Sinking boat’s radio obsolete—report

Press, 25 August 1983, Page 2

Sinking boat’s radio obsolete —report

A radio used to send Mayday calls from a sinking vessel in Pelorus Sound last month was unlicensed, obsolete, and non-operational, according to the Harbourmaster for the Marlborough Harbour Board, Captain D. I. Jamison.

In a report to the board on the incident Captain Jamison said that the three persons aboard appeared to have no knowledge of the radio’s operation. The Amber-Jane, a 10m pleasure launch, foundered while at anchor off Horseshoe Bay, Pelorus Sound, on

July 26. There were no casualties. The three crew members were picked up from their dinghy by a passing fishing vessel, and taken back to Te Rawa.

Captain Jamison said that the occupants of the launch asserted that they had sent out Mayday calls for 90 minutes. There was no response to the calls or to flares which were ignited. He said that several newspapers had carried headlines drawing attention to the fact that the Mayday calls had not been heeded. The inference from the reports was that there had been a lack of radio monitoring for distress calls within the Marlborough Sounds area.

“This is totally incorrect. There is adequate radio coverage by Wellington Radio and the board’s radio base at Picton,” Captain Jamison said.

There were numerous other authorised radio base stations at various positions throughout the Sounds. They normally monitored VHF

channel 16, and the emergency distress call frequency 2182kHz. The vessel was travelling from Havelock to Picton at the time that it sank. “Having regard to all the circumstances, particularly the inexperience of the three persons aboard, it is fortunate that the vessel sank within Pelorus Sound rather than in a more remote location,” Captain Jamison said. “The whole exercise was somewhat precarious, to say the least.”

The location in which the vessel sank was still being investigated. A decision would have to be made on whether the vessel would have to be raised and removed.

A spokesman for the insurance assessors said that they were still trying to find the boat so that its value could be determined. Their first efforts had been unsuccessful, but they had a fair idea where it was and another attempt would be made.