‘We would have found them by now’: Family missing off coast of Cape Jaffa after boat accident are unlikely to have survived
POLICE now don’t believe they will find any survivors in the search for a prominent South-East farming family missing at sea.
- Tributes flow for missing boat family as search enters fourth day
- Vandepeer family says they are praying for a miracle
POLICE don’t believe they will find any survivors in the search for a prominent South-East farming family missing at sea.
The search entered its third day this morning, as hopes of finding them alive fade.
Superintendent Grant Moyle said the family of Len, Annette and Doug Vandepeer were facing the likelihood that the trio would not be found alive despite the search continuing.
“They have come to the reality that if any of the three survived, we would’ve found them by now,” he said.
“The search continues with the acceptance by the family that it would be a miracle if anyone had survived.”
This afternoon, surviving members of the Vandepeer family read a statement that said they were still praying for a miracle.
More debris was found on the South-East coast but none was identified by family members as coming from the missing boat.
Supt Moyle said police were “no closer to determining exactly what happened” when the boat capsized and may never know what caused the tragedy.
Supt Moyle said a member of the public spotted a boat travelling north, parallel to the beach, north of Kingston on Monday afternoon.
“While we haven’t had a positive identification of the boat they saw as belonging to the (Vandepeer) family, it fits with the general area,” he said.
“What it certainly shows is that if it wasn’t them, there were other boats in the area at the time.”
Police have not ruled out using divers to search in the future as they continue to assess their findings each day.
Supt Moyle said it was a “tough call” to make on when they would call off the search.
He said a support team was assisting locals and friends of the missing family helping in the search.
A police boat and divers searched Nations Rock on Thursday morning, where a seat top, plastic tub and bucket used to carry the anchor and rope was found 20km north of Kingston on Wednesday.
They had no luck with just two metres’ visibility and called off the water search as swells grew over three metres.
Helicopters from Adelaide will resume an air search on Thursday afternoon.
The search began after Len and Annette Vandepeer, both aged 57, and their adult son Doug, 27, went missing in their 7m Quintrex boat off the coast of Cape Jaffa on Monday night.
Police said on Wednesday evening that boats would not return to the water unless something further was found. However, Water Operations returned to the seas on Thursday morning to search an area around a nearby reef.
More than 3000 square nautical miles have been searched over the past three days.
Supt Moyle said on Wednesday that family members were very distressed.
“The family, as you understand, are deeply distressed and are trying to come to grips with the circumstances of these very tragic events,” he said.
“Actually what happened to the vessel is a mystery.”
Supt Moyle said the boat could have capsized “very quickly”, despite the good boating conditions on the water.
Supt Moyle said an aircraft with advanced infra-red had been used to scour the area but had failed to find anything in the waters. Police decided to scale back the search as a result.
“We will continue (on Thursday) with beach searches and helicopters will be coming down and patrolling the beach from Meningie all the way down to Kingston in the hope we find debris or other items on the beach,” Supt Moyle said.
Millicent police officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Peter Brown said police were still treating it as a search and rescue operation.
“We’ve obviously got serious concerns but our intention is to continue with that in mind,” he said.
“We have been in close contact with the family all day and as you can understand they are very distressed and very concerned.”
Sen-Sgt Brown said it was not clear exactly what time the family set out from Cape Jaffa on Monday.
Mr Vandepeer’s brother, Angus, raised the alarm when they failed to return and their vehicle and trailer remained in the Cape Jaffa boat ramp car park.
It was earlier confirmed the family was not going diving.
“We have no information about exactly where they went after they launched from Cape Jaffa,” Sen-Sgt Brown said.
“Our advice is that the sea conditions were not that difficult but in saying that, at anytime conditions in the ocean can cause a problem.”
The boat had life jackets onboard and an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB), which has not been activated.
The Vandepeer family have been cattle farmers at Keilira, about 50km northeast of Cape Jaffa, for generations.
Keilira and the town of Kingston, where the search is being co-ordinated, were sombre and “quieter than usual” as many tried to quell their worst fears for the well-known family.
Locals described the family, who visit Kingston to shop and play golf every weekend, as “well-liked” and popular.
Kingston Council mayor Reg Lyon said Mr Vandepeer’s father, the late Peter Vandepeer, was the chairman of the Lacepede District Council and had been well-respected in the community.
Bureau of Meteorology supervising meteorologist Matt Collopy said conditions off Cape Jaffa were calm on Monday night.
“There were actually very good boating conditions, as in light winds and not much in the way of swells,” he said.
“The seas would have been less than about half a metre ... which is fairly calm seas.”
Mr Collopy said there were 1-1.5m swells during the evening, compared to the area’s average of 2.5m swells.
He said east to north-easterly winds reached up to 15km/h, changing to a northerly direction at sunset and increasing in intensity to about 15-20km/h.
The sea surface temperature was about 16C on Monday night.
