sharks attack catamaran in australia

Three sailors rescued from shark-bitten catamaran off Australia

Officials said sharks attacked the inflatable catamaran and tore off large chunks of the vessel’s hull.

Three men on board a catamaran off the northeastern coast of Australia have been rescued after sharks tore off sections from the hull of their inflatable vessel, according to officials.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said the three sailors – two Russian and one French citizen – were rescued early on Wednesday.

They were picked up by a Panama-flagged vehicle carrier – the Dugong Ace – while floating in the Coral Sea, some 835km (519 miles) southeast of Cairns in Australia.

Satellite photos and a video on the AMSA website showed a large part of the stern of the nine-metre (30-foot) yacht torn away.

“Both hulls of the vessel have been damaged following several shark attacks,” AMSA said in a statement.

The authority said the sailors, aged between 28 and 64, had planned to sail from the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu to Cairns, a distance of more than 2,000km (1,200 miles). They activated an emergency distress beacon in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The three sailors are due to arrive in Brisbane on Thursday, AMSA said.

“There’s many reasons why vessels are attacked by sharks. However, the motivations of these sharks are unclear,” said Joe Zeller, the acting manager of the AMSA Response Centre. The three sailors “were very happy to be rescued and they are all healthy and well and aboard the Dugong Ace,” he added.

The Coral Sea where the men were found is brimming with reef sharks.

According to the Australian government, it is home to more sharks “than almost any other survey site in the world”.

3 men rescued after sharks repeatedly attacked their inflatable boat off Australia

Three sailors were rescued from a sinking inflatable catamaran Wednesday after it came under repeated attack by sharks that stranded them more than 500 miles off Australia .

Rescuers picked up the men, two Russians and a Frenchman, after their emergency beacon sent out a distress call at 1:30 a.m. eastern Australian time (11 a.m. Tuesday ET), the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, or AMSA, said in a statement .

The crew had embarked from the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu on Aug. 28 and were headed to the Australian city of Cairns on the latest stage of an around-the-world trip.

But several shark attacks damaged both hulls of their 30-foot boat.

The catamaran had “large sections of its hull missing,” Joe Zeller, a senior manager at AMSA, said in a video statement.

"An emergency beacon absolutely saved their lives," said Zeller, who was on call when the distress signal was received.

A huge Panama-registered vehicle carrier, the 650-foot Dugong Ace, carried out the rescue in the Coral Sea. The unharmed sailors, ages 28 to 64, are expected to arrive in Brisbane on Thursday.

AMSA did not name the rescued men. The expedition is led by Evgeny Kovalevsky, alongside crew member Stanislav Berezkin, both from Siberia.

The project's website lists Vincent Thomas Etienne as an extra crew member participating in the Tahiti-Australia stage. The boat is a Russian-registered catamaran named “Russian Ocean Way — Tion.”

A spokesperson for the expedition said by text message that Yulia Kalyuzhnaya, the head of the operation, will fly to Australia to meet the sailors and discuss the future of the voyage.

“Now [the] travelers are safe, this is the most important thing. Unfortunately, the catamaran could not be saved. The fate of the expedition will be clear next week,” the spokesperson said.

The trip from Vanuatu to the trio's intended destination of Cairns, Australia, is more than 1,200 miles. AMSA said it would normally take two to three weeks depending on weather conditions.

An Instagram account for the voyage said the boat was first attacked Monday by cookiecutter sharks, a small species that grows to around 16 inches and is linked to only a handful of attacks on humans. That caused the boat to partly submerge, but it limped on for 100 more miles.

It was attacked again Tuesday, when sharks pierced its right-side hull, causing it to start sinking.

Satellite photos and a video on the AMSA website showed the extent of the damage, with the boat clearly listing and losing buoyancy.

The crew and their belongings were saved, but the catamaran was lost.

“There are many reasons vessels are attacked by sharks, but the motivations of these sharks is unclear,” Zeller said in a video statement released by AMSA. The trio were “very happy” to be rescued, he said.

The boat set off from St. Petersburg in July 2021, led by Kovalevsky and Berezkin.

The pair said they were emulating pioneering Russian explorers of the 19th century. The voyage was planned to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the birth of Adam Johann von Krusenstern, who led the first Russian round-the-world voyage.

The plan was to visit 40 countries and return to St. Petersburg in July 2024, but the future of the project is now in doubt. Russia’s Ministry of Science and Ministry of Education, as well as the state broadcasting company, are listed as "information partners" on the project's website.

