Ray Smith and his son were returning home in their 18 foot Red Jacket sailing sloop from the islands off the coast of Carnarvon in Western Australia on the night of June 19 2011. They were within 10 nautical miles of land with the lighthouse in view and approximately 2 hours travel time to go when their yacht started taking on water.
Mr Smith issued a MAYDAY call, however, the water was coming into the cabin extremely quickly that they decided to exit the cabin. The yacht started to sink and hung in the water vertically with approximately 3 feet of its bow showing above the water, the pair hung onto the pulpit rail of the yacht. They soon realised that an air pocket caught in the bow was going to keep the yacht from sinking totally, the son dived down into the cabin and retrieved the GME MT400 EPIRB and activated it.
As a result of the EPIRB activation the rescue team obtained co-ordinates from the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Canberra and headed to that spot. A strong tide was running and the stricken vessel with its 2 occupants holding on, was drifting, which hampered rescue efforts for a short time. The rescue team cut their engines and assessed the direction of the tide drift and followed it until they found Mr Smith and his son holding onto the partially submerged yacht.
Both men when found were in good health although cold having spent approximately 3 hours in the water.