EPIRB but not registered -four rescued crew 'lucky to be alive'

10:35 AM Sat 18 Jun 2011 GMT

'Intended route of the yacht Gulliver' .

They set off their EPIRB but they hadn't registered it, and the resultant delay almost cost the four sailors their lives. In the incident that occurred off the coast of South Africa in the Southern Ocean this week, the four clung to their capsized catamaran then huddled in their life raft for more than nine hours waiting for rescue in five metre seas and winds up to 55 knots. The four South African sailors, skipper Greg West and crew Frans Sprung, Shaun Kennedy and Mike Morck, were trying to outrun the bad weather when their boat capsized ...

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