OFFSHORE RESCUE DRAMA… Man seriously injured after fall inside yacht off Queensland coast
A tense open-ocean operation was launched after crews were forced into a risky Plan B.
A man has been rescued from a yacht in one of Queensland’s most isolated coastal regions, after a fall onboard triggered a complex offshore operation.
Emergency crews were on Monday called to a 19m boat off Port Clinton, on the south-eastern edge of Shoalwater Bay and about 100km north of Rockhampton, where a man in his 70s had suffered suspected lower body injuries.
An aerial assessment was carried out on arrival, but rescuers were unable to winch the patient due to the yacht’s masts, rigging and coverings.
Winching is usually the quickest way to carry out a rescue, but the superstructure poses a serious entanglement risk, and the helicopter’s rotor wash can make the boat unstable.
Instead, a critical care paramedic and rescue crew officer were transported to the vessel via a small tender, where they treated the man and worked to safely extract him.
They had to transfer the man from the towering yacht onto a small tender, carefully managing the height difference and movement between the two boats.
