At 15h30, Saturday, 23rd January, NSRI Agulhas duty crew launched a sea rescue craft to attempt to locate a capsized catamaran reportedly sighted approximately 42 nautical miles off-shore of Agulhas.
NSRI Hermanus launched a sea rescue craft to stand-by in the area as back-up.
The floating capsized casualty Catamaran has reportedly been sighted on numerous occasions and hopes are that she is the Catamaran Sunsail that has been missing for a year.
On arrival on the scene, following a brief search, the upturned hull of the Catamaran was photographed by NSRI and NSRI rescue swimmers free dived to investigate markings and as much as could be investigated under the hull.
NSRI could not positively identify her as Sunsail.
No physical markings were found on the Catamaran to assist in identifying her and photographs have been sent to MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre), the family of the missing crew of the Catamaran Sunsail and to the Catamaran Sunsail owners to allow them to investigate further.
NSRI Agulhas attached a satellite tracking beacon to the casualty Catamaran which MRCC will monitor to keep track of the position while Telkom Maritime Radio Services broadcast a Maritime Navigational Warning to warn ships in the area of the navigational hazard and the tug boat Peridot operated by Smit Amandla were activated and they will attempt to tow the casualty Catamaran to an appropriate Port.
During the night, NSRI Hermanus were dispatched to investigate the option of attaching a tow-line to the catamaran to pull her from shipping lanes but the effort was aborted and MRCC are tracking the casualty Catamaran until the tug Peridot arrived on the scene.
Photographs are available on Sea Rescue’s FLICKR page.
TO REPORT A SEA RESCUE EMERGENCY DIAL 112 FROM A CELLPHONE
See also:
South African catamaran crew goes missing during voyage
Catamaran Sunsail RC044-978 missing at sea – TellTales
Missing yacht crew update- TravelWrite
Sunsail selects response team to search for missing SA ..
