A man has been rescued from a yacht in one of Queensland’s most isolated coastal regions, after a fall onboard triggered a complex offshore operation.
Emergency crews were on Monday called to a 19m boat off Port Clinton, on the south-eastern edge of Shoalwater Bay and about 100km north of Rockhampton, where a man in his 70s had suffered suspected lower body injuries.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Man airlifted after horror fall inside yacht
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An aerial assessment was carried out on arrival, but rescuers were unable to winch the patient due to the yacht’s masts, rigging and coverings.
Winching is usually the quickest way to carry out a rescue, but the superstructure poses a serious entanglement risk, and the helicopter’s rotor wash can make the boat unstable.
Instead, a critical care paramedic and rescue crew officer were transported to the vessel via a small tender, where they treated the man and worked to safely extract him.
They had to transfer the man from the towering yacht onto a small tender, carefully managing the height difference and movement between the two boats.
The CapRescue Rescue300 crew ruled out winching due to the yacht’s structure and risk from rotor wash. Credit: CapRescueParamedics treated the injured man onboard before preparing him for the tricky transfer to the waiting tender. Credit: CapRescueThe inflatable tender was used to transfer the injured man, a delicate operation between two moving boats. Credit: CapRescue
The delicate operation took about 45 minutes, with crews carefully moving the patient on a stretcher from one boat to the other.
The man was brought back to shore before being airlifted by the CapRescue Rescue300 helicopter to Rockhampton Hospital for further treatment.
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