Headed out to moreton with the family onboard from the pine river on wednesday afternoon after watching BOM all day, 10knts average for the trip across on current observations when we left and by the time we got out of the pine river it was blowing 20knts. So turned around and came home b4 woody point and the boat is still full of fuel ready to go. Glad we didnt go a bit earlier and get across.
The Rainbowrunner
Peter Hansler
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Give a man a fish, he'll eat it and fall asleep.
Teach a man to fish and he'll endanger an entire species
What an awful tragedy. My heart goes out to the survivors and family and friends of the person who died.
GES said...
I believe the problem lies in the licensing system for boat operaters in Queensland. You can go to one of those authorised boat licensing establishments and, without any previous experience in a boat, do the classroom theory that they provide, along with all the other participants on the course. Then they put everyone on a boat and you get a turn at driving it for a little while. No one gets much individual tuition at actual driving or boat handling or any real expereince and then they pass you fit for a licence. It's almost like buying a licence without gaining any real ability to drive or make proper judgements.
I agree with the sentiment. The theory component of the licence course that I did five years ago was very good but the practical part was a bit superficial. When I actually bought my boat a few months later, a mate who had been a boatie all of his life spent a day coaching me on the water.
That coaching included three complete launch and retrieves on to the trailer and trips around Green Island and St Helena in 15 knot conditions learning how to handle the boat in following seas, front on seas and everything in between. I had a checklist of things to do after the day based on what he had seen in coaching me.
I still learnt by clumsy practical experience in later solo trips how easy it is to broach in the wake of another bigger boat and made a few other mistakes along the way but that full day of private tuition in the actual handling of my own boat as an absolutely novice beginner was very good.
Nonetheless, I have learnt from four years of solo boating almost every weekend what my limitations are and that I am not interested in going out into anything above 15 knots. In my earliest days, even with the tuition, I might not have had that ability to make that judgement.
I concur with the sentiment that private coaching in handling a boat is a very very good idea. However, if it were not undertaken by a mate, I suspect that the cost of adding more on-water training in a licence course would result in more unliceced boaties on the water.
Guys
Put all local vmr phone nos in your mobile phone. Took me 10 min the other week just in case. I have had motor problems before and it was a handy thing to have. I agree sms is beter if you have time.
Very sad for their loved ones and friends.
We were out at Victoria Point when it got rough very quickly so headed back in.
Gidday DaMaGe, quite right, very hard to check the forcast from Morton under those curcumstances. That means he wasnt properly equiped or prepared and decided to just risk it.
As I understand it the weather at the time of departure was less than desirable bearing in mind the size of his vessel, then crossing very exposed waters from Morton back to the Mainland.
Once again, as I understand it, by opening his eyes he would have seen that it was unsafe to try the crossing in the first place. By the morning when he attempted to leave a Morton the forcasts had been changed, the night before for the other 3 blokes that ended up in the drink when they left the weather forcast was for bad weather... but certainly not as bad as what they encountered. (But that is why B.O.M. precludes all their weather reports with the noteI usually try to be diplomatic in here because of my associations, but quite frankly in my humble opinion... the man was a stark raving bloody idiot to take 2 little kids on a boat under the curcumstances with the equipment he had on such a trip in the first place. (If a mobile phone and a bucket to bail with, no navigation equipment is properly equipped then I will eat my hat).PLEASE BE AWARE
Wind gusts can be a further 40 percent stronger than the averages
given here, and maximum waves may be up to twice the height.
I will be honest, I have not bothered to try and find out from those that went on the search the full details and am only going on what I have heard and read on the papers. (I suspect for a change, the majority of the media is on the money with the fact that he had no navigation equipment when they have to send a hellicopter up to locate people in broad daylight in the Bay it usually suggests that the person does not know where they are in the first place so they cant dispatch a rescue vessel directly to them quickly. I would also suspect that he may not have had any flares).
Adults who risk there own lives, thats their bussiness, but when it comes to fools thinking they are invincible with their little tackers... to hell with them
My 2cents worth for what it's worth and is purely my unsubstantiated opinion
Regards
Lloyd
Very sad to see the loss of life, my condolences to the family of the victim. I hope the Father of those two kids sees how stupid it was to even attempt to cross the bay in those conditions in any boat let alone a 4m tinny. And really no radio??? Some people must just live by the old "it wont happen to me" but as we all now know it can and it does happen.
I hope what sub-zero said is truew and the father is prosecuted for his stupidity. Endangering hisa own life is one thing but two little kids??? >>
Cheers and Beers
"Mystique" Haines Signature 580BR with 175 of Mr Suzuki's finest ponies
Such a same it does realy go to show how much saftey is important to us all and how a little of local knowledge goes a long way
I left russell island at 4 am that morning in my 18 footer and got too the tip of mcleay and took two waves over the top of my half cab.
Common sense told me too go home as i did.There wasnt a breath of wind when i left and by the time i got to mcleay it was blowing 30 knots.
I actually picked up debri from the 6 metre boat that went down. No doubt about it the southern part of the bay is a force to be reckoned with.
Very sad .
According to the first reports earlier in the day, he *did* have flares which he utilised and only resorted to triple 0 when no response was forthcoming. Apparently nobody reported sighting the flares. Later news in the day made no mention of flares.
kev
Darryl,
Passage between Macleay and Coochie can be very dangerous in the wrong conditions, particularly in a wind against tide situation. People don't realise how dangerous the southern part of the bay can be.
Cheers,
Tony
Light travels faster than sound, that's why some people seem Bright ...... untill they speak
I am glad i have had the sense not to take my kids out there !
Rescued boat dad to face charges
Rosanne Barrett
05jan06
A MAN rescued with his two small sons from a swamped dinghy in Moreton Bay last week has been charged over the incident.
But Troy Winchester said yesterday he would never endanger the lives of his sons.
Mr Winchester has been charged with unsafe operation of a ship, an offence which has a maximum penalty of $37,500 or a year in jail.
Mr Winchester and his two sons - Ronin, 5, and Jesse, 2 - were rescued by the Water Police off Margate when 2m waves swamped his 4.5m tinnie early last Thursday morning.
The two boys were wet but unharmed and Mr Winchester said they had slept through the ordeal and had only been woken up by the noise of the rescue helicopter.
"I bloody love my kids," he said. "I would do anything for my kids. I'm very protective of my children."
Mr Winchester said he had been introducing the boys to the boatie's life.
"Just to get them (into boating) while they're young," he said.
"My father took me out on the boat when I was young. I'm a bit of a sea-dog, I don't want my kids to be a sea-dog if they don't want to, but I'll be there for them."
Mr Winchester said police charged him with negligence for running out of fuel and on the grounds the children had inappropriate life jackets and that conditions were too rough.
He said he had checked with the weather bureau before leaving Moreton Island, where he and the boys had been camping, for the mainland. The bureau had forecast winds of up to 15 knots in the morning, but when he was rescued, winds had reached 28 knots. He had run out of fuel attempting to push through the high waves.
Mr Winchester also said he had bought the lifejackets for the boys before Christmas and received incorrect advice from the store.
Mr Winchester said he planned to take the boys fishing on the Bay this weekend.
"I'm getting new life jackets, tight ones, and we're going out on the boat in Deception Bay," he said.
He is due to appear in Redcliffe Court on January 31.
the guy is crazy - a five and a two year old - what was he thinking?!!
this is very sad news, also for the other craft were not so lucky.
Lack of judgement, lack of unpreparedness and bad weather = potential loss of life! SIMPLE
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