A man in his late 20s was plucked from his powerboat by Nanaimo coast guard volunteers Thursday.
Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Station 27 volunteers from Nanaimo responded shortly before 11 a.m. when they were advised a six-metre long motorboat had lost power in the Strait of Georgia halfway between Nanaimo and Gibsons.
When RCM-SAR personnel arrived, they discovered the lone occupant of the boat, dressed only in shorts and a jacket, was soaked and huddling under a boat cover for shelter. They determined he was suffering from hypothermia and also seasick from being subjected to 1.3-metre swells for more than two hours before help arrived.
“There was concern enough that we called 911 and an ambulance came and just checked him out and [paramedics] released him to a friend. They didn’t actually take him to the hospital,” said Josh Minami, RCM-SAR Station 27 public relations manager.
The small boat was also taking on water due to damage from possibly striking a log at speed. One of the RCM-SAR crew was transferred onto the stricken craft with a pump, but the boat’s bilge pump was keeping up with the water coming in.
The disabled boat was towed to Horseshoe Bay by C-Tow Marine Assistance.
Along with the victim not being dressed properly for the conditions, RCM-SAR volunteers discovered the boat’s operator was otherwise not prepared for boating in the event of an emergency.
“Lessons here: The mechanical failure due to a possible log strike and subsequent taking on of water were an accident, but the person on board was not prepared,” Nik Richers, RCM-SAR Station 27 coxswain and operations manager, said in a press release. “He was not dressed for the conditions, had no working VHF radio, and had no contingency plan for a breakdown halfway between the mainland and Nanaimo. Had either his bilge pump quit after running out of battery or had he been exposed to the weather for much longer, the outcome could have been much worse.”