www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-07/canberra-yachtie-rescued-at-sea-off-tasmanian-coast/12955792

Clansman with engine trouble! Sounds like he was towing a dinghy at sea!

Would not be the first and certainly not the last to be towed into Binnalong Bay.
Years ago, had a tow into there myself and then 7 people on the medivac to Hospital.
Three of us left on the boat trying to work out how to fix the boat and still get to Hobart by New Years Eve.
It was fairly crowded around in Skeleton Bay that day.
Great shelter however.

The dinghy was a folding one stored along the lifelines so it was almost certainly swept from that position rather than being towed. There could also be a terminology issue as I can't see the valise liferaft on the cabin top where it used to be; maybe that was swept away.

The boat was not carrying proper storm sails so I assume the main and genoa were either shredded or the boat could not make headway even with them reefed down.

Bass Strait in a bad mood is not like coastal passages.

Strange that they issued a lookout for the tender when the yacht itself must be around there somewhere.
No mention of a tow boat.

gary

ABC news has tow picture
they are not far out as using a shark cat with outboards
least with our tow we got the Van Dieman

Select to expand quote

garymalmgren said..
Strange that they issued a lookout for the tender when the yacht itself must be around there somewhere.
No mention of a tow boat.

gary

Hi Gary

Reading the report I says that the yacht was towed in by the police boat so I think it is only the tender that is missing

Regards Don

Got it Don.
The present ABC report is a update of what was posted earlier.
More detail in the update.
Was the skipper injured or exhausted by the ordeal?

gary

Dunno about the condition of the bloke on board,

But there was a report on the Tas ch 7 news last night showing the St Helens VMR in action on Sunday with three emergency call outs on that pretty ordinary day,

It's fair to say the VMR chap had a quite a lot of steam coming out of his ears in frustration at peoples stupidity in going out in those 40 knot plus conditions,
I wonder how many were recreational cray fisherfolk who just had to go out and check or pull the pots for the last time before going home on opening weekend.

www.sailblogs.com/member/clansmangalatea/

Nicely fitted out Clansman but the reefing is all done at the mast!

I reckon Tassie is not really the place to take a newly bought yacht with any issues. Even after going over my cat with a pretty fine tooth comb we blew out the main when reefed off Hobart (the sailmaker I used to check the sails in Lake Mac was an idiot but the guy in Kettering was great). I would urge anyone contemplating Tassie to stay away until the boat is well tested in home waters. Motor faultless, storm sails working well, all systems go and ensure you have talked to heaps of people about the Bass Strait crossing. We did two nice crossings on our trip, The first was from Eden to St Helens - left as the high sat on top of us. Motored for 4 hours and then sailed at speed as the Noreaster strengthened. Beat a front into St Helens by 16 hours and had Lady Barron as a back up if the trip was slow. Trip back had us motoring as it was either light winds or leave Flinders (Killiecrankie) on a front. So lots of fuel and watch Meteye like a hawk. Nice enough trip. Beat the noreaster into Eden by half a day. We were just 12-16 hours away from a slug fest both times. We could have had better weather with longer windows but we could have had much worse conditions if we were tardy, slow or impatient. A day or two either way can be a huge difference.

It seems a majority of the stories of rescues and near-misses I see are related to owners with newly-bought boats.
I get it that the ideal of doing a few shake-down trips of gradually increasing duration is just too hard sometimes. But the cost can be very high.