Sam Safe and Well

Former Te Akau Stud farm manager and great friend Sam Boyd (who so many of you know) is safe and well having been involved in a major sea rescue ... phew Sam can you please be a landlubber from now ... www.stuff.co.nz reports .... 

Two Kiwis and a Mexican escaped a burning luxury yacht in only their underwear and lifejackets when it was consumed by flames in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The three men abandoned the ship as metre-high flames tore through the cabins and centre cockpit.  They dived into the water before activating the life raft.

As the 15m SV Sunny Deck burned, Murray Vereker-Bindon, 70, and crewman Michael Boyd, 68, both from Hamilton, and Victor Campos, a 35-year-old professional skipper from Mexico, bobbed in the dark and waited in the expanse of water somewhere between Rarotonga and Tonga.

The trio were eventually plucked from the sea nearly four hours later by Liberian-flagged container ship MV Cap Capricorn about 3am on Wednesday.

Vereker-Bindon's son Matthew Bindon said the men escaped injury and with nothing but their boxer shorts and life jackets.  He had spoken with his father several times on the container ship since the rescue.

"They were doing well. Dad said he was finding it hard to sleep, it's all bit surreal at the moment," Bindon said.

Vereker-Bindon and Boyd were sleeping in the rear cabin of the yacht with Campos on watch when the Mexican skipper smelled smoke.

"Victor had a look around and opened the hatch to the engine room where a fire was raging," Bindon said.

"As soon as he opened the door smoke billowed and poured into the cabins and Victor's shouts of 'fire fire' were what the guys woke up to."

Toxic fumes filled the cabin and moments later the three men were overboard. They had managed to set off the emergency beacon.  The trio then had to swim around to the back of the burning yacht and detach the life raft, Bindon said.

While they escaped without burns, there was a minor incident detaching the life raft.

"While they were cutting free the tether, the knife also punctured the raft."

Luckily life rafts were designed to stay afloat with some holes, Bindon said. The emergency beacon was still registered to the previous owner with German details, so the alert from the Pacific Ocean was received by the Marine Rescue Coordination Centre in Bremen, before the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand was contacted.

Bindon's stepmother in Mexico was contacted by the previous owner and told to check up on her husband. She called her Hamilton-based stepson late in the night.

"I tried calling my father on the satellite phone and there was no answer. This wasn't good because I had been in regular contact. If the boat was still floating they'd pick up," Bindon said.

"I also kept tabs on his position using Automatic Identification System (AIS) and the yacht was not giving off a signal."

A call to the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand put the pieces of the puzzle together for both Bindon and the rescue centre. RCCNZ identified ships nearby and the MV Cap Capricorn on its journey from California to Auckland was the closest. It was requested to divert and provide assistance.

The flames from the SV Sunny Deck acted as a beacon for the captain of the approaching ship and the men were eventually found in their raft - visible by the "glow from the burning yacht".

"They were very lucky to be in the shipping lane. Apparently the Sunny Deck had been the only boat the Capricorn had seen on it's trip," Bindon said.

RCCNZ search and rescue mission coordinator Dave Wilson said it was good planning by the crew to have a rescue beacon, and fortunate that they had just enough time to grab it before jumping overboard.

Wilson said conditions in the area were not easy, with waves around 3.5m high and winds of 45kmh. MV Cap Capricorn is en route to Auckland and is due to arrive on Saturday.

Bindon said there would be a welcome party for the rescued sailors. They may also need someone to vouch for them as their identification was at the bottom of the sea. Some warm clothes may be also appreciated.

His father would also need someone to let him back into his Hamilton home, Bindon said.

"He left his keys on the yacht."

Murray Vereker-Bindon and his wife Yolanda live in Acapulco, Mexico but travel back regularly to New Zealand. He was a prominent lawyer in Hamilton and still works as a consultant. He met Yolanda, an engineering professor from Mexico, while travelling in China in 2000 and they married in Mexico City in 2003.

The couple run a company that offers students school exchanges between New Zealand and Mexico.

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