yacht sinks off perth

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Dramatic ocean rescue to save wa father and young son from sinking yacht off rottnest island.

Father, son rescued after yacht hits rocks off Rottnest

A West Australian father and his 11-year-old son are lucky to be alive after their yacht crashed into a reef , sparking a dramatic nighttime rescue in treacherous conditions.

Their vessel hit rocks off Thomson Bay at Rottnest Island, a popular tourist spot off WA’s coast, about 8.30pm on Thursday.

Watch more in the video above

Marine radio captured the 40-year-old father’s distressing calls for help as their boat started taking on water.

“We are in the water and we are being crushed by broken furniture,” he can be heard saying in a desperate mayday call.

“We are currently stuck in forward gear and cannot disengage and we cannot reverse.

“I have a child on board, an 11-year-old, who is in distress.”

WA police released footage showing the ship sinking in the darkness.

Two police boats were sent to the unfolding emergency, but high winds and dangerous conditions hindered their ability to reach the sinking vessel.

Then a wind change shifted the yacht’s position, allowing emergency services to get close enough to rescue the father and son about 9.30pm.

Remarkably, the pair escaped with minor injuries - the dad, bruising and the son a broken arm - but their situation could have been much worse.

The high stakes rescue would have been a distressing ordeal for the family, Inspector Steve Scott said.

“They’re in darkness, they’re on the reef, they’re wondering when people are coming to effect a rescue for them,” he said.

Scott said the yacht had suffered a mechanical issue that meant it was stuck in gear and made it difficult to avoid the reef.

“Once he hit the reef, he had all the appropriate safety equipment and acted very calmly and activated his EPIRB, and called out to the water police coordination centre via the radio.

“That allowed us to know his location and successfully rescue them.”

The Rottnest Island Authority and Department of Transport are working to carry out a salvage operation.

Stream free on

Two people rescued from sinking yacht off WA coast

Two people have been rescued from a sinking yacht after it ran aground off the WA coast on Sunday.

A marine rescue vessel recovered the elderly couple after their yacht, called the Serenity, ran aground on a reef off Hillarys, north of Perth.

The pair abandoned the vessel, swimming to a police boat moments before the yacht sank.

Jurien Bay sea rescue saves five people as man and daughter swim 9km after yacht sinks

A man who was plucked from the ocean at Jurien Bay in Western Australia with his 11-year-old daughter has told how he was determined the pair would make it to safety.

Key points:

• The yacht ran into trouble in "treacherous" conditions on Sunday
• A man swam towards shore with his daughter after they drifted away from three others in the group
• They were flown to hospital and the others suffered shock and hypothermia

Three other adults were also rescued after the yacht they were all on struck a reef and disintegrated more than 200 kilometres north of Perth about 11.30am on Sunday.

Those three adults were rescued about two-and-a-half hours after an EPIRB strapped to the body of one of the women was activated, when their vessel struck trouble.

It took a further two hours to find Glenn Anderson and his 11-year-old daughter Ruby, who had drifted away from the group.

Speaking at Perth Children's Hospital Mr Anderson recounted the ordeal.

He said the breaking wave that tipped his vessel came seemingly out of nowhere.

"Myself and my daughter Ruby were up in the cockpit and we got knocked out of the boat into the water," he said.

"I hit my head on something on the way down and she broke her leg.

"We came up and I grabbed a hold of her."

Mr Anderson said his own injuries were his last concern.

"When she came up, Ruby said 'Dad, your head!' and I said 'Don't worry about that we'll think about that later', and not long after that she said her leg was really sore," he said.

"I was just trying to make sure that I was keeping her head above water to start with, and she wasn't going to die, and I wasn't going to lose her."

"She is a good swimmer but, in the circumstances, I wasn't taking any chances."

The father said he was determined to swim to shore.

"In the back of the mind we were going to get picked up or we were going to make it to the beach," he said.

"One way or the other we were getting out of that water, there was never any thought that I wasn't going to make it, I was just going to keep swimming until I got there.

"I had my child in my arms and just needed to get her to shore and safety.

"There was no way I could give up, stopping was not an option.

"I just kept saying to her, 'We are going to make it'.

"I just kept trying to make sure that she wasn't going to go to sleep … and I could tell she was going hypothermic and was dehydrated.

"Probably in the last half-an-hour to an hour is when she really started going down-hill.

"She seemed a bit delirious … but she was so brave. I'm really proud of her."

Much more than a yacht lost

Mr Anderson said the way the vessel sunk in a matter minutes looked "like something out of a movie".

And he said he lost far more than just the yacht.

"Our nine-month-old puppy, a kelpie named Banjo, unfortunately he was down in one of the cabins when it all happened," he said.

"I also live aboard the boat, so that was also my home and all my possessions going down."

Pair 'not in very good condition'

Jurien Bay Marine Rescue deputy commander Wayne Harston spoke earlier on Monday.

He said Mr Anderson and his daughter had swum about five nautical miles (9.2 kilometres) towards the shore.

"A father and daughter had drifted from the other three and we actually found them [after] someone on the beach actually saw them about 300 metres off Jurien Bay," he said.

"The little girl and the father weren't in a very good condition, they've been taken to hospital in the RAC helicopter."

The three others who had been in the water for a shorter period — a 32-year-old man and two women aged 35 and 32 — were treated for shock and hypothermia.

The distress beacon was detected by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), who sent a Challenger jet to the scene, along with a Department of Fire and Emergency Services helicopter, a private helicopter and marine vessels.

Yacht 'smashed up'

Mr Harston described the conditions as "treacherous", with a strong wind warning at 30-35 knots and a 4- to 5-metre swell.

"The yacht must have hit the reef outside of Jurien here and the boat sank," he said.

"It was smashed up, there was lots of debris in the water so the boat actually disintegrated."

Police said it was believed a wave knocked the man and his daughter into the water before a second wave caused it to be swamped, resulting in the three remaining crew members jumping into the ocean.

All five on board the yacht were wearing life jackets.

It is understood the vessel took five minutes to sink from when it was hit by the wave.

Mr Hartson said the weather was so bad, they had been forced to turn back to shore in the marine rescue vessel and board a larger Department of Fisheries boat to continue the search.

He praised all involved in the search, including AMSA and the RAC rescue helicopter.

"We're very lucky we've got a great community here, we had two charter boats out there with us, two cray boats, plus the Fisheries boat," he said.

The yacht was en route from Rottnest Island to Exmouth when it ran into trouble.

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