Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue volunteers saved more than a dozen people after their yacht began taking on water off West Vancouver on Saturday.
The Horseshoe Bay-based unit was just preparing to head out to provide extra coverage for the Honda Celebration of Light fireworks show when they were alerted to the 48-foot Sea Ray with 18 people aboard, in distress near Passage Island.
The incident triggered an all-hands-on-deck response from numerous Coast Guard units and the Vancouver Police Department marine unit, but the RCMSAR folks were the first on scene, said Jason King, unit chief.
A language barrier between the volunteers and the subjects, who were clearly in a panic, made for something of a chaotic scene on the water, King said.
“It becomes a mad scramble at that point,” he said. “People were almost barging through each other to get off.”
Eventually, the RCMSAR crew got all of the subjects into PFDs and safely aboard the rescue vessels. An RCMSAR volunteer found the source of the leak and was able to stop it before the boat sank. The cause was a mechanical malfunction, King said. With the help of the fellow rescue agencies, they were able to tow the vessel to a Fisherman’s Cove boatlift and get it out of the water.
“It’s significant for sure,” King said. “Being able to get them before the vessel went down and being able to stop the vessel itself from sinking is tremendous.”
King said he was proud of how the volunteer crew, including some veteran members, handled the scene. And the boaters were lucky to have crews so close by, he added.
“Consequences could have been serious loss of life. 18 people – [including] children – and not enough PFDs,” he said. “Any one of these calls can just be one or two steps away from being a disaster.”
The boating community should take numerous lessons from the incident, King said, including not overloading their vessel with passengers, making sure there are enough PFDs on board for everyone, keeping signal flares or smoke handy, and the importance of maintenance.
“It’s not a matter of if it’ll let you down. It will let you down eventually if you don’t take care of your assets. Proper maintenance is key,” he said.
