Father’s Day fishing trip ends in pair’s second offshore emergency in a year.
Six boaters from Evans Head have been commended in Federal Parliament and praised as heroes for saving the lives of an elderly man and his son whose small fishing boat overturned on Father’s Day.
The men’s 5.25m runabout tipped in challenging conditions about 3nm south of Evans Head, sparking a major response operation involving the nearby boaters and numerous emergency services.
This was the second emergency at sea in a year for the 83-year-old father and his son, 60.
In August 2018, the pair and a companion activated their EPIRB after their 6m runabout overturned offshore. The Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter, Evans Head 30 and Ballina 30 responded to rescue the men from the water in the dark.
MR Evans Head Watch Officer Kira Hartland, who took the radio call from the first boaters on scene to report the Father’s Day emergency, has nominated the six men for bravery awards.
Boaters Lachlan Metcalf, Utah Chilcott and George Daley were on the water when they came alongside the overturned boat and radioed the Evans Head base to say they were pulling a man from the water.
Utah leapt into the water to push the barely conscious man up while Lachlan and George, who had a broken arm, pulled him aboard and administered first aid.
“These men are absolute heroes. I have no doubt in my mind that both men from the overturned boat would have died if the skippers and their
crews hadn’t responded in the way they did,”
Sean Sauer and his sons Hayden and Luke heard the radio call and raced to the scene, finding the man’s son wrapped more than 20 times in anchor rope that was still tied to the overturned boat and being repeatedly dragged under the water as braided fishing line cut deeply into his ankles
Completely incapacitated, he was unable to help himself. Utah again dived in the water, swimming among debris to keep the man afloat and cut debris off his legs while the Sauers lay on their boat’s duckboard to cut him free and hold him in a headlock out of the water.
“I can only imagine the courage it would have taken to attend, to dive into the water or hold the man while he was being dragged under,” Ms Hartland said.
“These acts of incredible bravery in this situation of a boat sinking and a man tied to that boat with lines all around the area is truly heroic.”
Page MP Kevin Hogan acknowledged the life-saving efforts of Lachlan Metcalf, Utah Chilcott, George Daley and Sean, Hayden and Luke Sauer in Federal Parliament.
“They saved the life of two people in a boating accident on Father’s Day. Thank you for your efforts. You are local heroes,”
While the father and son were quickly returned across the bar to the Fisherman’s Co-op medical pontoon, another boater, Shannon Doyle and his crew Caine Hutchinson and Zac Thile, retrieved debris and stood by the almost completely submerged boat to lend assistance when the unit’s rescue vessel arrived.
MR Evans Head Deputy Unit Commander Bill Bates met the returning boats at the pontoon with oxygen and a defibrillator, finding the elderly man in a serious condition and the Co-op manager relaying first aid instructions from a Triple Zero operator.
DUC Bates was able to administer oxygen until the arrival of a local lifeguard, followed by an off-duty paramedic and Rural Fire Service volunteer, who arrived in a fire truck with the rest of the brigade to assist.
The older man was transferred by ambulance to a waiting Westpac Rescue Helicopter as police arrived to interview his son. With every local emergency service gathered on the riverside, EH 30 put to sea, where Mr Doyle was able to point to the bow of the centre console runabout sinking vertically with only about the last 50cm of its bow protruding from the water in choppy conditions.
On the first approach, crew member Brad Burgess snagged the tow point with a tow line just as it disappeared below the surface and the vessel sank. The crew paid out the line and slowly pulled the boat back to the surface where it drained water through the scuppers. Every time the rescue vessel slowed, the runabout sank. The crew returned it to the ramp, where NSW Maritime helped return the boat to its trailer.
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