A Queensland sailor who was rescued in the Great Australian Bight has retrieved his damaged yacht from the ocean with the help of local fishermen, a week after the vessel hit rough weather.
Key points:
Xavier Doerr set out with the crew of Port Lincoln prawn vessel FV Challenge to locate and retrieve the yachtThe sailor had been trying to break several records before his boat was damaged in severe weatherFV Challenge captain Bernie Henderson said the crew had to contend with poor conditions
Xavier Doerr, 22, activated his emergency beacon last week, after his boat was struck by severe weather about 630 kilometres west of Kangaroo Island.
He was rescued the next day by the bulk carrier Theodore JR, during 100km/h winds and eight-metre swells.
It followed a major search and rescue effort coordinated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) involving the bulk carrier, two rescue planes and an RAAF aircraft.
Mr Doerr was later flown to Adelaide where he was assessed at the Royal Adelaide Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The sailor said he set out on Wednesday night with the crew of Port Lincoln prawn vessel FV Challenge to locate and retrieve the yacht, and arrived back in Port Lincoln this morning.
“It was great to actually be able to retrieve the boat and make sure that it wasn’t out there causing harm for anyone else,” Mr Doerr said.
“It was of course very difficult to get it, but I’m just glad that it’s not out there acting as a hazard.
“[The vessel is] unfortunately riddled with holes and currently still sinking, so we’ve got the bilge pumps going, but when we came to the vessel it was completely full with water.”
AMSA response duty manager Dan Gillis said on Monday that the agency was maintaining an eye on the abandoned yacht for safety reasons.
“It is a navigation hazard, so we issue a broadcast to shipping to advise commercial vessels — recreational vessels and merchant ships that there is a boat drifting around there and they should keep an eye out for it,” he said on Monday.
Retrieval mission ‘not much fun’
The young sailor had been trying to break several records circumnavigating Australia before he was injured and his boat damaged in severe weather.
Mr Doerr said he plans to transport the boat to Gold Coast City Marina and Shipyard to assess the damage and get it repaired.
“At the moment we have a number of holes that were taking on water … it still is at the moment so the bilge pumps are still going on the emergency battery system but all the other electronics have gone underwater.”
He said he’s still recovering from head, neck and back injuries as a result of the ordeal at sea last week, but was “grateful” for the rescuers’s efforts.
FV Challenge captain Bernie Henderson said the retrieval wasn’t without difficulty and was “not much fun”, because the crew had to contend with rough seas and windy conditions.
“We hooked onto it and started towing it … there was ropes chafing and breaking, so we tried again,” Mr Henderson said.
He said the towing rope broke at night and the crew had to wait until the next morning to attach the rope again and resume the tow.
Mr Henderson said the crew tied the rope to the mast, but the mast fell off midway through the journey.
