Tasman Sea 13 February 2008: The 43ft New Zealand registered catamaran, Silhouette II which was enroute from Brisbane to Wellington was sinking approximately 140 nautical miles East of Byron Bay and the crew were abandoning to their life raft.

At 4.17pm the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s (AMSA) Rescue Coordination Centre – Australia (RCC) received a satellite telephone call from the brother-in-law of the skipper of Silhouette II which had four people on board. The RCC issued a distress broadcast to all shipping in the area and tasked two dedicated search and rescue Dornier aircraft.

At 4.51pm the Silhouette II activated their 406MHz Emergency Position Radio Indicating Beacon (EPIRB) and at 4.54pm the initial satellite detection of the EPIRB is received by the RCC.

One of the Dornier aircraft arrived on scene at 8.30pm and was able to establish radio communications with both the Silhouette II and the ship Alltrans. At this time, the crew of the Silhouette II were still on board the hull of the catamaran.

By 9.02pm, the crew of the Silhouette II had abandoned the catamaran and were positioned within the liferaft. A Dornier crewman reported back to the RCC in Canberra that waves were breaking over the hull of the catamaran which was partially submerged. At this time Alltrans reported its position as 11 nautical miles from the distressed vessel, and the ship CSCL Melbourne as approximately 35 nautical miles away.

At 11.37pm, Rescue 441, the Cairns-based Dornier arrived on scene to relieve Rescue 471. At this time, Alltrans reported it was 0.25 nautical miles from the Silhouette II, and in direct radio contact with the four crew in the liferaft.

At 0054 hours on the 14th February, the RAAF P3C Orion arrived on scene and shortly after, Rescue 441 advised RCC-Australia that the crew of the Silhouette II have been successfully transferred to the Alltrans from the liferaft with no injuries.

RCC-Australia stood down all search and rescue assets at 0057 hours. The Alltrans advised they would retrieve the liferaft onboard in daylight hours and then deactivate the EPIRB, before continuing their journey to Gladstone where the rescued crew would disembark.

Finally, RCC-Australia issued a navigation warning to shipping in the area to be aware of the partially submerged Silhouette II.

In conclusion, the incident highlighted the preparedness of the crew of the Silhouette II for such an eventuality. The crew had all the right safety gear on board including a 406 MHz EPIRB. These digital EPIRBs are registered with the search and rescue authority in the country where the vessel is registered (in this instance, New Zealand). This provides search and rescue personnel with essential information to allow as expedient a rescue as possible.

For more details on this incident, go to http://www.amsa.gov.au/