Mass Rescue in George Bass Marathon

Lifesavers were stretched to the limit for the start of the Navy George Bass surfboat marathon today (Tuesday) from Narooma to Bermagui.

Heavy surf saw several surf boats and surf skis upset while putting to sea.

With a massive shore dump and big surf running the Narooma beach turned nasty forcing a mass rescue of surfboat rowers, ski paddlers and water safety personnel.

More than 30 people had to pulled from the water with crews from Narooma, North Steyne and Tathra suffering damage to their boats and oars.

Narooma Sweep Max Young sustained head injuries in their roll over which broke two oars and a sweep oar. Mr Young, along with several other rowers received medical treatment on the beach before the race commenced.

Three ski paddlers were thrown from their craft and were rescued.

Tasmanian Crew Burnie narrowly avoided collision with an inflatable rescue boat that came to grief in the nasty surf. The IRB rolled on a wave in front of the Burnie crew.

A further two IRB’s rolled over when they were coming to the aid of the Tathra Crew and Ski paddlers.

With three IRB’s on duty out of action due to their roll overs and all other water safety people busy attending to other crews, three people had a long wait in the water until they were rescued.

The start of the race was delayed until just before 10am, almost two hours late.

Narooma, Tathra and North Steyne all completed the race despite needing new oars and carrying several bumps and bruises.

Race referee Dave Pheeney said all life savers were stretched to the limit in dangerous conditions today.

“Things weren’t good once we started losing boats things got very tricky for all our IRB crewmen,” he said.

“It was incredibly lucky there was no major injuries today.”