An EPIRB has saved the life of three people after their boat capsized off Queensland’s Bribie Island.
Two men and a boy who shivered through three hours trapped on a capsized boat off the south-east Queensland coast almost left the shore without the safety devices that saved their lives.
Jay Robinson, 31, and his two crew, a 34-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy, were plucked from the water at around 11.30pm on Saturday after Mr Robinson activated an emergency beacon that he had turned his boat back to collect.
The crew’s 5.5 metre half cabin boat got stuck at around 10pm as they attempted to cross a sandbar at the southern end of Bribie Island, north of Brisbane, Queensland. As the boat was battered by ‘rouge waves’, the teen and two men jumped into the water in a bid to wedge the vessel to freedom, The Sunshine Coast Daily reported. But despite their best efforts, the crew were unable to move the boat and it continued to take in water.
They shot a flare and activated the EPIRB (emergency beacon).
“It saved my life,” Mr Robinson said. “If I didn’t set that EPIRB off, I wouldn’t have got through on the phone because it cut out after a couple of calls.”
The police helicopter was sent out to search for the missing boaties and found them clinging to the top of the boat.
Senior Constable Mark Gardiner from Water Police praised Mr Robinson’s safety sense saying the result would have been very different had he not carried an EPIRB.
“(He) wasn’t required to have an EPIRB, but he was smart enough to have all the safety equipment and I can honestly say with my experience in water police if he didn’t activate that EPIRB or have one on board it’s highly likely it would have been a different outcome,” he said.
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