Three people have been rescued from a catamaran in Australia’s Coral Sea after their sailboat was attacked by sharks several times. The vessel sustained significant damage.
According to Australian media, there were two Russians and a Frenchman on board who were sailing around the world. They were traveling from Vanuatu to Australia in their catamaran named Tion.
The Australian rescue team AMSA came into action when the passengers of the sailing catamaran sent out a distress signal via a radio beacon at 01:30 local time last night. The catamaran was then 835 kilometers from the Australian city of Cairns. “The sailors said that large pieces of their catamaran had been broken off during shark attacks,” says a spokesperson for the brigade.
‘Very lucky’
Both hulls, the floating parts of the catamaran, were damaged by the shark attacks, the rescue service says. Authorities requested assistance from a nearby car transporter, the Duging Ace. The ship’s crew rescued the three people on board the ungovernable, half-sinking catamaran. They climbed aboard via a ladder. They will be taken to Brisbane, where they will arrive on Thursday.
The Australian rescue service AMSA spread via X, formerly Twitter, images of the damaged catamaran and, following the incident, pointed out the importance of having a radio beacon on board.
AMSA’s spokesperson emphasized that the three sailors were “extremely lucky” to have the freighter so close. “The ocean is so huge, it’s very rare that a ship is near a distress signal on the high seas.”
During the last inspection of their catamaran in Vanuatu at the end of August, the three sailors found bite marks from a small shark species, they reported on the site of the Russian Geographical Society. Then they added that it was “good that they didn’t have enough power to bite through the material”.
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