Four Rescued After Runabout Capsizes On Bar

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30366, 15 February 1964, Page 15

Four Rescued After Runabout Capsizes On Bar

Four men were rescued I when a 14ft outboard runabout broached on the Sumner bar yesterday and was capsized by a wave. . The owner of the boat. Seahorse. Mr J. A. McClintock,' was rescued by Mr Denisi Quane. a member of the Summer Surf Life-saving Club, on a surf ski. Mr McClintock’s son, Mr A W. McClintock, who wasj s:eering the runabout whenl : capsized, and two of the family’s friends. Messrs H.; Lief and L. Winters, were) rescued by the Sumner lifeboat. Rescue 11. The runabout was launched ; into the Estuary from a trailer on a launching ramp at Pleasant Point, South Brighton, in the morning. The McClintocks, who live at 144 Woodham road, and their friends intended to go fishing. Mr R. C. Mahan, a boatbuilder. was watching the runabout from his home at 4 The Spur, Clifton, nearing the bar and saw it capsize. He telephoned Constable W. A Cromie at the Sumner Police Station, and the lifeboat siren was sounded at 12.10 p.m. Two members of the Sumner Life-saving Club at the pavilion, Miss Margaret Hessey and Mr Christopher Gresson. could see the cap-

sized runabout. They set out towards it on paddle boards.; Mr Quane. from his Shop ini the township, rushed to the beach with a surf ski. The runabout was in an i area of slack water, about 100 yards from the south spit, but kept drifting towards the breakers on the bar. Mr McClintock, sen., an elderly man. first felt the I effects of the cold. He found jit hard to cling to the capsized boat, and Mr Lief swam j for a small life preserver, ’ which had drifted away, for ■him. Two of the- four men jwere wearing lifejackets. The capsize occurred in about 7ft of water, according to Miss Hessey, aged 19. She said that the men were shocked, and soared of sharks. “There were pieces of sea- ' weed causing them alarm, I and they tried to lie across the upturned boat. We could not take any of them on our boards, but Denis Quane got the old man aboard his surf ski. I “He was shocked and seemed to be feeling the cold, although I thought the water was lovely and warm. He asked to be taken to the south spit, as he wanted to i walk up to his car at South ■ Brighton. i “Kit Gresson and I stayed with the other three until the ! lifeboat arrived.” . The secretary of the Sumner Lifeboat Institution (Mr W. J. Baguley) said that the boat was manned by a crew of six. . ■ The lifeboat was at the scene of the accident 18 minutes after the alarm sounded, he said. “It was just past low water : and the water in the area I round the capsized boat was only 3ft 6in in places. The I lifeboat was bouncing on. the ; seabed in the troughs of the , waves and we had some • difficulty in manoeuvring

close to the boat. Three men were lying across the upturned boat. “Finally, with the help of Miss Hessey and Mr Gresson, we got a line on the capsized boat and towed it slowly into deeper water before getting the three men aboard the lifeboat.” Mr Baguley said that the lifeboat crew had righted the full of water, but it had immediately turned turtle again. They towed it back to the lifeboat launching slip at Scarborough at half-speed, four knots and a half. “The three men were very cold and suffering from shock. We lent them clothing, and they were very pleased to see the outboard motor still on the transom of the runabout when we got it righted and up on a slip,” he said. "The American said he had never been more glad to see anyone when we arrived at the capsized boat. They were most appreciative of the assistance given to them.” Mr Winter is a member of the United States Antarctic support force. . Mr Baguley said that the men in the boat had told him that they. had seen a large wave coming towards them when they were nearing the bar. They had tried to turn, the boat about, and run with the wave. The wave had broached them, . pouring over the side of the boat and rolling it over. “Apparently, none of the men in the runabout had knowledge of conditions on the bar. The tide was just coming in and there was really only a slight chop, but the currents and conditions on the bar are always changing. They were reasonably well equipped, but time and again it has been, demonstrated that going over on near 'the . bar without knowledge of local conditions is most foolhardy,” Mr I Baguley said.