Family of Five Saved by Revere Liferaft and McMurdo EPIRB - Essex, Connecticut
Crew of Sinking 65’ Sportfisherman Saved by Revere Life Raft Two Miles from Shore
Mr. William Koeppel & his family were cruising down the coast from Nantucket toward Essex CT, on a beautiful July day. Suddenly the boat struck an under water object that pulled out the starboard prop shaft, broke the strut, and tore the coupling from the transmission pulling it through the bottom of the boat. The boat sank in less than 10 minutes. The cameras in the engine room showed massive flooding. Mr. Koeppel quotes “My wife quickly grabbed our two young children, put on their life jackets, and got them up on the bridge. I quickly sent off a mayday, started my EPIRB, and grabbed my Revere Life Raft from the storage cabinet in the front of the bridge.”
There were two life rafts aboard. One was a canister mounted life raft on top of the hardtop, but it was not easily accessible. The other was a Revere Life Raft kept in the eyebrow storage on the bridge, in front of the helm. In addition there was an inflatable on chocks mounted on the fore deck.
Of interest here is the canister mounted life raft on the hardtop is in plain view, but is not accessible. It would be of no use to the crew unless the aft section of the vessel fully submerged and the crew could access it from the water. There was no way or time to climb onto the hardtop! In this case it was mounted out of the way but was useless in this type of emergency.
As the boat was sinking, Mr. Koeppel passed his oldest son, Harrison –four years old, to a swimmer who had arrived in a passing boat and swam with the child to his boat.
When the life raft deployed, Mr. Koeppel’s wife, his other son (one year old) and their au-pair got into the life raft.
Mr. Koeppel continues “I radioed that we had abandoned ship, while running the radio on the back up batteries. By now the water was up to the bridge and she was listing to port. I jumped into the life raft with my family, and cut the painter line. A fishing boat picked us up and reunited us with our oldest son who was safely waiting on a small power boat that the swimmer had taken him to. We were all then taken to Cuttyhunk, where we spent the night shaken and wet, but safe thanks to our emergency equipment, our Revere life raft, and our fellow boaters.”