THE two Charter Fish Narooma boats Nitro and Playstation came to the rescue on Thursday recovering the upturned fishing boat that flipped on the Narooma bar crossing on Wednesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
After flipping and being washed out to sea with the outgoing tide, Marine Rescue Narooma with its rescue vessel NA30 towed fishing boat south of Narooma to the Glasshouse Rocks area where it was anchored overnight.
The bar on Wednesday was too dangerous to attempt a tow-in and it was decided it was safest to leave the 6.5m fibreglass fishing vessel out overnight in an out-of-the-way location.
Then Charter Fish Narooma was contracted by insurance company Club Marine on Thursday to do the salvage and after dropping off clients from the morning’s fishing trips to Montague Island, the two vessels rendezvoused at the anchored and upturned vessel.
Playstation skipper Nick Cowley and his deckhand Alex Krantz hopped overboard and cut the vessel free from its anchor. That anchor owned by Marine Rescue remains on the seafloor.
Then Nitro skipper Benny Boulton assisted by local Andrew Cowley attached a tow-rope to the fishing boat and began the slow trip back to Narooma and the bar.
Concerned about the tide changing, he made the best speed he could with the fishing vessel at times being completely submerged out the back.
Crossing the bar was no problem as conditions were much better on Thursday and the owner of the fishing vessel and his fishing partners were perched on the bar crossing break wall checking out the operation and waving as the vessels made it back in.
The two salvage vessels and the recovered vessel continued onto Apex Park boat ramp where the initial plan was to reattach the ropes to one side of the vessel to roll it over upright on the water.
Again Nick and Alex jumped in to reattach the ropes and Benny gave Playstation full power, righting the vessel for an instant before it rolled back over again.
It was deemed that the best option was to call in the crane from Narooma Cranes that was coming to Narooma to lift in the new Marine Rescue 10.2 Naiad anyway.
So that evening, the boys once again met down at Apex and assisted the crane crew to hoist the battered vessel out of the water, after which they used their skills to flip it in the cradles and place it gently back on its boat trailer.
Skipper Benny Boulton said the boat’s owners were most grateful and wanted to get a gift for the two young men that jumped in and helped salvage several times.
