NSRI Bakoven assists boat with motor failure

Bruce Davidson, NSRI Bakoven station commander, said: 'At 10h02, Sunday, 07th June, NSRI Table Bay were alerted by the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) reporting the snoek fishing boat BENGUELA suffering motor failure while fishing in Table Bay near to Robben Island.'NSRI Bakoven were on the water at the time having launched the sea rescue craft ROTARIAN SCHIPPER earlier in the day for routine training.'Our sea rescue craft has just recently been fitted with new outboard motors and we had launched to test towing techniques so we were more than happy to take over the call from Station 3, Table Bay. Our craft diverted to rendezvous with BENGUELA who were lying between Robbed Island and Green Point.'The ‘Tannie’ fishing boat OSPREY were already on the scene at BENGUELA, having gone over to wait with them, as a safety precaution, until sea rescue arrived. They helped guide us to where BENGUELA was lying amongst all the snoek fishing boats.'Once on the scene we found skipper Jay Tzamtzis, from Blouberg, his mom Regan and his brother Ryan safe and they reported that water was not running through the motors due to failure of the rotor seals.'We explained to them that we had launched today to specifically test two towing methods and since everyone was safe and because it was such a fine day would they mind if we stopped and changed the towing method while we towed them back to Oceana Power Boat Club (OPBC). They were more than happy to oblige.'Their boat was towed safely to OPBC without incident and to our advantage both towing methods were successfully tested in a real scenario. They leisurely continued fishing while being gently towed to OPBC.'NSRI Bakoven were given two large freshly caught snoek as a thank you from Mrs Tzamtzis for towing them back to OPBC much to the delight of the NSRI Bakoven volunteers.'TO REPORT A SEA RESCUE EMERGENCY DIAL 112 FROM A CELLPHONESMS 32287 with your name and a message of support for our Sea Rescue crew Rotarian Schipper. File picture.