Luis Feliu
The owner of a 50-foot yacht at the centre of a dramatic rescue off Evans Head last week has hit out at looters who took gear and personal belongings from the stricken yacht and had tried to tow the abandoned vessel.
A merchant vessel helped rescue the four crew from the Red Sky around 19 kilometres off Evans Head after they radioed a mayday call and let off a distress signal when the yacht started taking water in heavy swells on its way to Sydney from the Gold Coast.
But in the aftermath of the rescue, the crew’s possessions were looted, according to disillusioned yacht owner Mike Cramb, who told Echonetdaily how the yacht got into trouble and his despair.
‘After we abandoned, someone has come aboard and tried to tow our vessel: a rope was found through the anchor,’ Mr Cramb said.
‘One would wonder why they didn’t respond earlier and was it the vessel that didn’t answer my mayday.
‘They also helped themselves to a lot of our gear. I though the pirates lived in Somalia but it appears you have a few around the mid north coast.
‘We are devastated, we have lost everything, and to think people are looting our possessions makes us sick in the guts.
‘I’m not rich I worked my guts out underground as an air leg miner the hardest job on earth to save the money to buy this boat.
‘If you’re the person who stole my outboard or dingy or the bottle of Scotch I was saving for my 60th birthday or my other possessions, you can return them to the police or leave them somewhere to be picked up.
‘Red Sky was my home, it was under-insured because I’m broke after fixing it all up and leaving no job. My wife has MS and we just wanted to have a couple of good years while she’s still able to walk.’
Mr Cramb said that once his yacht had been washed ashore he discovered the yacht’s rudder had been sliced by a cable and the hull was damaged from a buoy the yacht hit.
Read Mr Cramb’s (blog) account in the comments section at the end of our last report.
It can be found at:
https://www.echo.net.au/2014/12/crew-rescued-yacht-sinks-evans-head/
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