Sunday, 21st October, 2012.On Saturday, 20th October, at 14h15, our NSRI Vaal Dam duty crew were activated following reports from Eric Michen, sailing on Vaal Dam, who had witnessed a Sportsman monohull powerboat capsize with 2 people onboard 5 nautical miles from the NSRI rescue base at Manten Marina.Dick Manten, NSRI Vaal Dam station commander said that our NSRI volunteers launched Harvey's Fibreglass and our Manten Marina boat Skin Ray and responded.On arrival on-scene, in sharp choppy waters with a 35 knot Northerly wind, we found Frank Lenz on his ski-boat, who had also witnessed the accident and who had gone to help, Frank had managed to rescue one of the two casualties, a woman in her early twenties, and the skipper of the casualty boat, Mr Piet Sevenster, was found holding onto the side of the boat.Piet Sevenster was rescued onto our rescue boat and the woman was transferred onto our rescue boat and both were brought to shore where they were treated for shock and hypothermia and released.NSRI towed their capsized boat to shore where it has been recovered.Then at 11h00 on Sunday, 21st October, while conducting a stand-by for the Eligwa Ski-boat Club annual sail past, our NSRI volunteer sea rescue duty crew were activated by the SA Police Services Water Wing who had received reports of a boat that had collided into pylons at the bridge.Two Police boats and our NSRI Discovery Rescue Runner and our sea rescue craft Harvey's Fibreglass responded but on arrival on-scene it was determined that the accident had happened much earlier in the day and the owners had already left the scene not injured.Then at 14h38, on Sunday, 21st October, reports were received of a competitors boat run aground on Beacon Island, Vaal Dam, during the 22' Mistral Nationals yacht regatta.Our NSRI volunteer Dirk Manten was dispatched from our rescue base at Deneysville aboard one of our work boats and on arrival on-scene he assisted Yolanda van der Vyfer to get the boat off the shore and towed back to the Deneysville Aquatic Club.Then the Deneysville Aquatic club marker layer boat was reported to be drifting towards Rose Bay experiencing motor problems in strong North Westerly winds.Our NSRI volunteer Dirk Manten was again dispatched and towed the boat and her crew back to the Deneysville Aquatic Club.Our NSRI deputy station commander Jake Manten then launched Harveys Fibreglass to recover all the marker buoys that the stricken marker layer boat was unable to retrieve.
The Sportsman powerboat capsized with 2 people on board.
