Dramatic video of Hollywood Boulevard sinking in Bass Strait
by Sail-World.com/nz 16 Jan 2018 00:11 NZDT
15 January 2018
Hollywood Boulevard the Farr 55 at the Festival of Sails © Steb Fisher
Six crew members were rescued yesterday from he Farr 55 Hollywood Boulevard which sank yesterday about 150km east of Flinders Island in Bass Strait.
The crew were rescued by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority after the crew activated their distress beacon around 8.45am on Sunday.
Built in New Zealand by Cookson Boats as Living Doll for Michael Hiatt she finished second overall in the 2011 Rolex Sydney Hobart.
Hollywood Boulevard is believed to have struck a sunfish and sustained rudder damage and she began taking on water.
Owned by well known Australian yachtsman, Ray Roberts, she was returning from the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race where she was the 9th boat to finish.
According to a report in the Melbourne Age, Crew member Michael Spies told Australia's Channel Seven that the boat struck a sunfish – a species that can grow to more than three metres in length.
The yacht began taking on water. An emergency beacon was activated and the call went out to abandon ship. Mr Spies said the water was "exceptionally cold".
Two Air Ambulance helicopters were dispatched to the scene, but had to stop at Flinders Island first to refuel before Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance flight paramedics worked to winch the yacht passengers to safety. Three of the rescued crew were flown to the Latrobe Valley and three to Essendon.
Paramedic Andrew Allan told Seven it was one of the toughest rescues he'd seen. "The winds and swells were causing the boat and life raft to drift around, in some odd angles, which posed some challenge for us," he said.