www.miragenews.com/police-coordinated-rescue-in-tasman-sea-1590904/

At the rate of rescue lately, no one over 55 will be allowed to sail offshore soon. Bumping into islands, constantly hitting Fraser Island, why are old men doing such dumb stuff?

45kts wind, 5m seas, yacht sank by the time of this video footage: Sailors rescued after yacht takes on water at Lakes Entrance off Victoria's coast - ABC News

If your boat and crew can't handle such conditions then it shouldn't be in that part of the world.

Would be interesting to find out the boat name and make, history etc.

RE: Would be interesting to find out the boat name and make, history etc.

The 6.5m yacht is believed to have sunk.
Pretty small boat to be out in those conditions.
Also, very smart/lucky to be carrying a liferaft on such a small boat.
I too would like to know more.

gary

My money's on it being a Mini-transat (they're 6.50)

Could happen to any of us - with the possible exception of those with a steel hull.

This one was for sale in Melbourne earlier this year: web.archive.org/web/20250320050555/https://yachthub.com/list/yachts-for-sale/used/sail-monohulls/mini-transat-6-5-carbon-canting-proto-classe-mini-in-cat-3/325314

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-17/sailors-rescued-from-yacht-off-victorias-coast/106151752

Looks like a Mini.

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JonE said..
My money's on it being a Mini-transat (they're 6.50)

Could happen to any of us - with the possible exception of those with a steel hull.

This one was for sale in Melbourne earlier this year: web.archive.org/web/20250320050555/https://yachthub.com/list/yachts-for-sale/used/sail-monohulls/mini-transat-6-5-carbon-canting-proto-classe-mini-in-cat-3/325314

Is there any evidence that a steel hull is actually demonstrably safer, apart from situations where its impact resistance comes into play? Funnily enough when I was Googling to try to find out more about this incident I came across one where a yacht called "Spirit of steel" was rescued in the Strait...

I'm not sure "it could happen to any of us" since we don't know what happened. Googling incidents and personal knowledge indicates that many of the rescues (or losses) are of boats that don't use proper storm sails, which IMHO are vital in that area. Looking at the footage of rescues indicates that people are getting picked up in quite benign conditions (ie where boats are lightly heeled with sails reefed to about No. 4 and double reef size, which isn't harsh by Bass Strait standards) with no reported damage to the yacht, so certainly some of them appear to be making mistakes.

ABC footage screen grab, looks like a Mini 6.5 or similar, had a storm jib at the time.

I know several steel hulls when surveyed had pitting and less than 1mm effective thickness.

As it happens, about 3pm Saturday afternoon, I downloaded a grib file (GFS WW3) that covers that area. For 8pm Sunday, East of Bairnsdale (38S 149E), it was predicting 36 knots gusting to 43 knots (Beaufort 8) from the South West (235 degrees) with 4.5m significant wave height. Mostly 4m+ wind blown waves (from 231 degrees), with a residual half metre swell running at 8 to 9 seconds against the wind from ENE (from 71 degrees).

I thought minis had to be positively bouyant?

Given the first report said it had sunk before the rescue, and in the footage it was not sunk, I think we can regard an information about sinking as unreliable.

Does anyone know if Australian SAR teams instruct you to scuttle your boat? I know that the guy who got rescued after rounding the horn last year was told to scuttle his boat just before he stepped off.

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EastCoastSail said..
ABC footage screen grab, looks like a Mini 6.5 or similar, had a storm jib at the time.

I know several steel hulls when surveyed had pitting and less than 1mm effective thickness.

So wouldn't that be the result of inadequate maintenance and neglect? Who would take their steel hull out there if it was in that bad a state, it doesn't mean that steel is a no-go in general for construction

No one said that steel was a "no-go"; some of us just seem to think it's not dramatically better in most situations.

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bullrout said..

EastCoastSail said..
ABC footage screen grab, looks like a Mini 6.5 or similar, had a storm jib at the time.

I know several steel hulls when surveyed had pitting and less than 1mm effective thickness.

So wouldn't that be the result of inadequate maintenance and neglect? Who would take their steel hull out there if it was in that bad a state, it doesn't mean that steel is a no-go in general for construction

The majority don't know they have the defect, including once myself, my personal experience:

-know of two pre purchase steel hull surveys that picked up 1mm hull plating corrosion pits. Wasn't obvious until pointed out. The seller wasn't aware
-I was the engineer of a ship that corroded through the hull from 20 years of tank dipping weight hitting the hull under the sounding tube. The corrosion hole looked like a 10mm drill bit hole from inside out ( solved with a tapered bung by diver). I had surveyed that part of the hull two years before and missed the defect.
-personally involved in several crop and renew of aluminium workboats that have corrosion pitting to less than a mm hull plate. That was found by ultrasound, the damage location on the inside couldn't be seen visually (under diesel and under the longerons).

My point is there is no ultimate hull material, they are all a compromise.

I personally wouldn't trust a steel hulled recreational yacht over 20yrs old, unless the interior had been completely gutted and the hull inspected, ideally also by ultrasound.

For a different perspective, go to your local port, count the number of commercial and recreational ships and boats from the 1980s. Classify them as steel, wood, aluminium, fibreglass or ferro. Determine for yourself what has the longevity and likely covered the most seaworthy miles.

one shouldn't tar all steel boats with the same brush... 40 years this is the worst I found

The grey isn't paint but zinc & still well adhered. Minor pitting filled with epoxy thickened with milled fibre.


Primed with Jotun epoxy primer before finishing with Jotun hard top. I expected it will last another 40 years.
a boiler maker thinks it's Corten or similar. & if a steely starters to leak it's going to a slow process, not a catastrophic incident like a springing a plank on a carvel boat



cheers

Yes there are many exceptions to generalisations, I was trying to use my experience but I used broad brushstrokes.

Well done for maintaining an old boat well.

Thank you, but I feel I've made a rod for my own back, anytime I lift the cabin soles I find myself getting the vacuum out. Perhaps dust grey or sand cream topcoat would have been a better choice. But I don't particularly want to go back there now the fit out is nearing completion

off topic..
This is the video of one side of a Mottle 33 during a post purchase inspection, after a couple of small leaks were noticed during a light sail. Previous owner sold it cheap and no survey carried out. He had patched the holes with fibreglass in some areas and thick steel plate in others.

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-I was the engineer of a ship that corroded through the hull from 20 years of tank dipping weight hitting the hull under the sounding tube. The corrosion hole looked like a 10mm drill bit hole from inside out ( solved with a tapered bung by diver). I had surveyed that part of the hull two years before and missed the defect.

this is what the striker plate is there to prevent...

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PacificStar said..

-I was the engineer of a ship that corroded through the hull from 20 years of tank dipping weight hitting the hull under the sounding tube. The corrosion hole looked like a 10mm drill bit hole from inside out ( solved with a tapered bung by diver). I had surveyed that part of the hull two years before and missed the defect.

this is what the striker plate is there to prevent...

Yes, it was incorrectly fitted at build, no one picked it up that the weight was sliding past the striker plate. But the striker plate was also hiding the corrosion cell. The diver had to find the hole by feel in very bad visibility off the coast of Indonesia.