Boat capsize St Lucia

[Echo7]

https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/news/look-two-injured-after-ski-boat-capsizes-in-rough-kzn-north-coast-surf-7eb10603-0548-43f3-8be5-6cb687ea83fc

DURBAN - A man has been injured with suspected spinal injuries after the ski boat he was on capsized in St Lucia on the KZN North Coast yesterday.
Netcare 911 spokesperson Shawn Herbst said the incident took place on New Year’s Day just before 2pm.
Herbst said Netcare 911, the National Sea Rescue Institute Station 40, and the START emergency team responded to reports of a drowning at a St Lucia ski-boat launch site.
He said reports indicated that a ski boat with two occupants on board had capsized in large surf.
When rescue teams arrived on the scene, both adult males had already swum to shore with the assistance of members of the public, he said.

“Medics assessed the patients and found that one of the men had sustained suspected spinal injuries.
“The patients were treated on scene and, once stabilised, were transported by Netcare 911 ambulance to hospital for further care,” said Herbst.
He added that the boat had washed ashore and been secured by the NSRI.

[REEFMAN]

YOH! That's some serious surf right there! What were they thinking!?Thankfully they survived.

[ianf]

The longer you stand on the beach thinking about it, the smaller the waves become, and the greater your chances getting out to the back.

[stephenrplumb]

Very sorry to see that and I hope the guy comes out okay. It looks like a very nice boat.


I normally launch from DSBC, but I did a lauch last week from Umkomaas. I made sure we launched at high tide and on a calm day, but even so it was quite hectic. Certainly more challenging than Sodwana.
I also confirmed that I am pretty poor at judging sets, but we did manage to get out without issues, although we got a bit wet.
My kids did their skippers with Paul Dawson and he was adamant about knocking back the throttles to idle when facing a wave, although of course better to not put yourself in that situation.
I did my exam with Ronnie Windsor and he is very adamant about ensuring that you face every wave head on? We also always have our drogue anchor ready to through out front and attached to the tow eye in the event we are surf launching?
I am by no means experienced and wonder where it all went wrong? Any comments from those in the know?

[stephenrplumb]

The longer you stand on the beach thinking about it, the smaller the waves become, and the greater your chances getting out to the back.

The great thing about Sodwana and Aliwal, is the amount of Dive operators that you can usually watch. Also when you see grizzled locals on the beach not getting their boats ready, for me this is a sign to head for safer shores.
Sometimes the beaching can also be tricky and it is quite handy to be able to follow a much more experienced skipper in which I always do at Sodwana.
i have never tried to launch at St Lucia, but it sounds quite hectic.

[maganything]

I believe they were actually on backline waiting to come in and got caught by a rouge set from behind. They saw it too late an couldnt out run it.

[Bassa]

Yes, Correct

This is a coment shared from one of the Facebook pages Reason, why/how the skipper got in trouble in the surf

The guy was on he's way back and stopped at the backline to call the tractor but unfortunately stopped too close to the backline and the set surprised him. The wave broke directly on the boat, skipper stopped a bit too close to the surf.
St.lucia has a bad surf that's unpredictable to a lot of skippers.

[Bassa]

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[Bassa]

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[Bassa]

YOH! That's some serious surf right there! What were they thinking!?Thankfully they survived.

I was out That morning, the ocean was beautiful, flat seas which made an easy launch


Later that afternoon the north Easterly gust wind  picked up and blew quite harsh  and made sea conditions very unfavorable
Turning the surf zone into a washing machine and making it very challenging for ski boaters
 

[stephenrplumb]

1

Thats really sad to see. Growing up in Umhlanga, we always used to see a few boats flip at the old Umhlanga Ski Boat Festival and when I was driving tractors for the event as a youth, I sometimes had to help drag the boats up the beach.


Now that I own one, I am feeling really sorry for this poor fellow and I am sure that all the rods and stuff are probably not covered separately so he is going to loose a packet of money on this. I heard some horror stories about fishing guys out of boats that were covered in rapalas, so I am pretty insistent that all rods are stowed for launches and retrievals, but I had not considered that this poor fellow was caught out from behind.


I hope he is doing well and makes a full recovery and I hope that he is able to get a good boat to replace this one which I am sure will be written off.

[Slim Dusty]

Good to see the new “VIKING” launching from St Lucia this past weekend…
I believe they were fishing the St Lucia Snoek Derby 2022