AMSA has used the incident to remind sailors to always carry the appropriate safety equipment. "This is a timely reminder to always carry a distress beacon while on the water. GPS-equipped EPIRBs and personal locater beacons (PLBs) can save your life in an emergency," it said in a statement. (EPIRBs are emergency position-indicating radio beacons.)

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

AMSA coordinates rescue of three sailors after boat attacked by sharks in Coral Sea

By Holly Richardson

By Conor Byrne

By Meghan Dansie

ABC Far North

Topic: Maritime Accidents and Incidents

Three men have been plucked to safety after their inflatable catamaran was attacked by sharks and began sinking in the Coral Sea off the Queensland coast.

Key points:

• Three sailors have triggered an emergency beacon at sea and were rescued by a passing cargo ship
• They reported their vessel was damaged by sharks
• They are expected to reach dry land this week

Two Russians and a French citizen were sailing from Vanuatu to Cairns when both hulls of their nine-metre boat, Tion-Russian Ocean Way, were damaged in several shark attacks, about 835 kilometres south-east of Cairns.

The men activated their emergency beacon at 1:30am, and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) requested the assistance of a nearby vehicle carrier along with the Cairns-based Challenger Rescue Aircraft.

The vehicle carrier, Dugong Ace, collected the group, and reported them all to be in good health. 

It is scheduled to arrive in Brisbane on Thursday.

The incident happened during a round-the-world expedition that left St Petersburg in 2021. ( ABC: Lewi Hirvela )

What were they doing?

The Russian Geographic Society confirmed the catamaran was part of a round-the-world expedition.

A spokeswoman said the hulls were punctured by cookiecutter sharks in the Coral Sea.

The Tion-Russian Ocean Way leaves Fiji earlier in the expedition. ( Supplied: Russian Geographic Society )

She said the expeditioners, Siberians Evgeny Kovalevsky and Stanislav Beryozkin, had been joined by Frenchman Vincent Thomas Garate before they left Vanuatu on August 28.

The sailors say their boat was attacked by cookiecutter sharks. ( Flickr: NOAA Photo Library )

Their expedition marked 250 years since the birth of explorer Adam Johann von Kruzenstern and 200 years from discovery of Antarctica by Russian explorers.

It started from St Petersburg on July 1, 2021, and aimed to set a record for cruising distance on a frame-inflatable sailing trimaran.

But the sailors were rescued from the trimaran, named Russian Ocean Way, off Chile in March.

The Tion-Russian Ocean Way is the second boat of the expedition, launched in April.

Two Russian sailors have been rescued from a sinking catamaran in the Coral Sea. ( Supplied: Russian Geographical Society )

It was also punctured by sharks in Tahiti in June.

AMSA responder Joseph Zeller said the crew were calm and extremely well prepared during the rescue.

The group was travelling from Vanuatu to Cairns when shark attacks damaged both hulls. ( Supplied: AMSA )

"The sailors were very lucky because they had an emergency distress beacon … which enabled us to tell the most appropriate and fastest response to rescue them," he said.

"They were very well prepared, they were calm, but of course, they were elated to be rescued."

Mr Zeller said it was an extremely unusual rescue, given the cause of the boat's damage, but "all's well that ends well in this case".

Unusual craft

Inflatable sailing catamarans are not unusual. But ocean-crossing inflatable cats are.

Minicat Australia dealer Tim Rice said he sold production portable inflatable boats up to 4.6m used for beach and lake sailing, and occasional coastal island-hopping.

Mr Rice says the vessels he sells are only recommended for lake or coastal sailing. ( Supplied: Minicat Australia )

He said he had never heard of a 9m inflatable catamaran.

He said his vessels didn't need a trailer or a boat ramp.

"You can pack it into the bags they come in and chuck it in your car and drive wherever," he said.

"When it comes to a nine-metre one, I'm not sure. Nine metres is a big boat. That portability aspect doesn't quite come into play. I don't know what the advantage of it being inflatable is.

"Something of that size probably should have multiple chambers. So if a shark did puncture one of them, hopefully the boat was still afloat — which sounds like it was if they were rescued — which is great news."

Mr Rice said he was surprised to hear of a shark attack on any boat.

He questioned what may have attracted a shark to the boat.

"Sharks and now orcas ... are getting a really bad rap," he said.

"But if you look at the statistics, it's not something I even think about when I'm surfing or sailing.

"I'm looking to do offshore sailing and at some stage in my life, I probably wouldn't do it in an inflatable boat."

He said it was brave of the men to attempt the journey.

