A drifting, out of action Dutch yacht with two Holland nationals on board was rescued and towed for seven long hours off the Tsitsikamma coast to safety at St Francis Bay yesterday .
The 40 foot mono hull yacht Sonne Azul, from Holland, requested assistance after a loss of rudder steering 20 nautical miles off-shore of Tsitsikamma and 25 nautical miles from the NSRI’s sea rescue base at the Port. On board were two Dutch nationals, skipper Onno Verver, about 45 years of age and his female crew companion.
According to Marc May, Station 21 commander for the NSRI in St Francis Bay, the rescue team received a call at 12.30 yesterday about the plight of the yacht. The Spirit of St Francis II and four crew responded and found the Sonne Azul, an hour later off Tsitsikamma coast in the current with a broken rudder and steering.
“It was drifting in fair sea and weather conditions in the direction of Australia and unable to steer or manoeuvre her way out of her predicament,” says May.
It was determined that the casualty yacht’s rudder had jammed in position, unable to be moved, suggesting the yacht may have collided with an object or fishing nets while underway. A tow-line was rigged and the long tow back to St Francis Bay began while NSRI Port Elizabeth and NSRI Oyster Bay were placed on alert to assist if necessary.
“The towing progress was particularly difficult because the position in which the casualty boat’s s rudder had jammed caused the direction of the casualty boat to want to head in a different direction to what we were towing her,” May continues. “The size of the yacht and the class of our sea rescue craft put the tow effort on the edge of our capabilities particularly because of the jammed rudder.
“Making slow progress we determined that if the weather changed for the worse we may need more help. As a precautionary measure we also, assisted by Maritime Radio Services, broadcast a request for all chokka fishing boats, in the vicinity between us and our base, to go on high alert to assist us if necessary.
“We admit it was quite a relief to see the many chokka boats, on our way home, coming over to check on us to make sure we were doing okay and had we needed their help at any point the good relationship we share with the chokka fishing community would have put us in their good hands. After this long tow tow we finally arrived at our sea rescue base and our smaller sea rescue craft Eikos Rescuer I was launched to help corral the yacht safely to a berth in the harbour.”
Commenting later to St Francis Chronicle May said: “There was great effort and skill required from the NSRI team to pull this off without a hitch. A big thank you to the community for bringing coffee and food to those controllers who managed the radios and operations room, plus for the starving crew who had nothing for eight hours – who missed anniversary dinners and kids’ birthday parties to save lives – a great one station 21!”
