Out of luck

IAN Luck says he may be lucky by name but he isn't lucky by nature after his newly purchased 30ft fly bridge cruiser 'Hook me up' beached on Sunday night.

Picture: Craig Warhurst

IAN Luck says he may be lucky by name but he isn't lucky by nature after his newly purchased 30ft fly bridge cruiser 'Hook me up' lost engine power in high seas late Sunday night and ran aground on Rainbow Beach.

Mr Luck and his passenger Kelli Lewis thought they were going to die in the ordeal after a freak wave slammed into the side of the $100,000 boat, all but turning it over.

The pair hung on for their lives while wave after wave slammed into the floundering vessel, before it eventually ran aground on the beach near the Dorrigo campsite at Inskip Point.

The shipwrecked couple was battered and bruised when they spoke to The Gympie Times yesterday.

Mr Luck said the adventure started from Scarborough where he picked up his new boat four days ago.

“My mother died and left me an inheritance so I bought the boat,” Mr Luck said.

Ms Lewis was a friend from Sydney and was invited to go along on her first ocean voyage from Scarborough to Cairns, were Mr Luck resides.

Everything had been going to plan on the trip until the pair reached Double Island Point and chose to drop anchor for the night.

Mr Luck said because of the rough seas they couldn't get to sleep and decided to try and find some where better to anchor for the night.

“I started idling along the coast to try and find some calmer water,” he said.

After motoring for about six kilometres one of Mr Luck's two engines cut out and about another kilometre later the second motor stopped.

“I was cranking the engines over when Kelli yelled from the fly bridge 'big wave'! Mr Luck said.

“We got slammed.

“I was terrified, the boat all but rolled over and I thought we are gone.”

“The wave picked up the boat and launched it,” he said.

Ms Williams said the wave was at least three metres high.

“I was standing on the fly bridge and it was to my eye level,” she said.

The Sydneysider was thrown across the bridge severely bruising her buttocks.

She said if it hadn't been for the plastic covers on the boat she would have been thrown overboard.

In the black of night with waves crashing around them Mr Luck said panic well and truly set in.

He set off the EPIRB and put life jackets on all while being washed around the boat.

“I thought we were dead. We were completely helpless,” Mr Luck said.

“Their was nothing we could do.

“We were at the mercy of the Gods with no power on the boat.”

Once on the beach Mr Luck gathered up some of his more expensive instrumentation to save them from the battering.

“Just as I was about to get off the boat another wave hit and launched me out of the boat - I lost my GPS,” he said.

Inskip Point campers picked up the couple and dropped them into Rainbow Beach where they stayed the night.

Rainbow Beach Senior Constable Damien Callander said it could have been a lot worse for Mr Luck and Ms Williams.

He said they weren't far from crossing the Wide Bay Bar when the couple lost power.

“They are lucky to be alive,” Snr Constable Callander said.

“If they had of gone into the Wide Bay bar without power we could have been looking at a double fatality.”

The police officer said even if 'Hook Me Up” had of washed up closer to Rainbow were the Mudlo Rocks are now exposed things could have been worse.

“It could have destroyed the boat,” he said.

Wayne Hayes from Rainbow Beach Recovery said the boat was in relatively good condition and they would try to refloat the vessel early this morning.

“We are just trying to stabilise and secure the vessel yesterday for last night's high tide,” Mr Hayes said.

“The tide last night wasn't as high as the tide it got washed up in, so we are waiting for today's higher tide to refloat the vessel,” he said.

Rainbow Recovery were working on fixing Hook Me Up's engines yesterday so it would be able to help power itsself off the beach.

Mr Hayes said plans hadn't been finalised but the company may need the help of the Coast Guard to tow the cruiser into Tin Can Bay for repairs.

Originally published as Out of luck