Special guests at the dinner were RBYC member Grant Dunoon, skipper of the rescue competitor TryBooking.com and his crew.  During the 2012 storm ravaged Port Fairy race Grant Dunoon and his crew aboard TryBooking.com rescued six crew members from another racing boat, Inception, which sunk during the race.

The fund raising dinner entitled “Into the Storm and Beyond – the 2012 Port Fairy Ocean Race Rescue” was packed to capacity with well over one hundred members and guests attending.  The proceeds from the evening went to the Junior Sailing Program at RBYC.

Grant Dunoon, skipper TryBooking.com speaking at the RBYC fund raiser

The evening started with the Channel Nine News footage capturing some of the dramatic events of the rescue. Following this screening the TryBooking crew of Grant Dunoon, skipper, and crew members Peter Fecht, Ross Fisher and Kim Walker each shared their perspective of the events at sea that night.

Kim began the talk by describing  the sail from the start line at Queenscliff to sailing into the storm fronts after rounding Cape Otway; up until just before midnight on Saturday 7 April, 2012 when they were asked if they could render assistance to a mayday call.

As a relative new comer to ocean racing Grant’s initial thoughts when he heard Peter Clancy from Ocean Racing Melbourne calling TryBooking.com on the radio was that he had infringed the sailing instructions requiring competitors to keep a set distance off Cape Otway.  Instead, that radio call was to ask TryBooking.com if they could assist Inception as they were the nearest boat to the distressed vessel.  Grant described in detail the search and rescue coordination efforts between Ocean Racing Melbourne, Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) Rescue Coordination Center (RCC) and TryBooking.com. 

Grant asked for another distress flare to be fired from Inception which they spotted briefly and headed in that direction.

NB. All yachts in ORCV Category 2 events carry distress beacons - each boat has an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) and all crew carry a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB), which when activated, send a distress alert with location information, via satellite, which is received by AMSA's RCC in Canberra.

AMSA's RCC advised the coordinates of the distress beacons which were relayed to TryBooking.com by ORCV via HF marine radio.  After arriving at the first distress beacon GPS positions, there was nothing but darkness.  At this stage TryBooking.com was not aware that Inception had sunk.  Grant described their elation when they thought they had sighted what looked to them like the crews strobe lights as they sat on the rail of their boat.    Then - the frustration when they realized that the shore lights of Port Campbell in the distance had played tricks on their night vision forcing them to begin their search again.  Grant expanded on their subsequent search strategy and decided to go downwind of the second distress beacon positions provided over the radio, to allow for the rate of drift from the first distress beacon position.

He described their elation again when they initially spotted one white light in the darkness then six white strobe lights popped into view on the crest of a huge wave.  To their surprise they had located the Inception crew floating in the chilly water rather than clinging to the hull of a disabled boat. And so the next phase of the rescue began as they devised a strategy for getting the survivors out of the water in the treacherous conditions.

Peter took up the story and described the many challenges they faced as they repositioned the boat again and again in order to pluck all six Inception crew members from the water and haul them onboard in the horrendous conditions.  He held the audience spell bound as he described how at one stage of the rescue he himself went overboard and miraculously managed to scramble back to safety.

Peter Fecht expands on the details of the rescue to guest at the RBYC fund raisier

Ross continued the story of their journey to the safe harbor of Port Fairy now with their extended crew of ten aboard. He described how they administered first aid treatment and monitored the survivors en route. To their surprise they were greeted by loud cheers from hundreds of spectators who lined the banks of the Moyne River on their arrival at Port Fairy. He went on to describe their feelings of happiness and relief as they were met by members of the Media, Police and Ambulance services as well as their family and friends.  Understandably a special bond has developed between the crews of both TryBooking.com and Inception. Along with their partners they all caught up at a special dinner at the Sandringham Yacht club a few weeks after the rescue. In closing Ross shared with the audience some of the key learning’s from their experience.

Following questions from the audience, Neville Rose, ORCV Rear Commodore, introduced Rik Head, the chairperson of the ORCV Incident Management Team who made a special presentation to Grant Dunoon.  Rik was instrumental in developing the ORCV Incident Management Team response which played a pivotal role in coordinating the successful rescue.  In another happy-ending side story to the main rescue event TryBooking.com's Dolphin torch labeled B434 was washed overboard during the rescue.  The torch was found the next day, still in working order, washed ashore at Station Beach (West of Cape Otway) by David Mitchell, an ORCV volunteer race official, while leading a hiking party along the beach.  David passed the torch on to his friend Rik who presented it to Grant at the fund raising dinner. The story of the recovery and return of the Dolphin torch to Grant Dunoon, skipper of TryBooking.com was a fitting end to a great night.

Rik Head presenting Grant Dunoon, skipper of TryBooking.com with his boat's rescued Dolphin torch

Click here to read the orginal story of "Rescue boats torch found washed ashore" and here for an account of the rescue by Grant Dunoon, skipper of TryBooking.com, as told to Dr Peter Ball.