Boaters and their lookouts need to keep extra vigilant for deadheads on Howe Sound as the area is littered with debris that could easily sink a vessel.
That’s the message from the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, after assisting in an operation that narrowly prevented a 40-foot boat with seven persons on board from sinking on Sunday.
The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria dispatched RCMSAR volunteer units from Horseshoe Bay and Gibsons as well as the Kitsilano Coast Guard, but it was the pilot of a nearby vessel that heard the distress call on the emergency channel and arrived first on scene just north of the B.C. Ferries route in between Keats and Gambier islands.
The pilot and passengers on the Formula 400 SS were unhurt but the vessel was taking on water “at speed,” said Jane Maisonville-Phillips, development officer for RCMSAR 1.
The boat’s pilot had a radio aboard and appropriate training, giving rescuers - both professional and amateur - the best possible chance of reaching them on time, Maisonville-Phillips said.
“When a deadhead like this hits a vessel, it can be seconds before you’re 100 per cent submerged. If you have a radio, especially a waterproof (floating) radio, you’re way better off in terms of our ability to locate you quickly.
Coast Guard members got a pump on board, buying time for the damaged craft to be towed to Gambier Island for salvage.
Because of high tides these days, the waterway can be particularly hazardous, Maisonville-Phillips added.
“There’s actually a humongous amount of debris in the form of massive logs in the water right now in Howe Sound and in the (Georgia) Strait and so boaters need to be super vigilant and cautious…
Relic isn’t out there beachcombing like they did back in the day,” she said, referencing CBC’s classic TV show The Beachcombers. “Some of these logs are massive and the damage to the vessel and potentially to human life is huge.”
Maisonville-Phillips offered thanks to the skipper of the boat that collected stranded individuals, particularly because he was listening in on the open emergency channel when the pan-pan call went out.
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