Helicopter Rescue for “Pencil Duck” Skipper

Rowan Marais, NSRI Melkbosstrand station commander, said:

At 10h25, Saturday, 1 November, NSRI Melkbosstrand duty crew were activated following eyewitness reports of a “pencil duck” boat suspected to have capsized in the surf zone between Melkbosstrand and van Riebeeckstrand.

NSRI Melkbosstrand duty crew responded to our NSRI Melkbosstrand station 18 rescue base while our NSRI rescue swimmers, CoCT (City of Cape Town) lifeguards, Community medics and Netcare 911 ambulance services responded.

Almost immediately it was confirmed that a male, age 57, from Paarl, and a female, age 51, from Durbanville, the only two crew on the casualty boat, had both managed to get safely ashore on their boat which had not capsized.

The man was seriously injured.

As emergency resources were arriving on the scene medical care was initiated to the man, still in the boat on the beach, he had sustained serious injuries.

The lady was not injured.

While NSRI medics and paramedics treated the man for his injuries their boat trailer was brought to the scene and their boat was recovered onto their trailer.

Netcare 911 paramedics activated their HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Services) aeronautical control to dispatch their Netcare 911 helicopter.

The incident scene being too far down the beach to get an ambulance to the location – the seriously injured man, still on his boat, was secured into a stretcher, while in the care of paramedics the trailer and boat was towed along the beach to our NSRI rescue base where we were met by the arriving Netcare 911 helicopter.

The man was airlifted by the Netcare 911 HEMS helicopter to hospital in a serious but stable condition and he is recovering in hospital in the care of doctors and nurses.

It appears that the man and the lady, while training for the upcoming Trans Agulhas Challenge, had both been thrown out the boat while they were underway in the surf zone. The lady had managed to get back onto the boat where she then assisted to get the man onto the boat, despite his injuries, and together they had managed to get the boat to the beach through the surf zone.

Our thoughts are with the injured man, his family, colleagues and friends, during his recovery following this incident.