwind. This was unavoidable cos I had to obviously go into neutral to avoid chopping up my casualties in the water and I then started drifting whilst each guy clambered aboard.
6. In the end I stopped trying to fight the weather-cock effect and simply stayed stern to wind. This meant that as I approached each casualty I was motoring astern at about 2-3kts into the chop which created a huge wash over my stern and into the cockpit - which of course found its way below. The bilge pumps were now singing.
7. I was singlehanded and so selected the strongest, fittest looking casualty as my first pick-up. He was able to climb aboard with minimal assistance from me and was then able to help his coastguard colleagues as we returned to pick up the rest.
8. Longest time in water for last casualty picked up was approx. 12 mins so with water at 17-18C it wasn't too bad. Shock more of a risk.
9. Left burning RIB behind at anchor whilst we dashed back to port to drop victims ashore for medical checks - Westpac heli had landed on scene but not required. Hot showers and tea did the trick.
10. Left the pros to put out the fire and recover CG RIB. Cause of fire unconfirmed altho one theory is that sudden stoppage of 450hp diesel might have caused turbo to overheat leading to fire......
And I only went out to catch myself some dinner - ended up pulling people out of the water instead of fish.
1. We agreed over VHF that they would take to the water and as I approached they should try to climb aboard my boat via the boarding ladder over my sugar-scoop stern. No problem there.
2. We agreed that initially they would jump into sea and stay in a large group for visibiluty purposes - again no problem so far.
3. But I didn't specifically request that as I approached their position they should move clear of the burning RIB to allow me to operate in clear water. I thought that bit was obvious. It wasn't to them.
4. Hence I was forced to approach close to the burning RIB to pick them up. In fact I was actually bumping alongside it on several occasions and the impact even punctured one of the pontoons. It was a large 9.5m, 5 ton RIB so had quite an impact as we rolled in the chop.
5. Despite trying to stay head to wind I found the boat inevitably weather-cocked around and the bow fell off downwind. This was unavoidable cos I had to obviously go into neutral to avoid chopping up my casualties in the water and I then started drifting whilst each guy clambered aboard.
6. In the end I stopped trying to fight the weather-cock effect and simply stayed stern to wind. This meant that as I approached each casualty I was motoring astern at about 2-3kts into the chop which created a huge wash over my stern and into the cockpit - which of course found its way below. The bilge pumps were now singing.
7. I was singlehanded and so selected the strongest, fittest looking casualty as my first pick-up. He was able to climb aboard with minimal assistance from me and was then able to help his coastguard colleagues as we returned to pick up the rest.
8. Longest time in water for last casualty picked up was approx. 12 mins so with water at 17-18C it wasn't too bad. Shock more of a risk.
9. Left burning RIB behind at anchor whilst we dashed back to port to drop victims ashore for medical checks - Westpac heli had landed on scene but not required. Hot showers and tea did the trick.
10. Left the pros to put out the fire and recover CG RIB. Cause of fire unconfirmed altho one theory is that sudden stoppage of 450hp diesel might have caused turbo to overheat leading to fire......
And I only went out to catch myself some dinner - ended up pulling people out of the water instead of fish.
