Skipper denies radio calls

Press, 21 October 1989, Page 3

Skipper denies radio calls

PA Blenheim The skipper of the capsized, trimaran Rose-Noelle, John Glennie, has denied he made radio calls after June 1 — although a fellow yachtsman claims to have heard from the stricken boat between June 9 and 12. Mr Glennie said it was time to put the record right regarding the radio calls said to have been received by the yacht Argonauta, which was berthed alongside the Rose-Noelle in Picton before she left on June 1 for Tonga. The skipper of Argonauta, Jim Bramwell, had arranged with Mr Glennie to keep informal radio schedule on an agreed frequency at 8.15 p.m. daily.

Mr Bramwell has said he made contact with the Rose-Noelle on the fourth or fifth day after she

left Picton and also between June 9 and 12.

He was reported as saying he assumed the call was from the Rose-Noelle because although the message was scrambled it was received on the right frequency at the right time. He said the caller never identified himself, however, so he could not confirm it was the Rose-Noelle. Mr Glennie said he had not made the calls. He had listened at the agreed time each night on the ham radio but never heard anything. He was reluctant to use the radio himself because the set was unlicensed. “I never used the radio. Neither did any of my crew. That radio was there for an emergency and I did not consider a storm an emergency. Like any

experienced yachtsman, the way you handle a storm is to sail through it.”

He added that the RoseNoelle’s last radio contact had been on June 1 to report to Float Air in Picton that the trimaran had cleared Tory Channel and to pass on a Tongan forwarding address for his sister in Blenheim.

Mr Glennie has also reacted angrily to claims that the yacht’s radio equipment was inadequate. The Marlborough safety inspector for the New Zealand Yachting Federation and for the Ministry of Transport, Mr Cedric Wills, has criticised Mr Glennie for leaving for Tonga without M.O.T. clearance. The Rose-Noelle had been equipped only with a short-range

VHF set and a manually tuned ham radio, which was not up to M.O.T. standard, Mr Wills said.

Mr Glennie said the RoseNoelle was an Australian-built vessel and therefore a visiting yacht in New Zealand, although it was registered in Nelson for convenience. Any laws that might apply to a New Zealand boat leaving for overseas did not apply to the Rose-Noelle.

It would not have mattered how many radios the Rose-Noelle had on board as once the trimaran capsized the radios were under water and would not work, he said. The Rose-Noelle was wellequipped with emergency equipment, he said. She had colour radar and a satellite navigation system.