Five sailors were rescued after a yacht got into difficulty in rough seas 14 miles off the coast of Napier in the Hawke’s Bay region of the North Island of New Zealand recently (April 21st).
Local coastguards arrived to tow the stricken vessel ashore after they were paged for assistance, but the yacht’s bilge bumps stopped working because of a lack of electrical power, causing it to take on water.
The rescue was further complicated by the choppy waters meaning the coastguard couldn’t come alongside, but they instead recommended the sailors deploy their inflatable liferaft to float away from their vessel.
Coastguards then managed to get close enough to the RFD Seasava liferaft to rescue all five passengers, including one suffering from severe sea sickness.
The RFD brand is synonymous with premium and innovative survival technology and remains at the forefront of survival technology some 90 years after it was formed, now sitting under the wider Survitec umbrella.
Craig Johnson, Managing Director of Survitec (Australia and New Zealand), said: “While we always hope our customers never find themselves in a perilous enough situation in which they have to deploy our equipment, it is validation of everything we do when we hear about successful rescues such as this where our kit has played a vital role.
“The local coastguards must be applauded for their swift and decisive actions, as they had identified a potential for disaster and they were keen to stress the benefit to their rescue operation of the passengers wearing lifejackets and having a liferaft onboard. Survitec is proudly obsessive about safety and survival and stories like this show our commitment is not in vain.”
*Image Credit:
Image by NZ Herald. 2018. Five yachties rescued off Napier coast in rough seas - NZ Herald. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12037533