Family boat trip ends in tragedy

Press, 21 January 1984, Page 1

Family boat trip ends in tragedy

PA Invercargill A boy, aged eight, had died, and his brother, aged 10, is missing, believed drowned, after a boating accident off Omaui beach, Southland, on Thursday. The body of Brent Lindsay Russell was spotted on the water off Stirling Point just after midday yesterday by a pilot launch and was picked up by the Stewart Island ferry the Wairua.

Searches of the coastline and Foveaux Strait have failed to find his brother, Greig Anton Russell. The boys’ father, Mr Lindsay Bruce Russell, aged 35, of Omaui made his way ashore near the Ocean Beach freezing works at 7 a.m. yesterday.

The police and volunteers searched the area on Thursday night when Mr Russell and his boys failed to return from a fishing trip. The three left Omaui beach about 2 p.m. heading for Omaui Island to fish, said Senior-Sergeant Bill Schuck of the Invercargill police yesterday. They were in- a threemetre clinker-built dinghy with an eight horsepower engine which Mr Russell had borrowed from a friend.

The two boys were wearing life-jackets, but Mr Russell was not.

The boat was swamped by a big wave and overturned as they were returning to shore about 6.15 p.m.

Mr Russell managed to grab the two boys and put them on top of the overturned boat, but l¥z hours later, with all three weakened by cold and the boat drifting, he could not keep hold of them, Mr Schuck said.

Mr Russell apparently made shore between 9.30 p.m. and 10 p.m., but he did not know where he was and thought he was near Riverton.

After wandering all night, he eventually saw lights and arrived at the Ocean Beach freezing works suffering from exhaustion and in a distressed condition. Mr Russell was taken to Southland Hospital and released yesterday afternoon.