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Tragedy on the bar


JonD

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A boat went over today on Moruya bar, none of the six onboard were wearing lifejackets (including children). Unfortunatly a 13 year old girl died, daughter of the skipper.

Our local bar at Narooma didn't look to bad but Moruya is shallower and can often have almost shore break conditions from my experiance. 

I believe local fishermen heading out using smaller boats rescued most of the crew but the young girl was found under the overturned boat. 

I don't want to say to much but I can't help but feel quite shocked this has happened, my heart goes out to the families involved.

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Very, very sad.  A poor girl has lost her life and a lifetime of regret for everyone else involved.

I wonder what time this happened I was doing the SROCP course at Cronulla.  We went into the radio room after and the only thing mentioned at that stage was a car swimming at Foreshore ramp. 

Edited by Welster
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4 hours ago, Welster said:

Very, very sad.  A poor girl has lost her life and a lifetime of regret for everyone else involved.

I wonder what time this happened I was doing the SROCP course at Cronulla.  We went into the radio room after and the only thing mentioned at that stage was a car swimming at Foreshore ramp. 

It was around 7.30am I believe. Though lifejackets are highly recommended it's doubtfull one would of saved her, infact the last fatality's I remember here were from the same area when two me drowned in the boat cabin after their boat overturned and the self inflating caused them to get trapped in the cab.

Edited by JonD
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13 minutes ago, JonD said:

It was around 7.30am I believe. Though lifejackets are highly recommended it's doubtfull one would of saved her, infact the last fatality's I remember here were from the same area when two me drowned in the boat cabin after their overturned and the self inflating caused them to get trapped in the cab.

At the course yesterday there was some talk about how quick the press are to jump to point to the absence of lifejackets even when the are not legally required. The danger of been caught in an upturned half cabin wearing a life jacket.

 

It is  really sad sad when kids get caught up in these tradgedies. Going by the time you say it would of been near the end of the run out. 

Edited by Welster
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1 hour ago, Welster said:

At the course yesterday there was some talk about how quick the press are to jump to point to the absence of lifejackets even when the are not legally required. The danger of been caught in an upturned half cabin wearing a life jacket.

http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/maritime/using-waterways/navigation-communication/coastal-bars.html

http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/documents/maritime/usingwaterways/navigationandcommunication/coastal-bar-safety-a-guide-to-crossing-coastal-bars.pdf

Lifejackets are required. But it is recommended that all must be outside of cabin except for the master

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7 hours ago, xerotao said:

Thanks.  I know that in a bar situation, our conversation wasn’t yesterday wasn’t about bar crossings though.

Edited by Welster
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I was of the understanding that all persons on vessels crossing bars ..it is mandatory to wear lifejackets...if u get seen crossing Swansea bar without  a pfd on waterways will fine you...any person that attempts to cross a bar on a low runout tide into two mtrs of swell and doesn't have all passengers wearing pfds should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law..i greive for the parents of this young girl..but.commonsense needs to prevail..one casualty is bad enough  but this could have been six..it brings back bad memories of the halfcab thatat got smashed tryin to exit narooma a few years ago..they shouldn't have been goin out and didn't have jackets on and DIED...think before going people..you only live once and you shouldn't kill others...rick

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8 hours ago, rickmarlin62 said:

I was of the understanding that all persons on vessels crossing bars ..it is mandatory to wear lifejackets...if u get seen crossing Swansea bar without  a pfd on waterways will fine you...any person that attempts to cross a bar on a low runout tide into two mtrs of swell and doesn't have all passengers wearing pfds should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law..i greive for the parents of this young girl..but.commonsense needs to prevail..one casualty is bad enough  but this could have been six..it brings back bad memories of the halfcab thatat got smashed tryin to exit narooma a few years ago..they shouldn't have been goin out and didn't have jackets on and DIED...think before going people..you only live once and you shouldn't kill others...rick

 

Yes it's law to wear them crossing any bars and down here we regularly get checked for all safety gear, I simply don't know of anyone who doesn't know or do this. It really doesn't make any sense.

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A couple of weeks ago my son and I went out of Moruya on a run out tide, with little to no swell to speak of.  I was following a catamaran running on it's engine and we were were going quite slowly and everything seemed fine.  I committed to going out and then all of a sudden a six footer appeared in front of us out of literally nowhere, followed by another couple.  My boat is 5.30m and it wasn't a huge scare but was surprised at how quickly they appeared.  Channel is narrow and only around 2 meters deep at low tide.  
We were both wearing PFD's.  My condolences to the affected family.

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