Danger of base closure exposed
Shuttering coast guard facility is putting lives at risk, city councillor says
The dramatic rescue of two fishermen Wednesday off Point Grey highlights how exposed Vancouver mariners are to danger following the closure of the Kitsilano coast guard base, a city councillor says.
The two men were rescued and sent to hospital to be treated for hypothermia after their boat quickly sank about five kilometres west of Point Grey early Wednesday, said Capt. Colin Henthorne of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre (JRCC) in Victoria.
Coun. Kerry Jang said it was lucky that the Richmond coast guard hovercraft was available, but the ending could have been tragic if it had been engaged elsewhere.
Canadian Coast Guard officials are tasking several Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue crews in the Vancouver area with filling gaps left by the Kitsilano station closure, but these trained volunteer crews typically take about 40 minutes to reach calls, Jang said.
The 18.5-metre boat sent a mayday at 5:15 a.m. and a hovercraft team sent from Richmond arrived about 23 minutes later and made the rescue.
The JRCC also deployed a volunteer Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue crew out of West Vancouver. At the same time, commercial boats were racing to the mayday call, with a tugboat arriving first and illuminating the scene.
The two men had been forced to jump ship as their wooden boat sank, leaving them in the frigid water for about 15 minutes.
One of the fishermen was Keith Windsor, who told CTV News he “had nothing left” in him as he awaited rescue.
“I [thought] about my kids and my family,” Windsor said. “They were with me, they were. Kept me going.”
Windsor said he awoke to the panicked cries of the skipper, only to see the stern of the boat underwater.
The crew of the first vessel on scene — called the Island Tugger — was preparing to deploy an inflatable rescue boat when the coast guard hovercraft arrived, said tug company spokesman John Staynor.
In a series of tweets, an officer who responded to the call wrote: “That boat sank within five minutes of his panicked distress call ... Two lucky guys. A fast incident that could have ended badly.”
The distress call was made about halfway between the former Kitsilano base and the Richmond base, Henthorne said, and teams from both coast guard bases would likely have been sent if the Kitsilano base were still operational.
On Wednesday, shortly after the two fishermen were rescued, the Richmond hovercraft was en route to Point Roberts to respond to a report of a boat on fire.
Jang said that put the hovercraft about 90 minutes away from the fishboat sinking in Point Grey-area waters. “This leaves English Bay and Vancouver completely unprotected when that hovercraft is away,” Jang said.
The councillor — city hall’s most vocal critic of the federal government’s Kits coast guard cost-cutting — reiterated that it’s only a matter of time before the move costs lives.
“It is dangerous, and they are playing roulette, and we were lucky this time,” Jang said.