"But I'm sure they've done all their research and hopefully they had all the right safety gear," he said.

"It looks like they did if they deployed an EPIRB to get rescued."

Watch CBS News

3 sailors rescued after sharks attack and partially destroy their inflatable boat off Australian coast

Updated on: September 6, 2023 / 8:30 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Three sailors from Russia and France were rescued on Wednesday after the inflatable catamaran they were trying to navigate from Vanuatu to Australia came under attack from sharks, authorities said.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it responded to an alert from an emergency beacon at about 1:30 a.m. When rescuers arrived at the scene more than 500 miles east of the Australian coast in the Coral Sea, they found both hulls of the men's 9-meter boat had been damaged after several shark attacks.

The agency enlisted the help of a Panamanian-flagged ship, the vehicle-carrying "Dugong Ace," which was able to complete the rescue and take the two Russians and one Frenchman aboard. A rescue plane also flew to the scene.

"The three males were very happy to be rescued, and they're all healthy and well," said Joe Zeller , duty manager at the agency's Canberra response center.

Footage shot by a rescue helicopter shows the catamaran bobbing in calm seas as it is approached by the hulking Dugong Ace.

The men, aged between 28 and 64, are due to arrive in the Australian city of Brisbane on Thursday.

Zeller said a journey from the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu to Australia on such a vessel would usually take two to three weeks.

Aerial photos showed major damage to the catamaran, with the front section of one hull completely missing.

Zeller said the GPS-encoded emergency beacon had saved the men's lives by allowing rescuers to quickly pinpoint their location and mount an appropriate rescue.

"This is a timely reminder to always carry a distress beacon while on the water," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.  "GPS-equipped EPIRBs and personal locater beacons (PLBs) can save your life in an emergency."

Zeller said there were many reasons why a shark may attack a boat.

"However, the motivations of these sharks is unclear," Zeller said.

The Coral Sea is brimming with reef sharks and other apex species such as tuna and marlin.

According to the Australian government, it is home to more sharks "than almost any other survey site in the world."

Last year, three men whose fishing boat sank off the Louisiana coast were rescued "in the nick of time" by the U.S. Coast Guard after surviving for more than a day despite being attacked by sharks.

AFP contributed to this report.

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Sharks repeatedly attack yacht off Australian coast, forcing sailors to abandon damaged vessel

Nine-metre inflatable catamaran was part of round-the-world expedition, article bookmarked.

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Three people were rescued off the northeastern coast of Australia after multiple shark attacks inflicted damage to their catamaran.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said on Wednesday that both the hulls of the vessel, located in the Coral Sea near Cairns , were damaged after several shark attacks.

Satellite images and a video available on the Amsa website showed a substantial portion of the yacht ’s stern being ripped apart.

“The vessel departed from Vanuatu and was bound for Cairns (Australia) when contact was established,” Amsa said in a statement.

The yacht was located about 835km (519 miles) southeast of Cairns in the Coral Sea when rescue teams responded to the emergency at about 1.30am on Wednesday.

The nine-metre inflatable catamaran called Tion was reportedly a Russian-registered vessel. The Russian Geographic Society confirmed the catamaran was part of a round-the-world expedition, according to ABC News.

Amsa said in the statement that they sought help from a Panama-flagged vehicle carrier called Dugong Ace and tasked Cairns-based Challenger Rescue Aircraft to the scene, which effectively carried out the rescue operation.

The three passengers – comprising two Russians identified as Evgeny Kovalevsky and Stanislav Beryozkin, and French citizen Vincent Thomas Garate Etienne – are scheduled to reach Brisbane on Thursday.

The spokesperson for the Russian Geographic Society said their expedition commemorated two significant milestones: the 250th anniversary of the birth of explorer Adam Johann von Kruzenstern and the bicentennial celebration of the discovery of Antarctica by Russian explorers.

It commenced its journey from St Petersburg on 1 July 2021, with the objective of setting a record for the longest cruising distance covered on a frame-inflatable sailing trimaran, according to local reports.

However, the sailors were rescued from the trimaran, named Russian Ocean Way, off the coast of Chile in March. The Tion-Russian Ocean Way is the second vessel of the expedition, and it was launched in April.

It was also punctured by sharks in Tahiti in June.

Joseph Zeller, an Amsa responder, was quoted as saying by ABC News that “the sailors were very lucky because they had an emergency distress beacon... which enabled us to tell the most appropriate and fastest response to rescue them”.

“They were very well prepared, they were calm, but of course, they were elated to be rescued.”

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