Four saved as boat sinks

FOUR men had to be rescued by helicopter as rough seas claimed a large powerboat off the Townsville coast.

A distress call was sent out about 8.30am on Saturday from an 11m vessel that was taking on water 40 miles out to sea.

Senior Sergeant Jason Brosnan said Townsville’s Water Police responded to the call for help, along with the Queensland Government Air Rescue Helicopter and fixed wing air support.

The helicopter crew managed to pluck the four men aged in their late 50s and early 60s from the boat and fly them back to Townsville uninjured. nautical

Sen- Sgt Brosnan said the incident could have ended badly and went to show the value of having the correct boating safety and communication equipment.

The occupants of the boat were credited for activating an EPIRB ( Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) which allowed response teams to know exactly where they were and enabled a swift rescue.

“They’ve had a marine radio, they haven’t panicked … they stayed with the boat and haven’t tried to swim off or do anything stupid and that’s resulted in their rescue,” Sen- Sgt Brosnan said.

Meanwhile, Water Police rescued a woman and three men in their 20s from another boat that experienced mechanical failure only about an hour after the first call for help.

The four were fishing when they ran into strife, but fortunately their 7.1m power boat was able to be towed back to Townsville.

Yesterday, a smaller boat came close to sinking off Palm Island about 2pm.

The Townsville Coast Guard was made aware of a sinking vessel about 500m off the Palm Island Jetty but it was able to be kept afloat through use of a bilge pump until it returned to shore.

Sen- Sgt Brosnan said the vessel that sank on Saturday was yet to be retrieved.

“We won’t be able to leave it out there, it’s a marine hazard and somebody will have it insured,” Sen- Sgt Brosnan said.

“Any vessel able to get that far out is probably worth a fair bit of money to someone.”

Sen- Sgt Brosnan said a marine investigation would take place to determine what caused the vessel to take on water.