RP52 Miss Scarlet Burns and Sinks after electrical fire in Australia
Last Saturday a fire broke out on board the RP 52 ‘Miss Scarlet’ during the crossing from Southport to Cairns, Australia. Simone Hill and Larry Jamieson, who work for MyCrewTravel, the company responsible for transporting the yacht, narrowly escaped the incident, which ultimately resulted in the sinking of the famous RP52. Local media report that an electrical fault was the cause of the fire
Here is what happened,in the @mycrewtravel Instagram post:
“The @mycrewtravel team of @simonehhill and @larry.jamieson through good management and quick actions have survived an electrical fire and subsequent sinking of the RP52 race yacht MISS SCARLET.
After 7 days sailing from Auckland we had departed Southport on Friday morning.
On Saturday evening while I was on watch a low voltage alarm sounded – which Larry investigated and observed white smoke in the nav station area. He moved quickly to put the throttle in neutral while I activated a fire extinguisher and turned off the engine.
By then flames could be observed from up on deck and Larry immediately deployed the liferaft while I grabbed the VHF to start transmitting a Mayday call with our GPS co-ordinates.
Larry received second degree burns to the backs of his legs while escaping the flames and we abandoned ship to the liferaft & used a knife to cut the tether – within 5 minutes the whole yacht was engulfed and moments later sank.
I activated my PLB and continued to make Mayday calls. AMSA tasked a plane from Cairns and chopper from Rockhampton. After 2.5 hours a call came on the VHF from the chopper that a boat was on the way – ETA one hour.
At their request, I shot a parachute flare and then a red smoke flare to assist them locating us in the swell.”
They went on to state:
“While very disappointed not to be able to deliver Miss Scarlet to her new owner in Cairns we know that people are more important than possessions and will work with the relevant authorities and insurance companies to provide as much information about the event as possible”
This is absolutely devastating news, and while Larry has suffered burns, we are glad to hear that both Simone and him are ok.
