“I didn’t think anyone was coming.”
Lachlan Arnold says it chills him to the bone to recall those words, spoken by the teenage girl lying on the beach waiting for the Ambulance to arrive.
Luckily for the young schoolie from Taree, Lachlan and his son Max happened to be on the unpatrolled Boomerang Beach that day and had the courage and the skills to save her life, reaching the drowning girl with just seconds to spare.
Max Arnold is just 16 years-old but has been involved with his local surf club since he was a six-year old Nipper and is a member of North Avalon Surfriders Association. Completing his Bronze Medallion just a year ago, he has been actively patrolling at Avalon Beach, yet his deep understanding of the ocean and ability to act quickly under pressure is a tribute to himself, his club and his family.
On Thursday 26 November Max and his dad Lachie were surfing and enjoying the sunshine at the southern end of Boomerang Beach on the NSW lower-north coast. The beach is a popular tourist destination – even more so in 2020 with traditional schoolies destinations out of reach due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Lachlan recalls the beach being busy that day with people on the sand and in the water right along the unpatrolled 1500m stretch.
South Boomerang Beach looking North, photo by Lachlan Arnold
“We were sitting on the beach and this young guy came running up yelling, ‘my girlfriend has been pulled out in a rip, can you help?’”.
When the boy pointed out his girlfriend, Lachlan was shocked to see she was over 150 metres from shore. In the rough conditions, the boyfriend recognised he was unable to help by attempting to rescue her himself.
“We watched as he ran towards us, asking people if they could help as he made his way down the beach,” said Lachlan “but no one he asked could help.”
Lachlan and Max were staying at a house just a couple of hundred metres from where they were sitting on the beach. Immediately Max ran up to the house to grab a foam surfboard. A strong swimmer and surf lifesaver himself, Lachlan began to swim out towards the girl.
“Max and I got to the girl at about the same time. I was holding her up in the water and she was gone. She was probably 30 seconds from going under,” said Lachlan. “She was in the worst condition I’d ever seen anyone out in the water.”
Max had done an incredible job to sprint to get the board and complete the long paddle out so quickly to meet his dad. The pair were able to get the girl onto the board and Lachlan began paddling the girl back to shore while Max swam alongside.
“Miraculously we caught this wave that took us all the way to the beach – it really was the magic wave and the most welcome one I’ve ever caught,” recalls Lachlan.
Back on shore, the girl was completely exhausted so Max and Lachlan carried her up the beach where they called an Ambulance and performed checks of her condition.
“She could barely talk,” said Lachlan “and she said to me when she got her breath back, that she felt like she was breathing water.”
The proud dad said he had complete confidence in his young son throughout the rescue effort. “He knew exactly what to do and when to do it. He’s only 16 and he was just so calm and just having done his Bronze Medallion, it’s amazing.”
Lachlan said the surf life saving training and the family’s love of the ocean meant he wasn’t once worried for his son’s safety. “Max paddled out on the board and the surf was rough, but I didn’t once think he couldn’t do it,” he said.
Event: MC38 2020 Season Act 6 (final), November 28-29 hosted by the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club with racing on Pittwater.
Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s Lazy Dog team closed out the 2020 MC38 calendar with a third series triumph, giving Shaun Lane and Quentin Stewart’s crew the overall season trophy from six acts.
“We were pretty consistent; not too many boat handling errors,” Lane said. It was tricky finding a course area on day two, the RPAYC race committee headed up by Steve Merrington first trying the estuary, where the breeze was already 27 knots, then Mackerel Beach and finally ‘the pond’ at the southern end of Pittwater where they got two races away “before the wind went mental”.
The youngest helm in class history, 13-year-old Indy Beck, steered his dad Christian’s MC38 InfoTrack on day two with plenty of talent supporting him in the big role.
“It was definitely exhilarating when we had a top wind of 30 knots and we were doing 20 knots downwind,” the teenager said. “We had one wipeout in the first race, a nice wipeout coming out of a gybe. We sat there on our side for a bit then got going again. The starts were pretty epic, I wasn’t worried about running into someone.”
InfoTrack with Indy Beck on the helm - photo by Tilly Lock Media
Full report by Lisa Ratcliff HERE
Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s Sydney Short Ocean Racing Championship (SSORC) coincided with Sydney’s record-breaking hot weather weekend, 28 crews enduring 40 knot gusts for race two and brutal temperatures in the low 40s both days of the longstanding annual series.
A gale warning moved racing inshore on the Sunday, Race Officer Denis Thompson designing special courses to suit a second day of fresh north-westerlies. Hot winds really kicked up in the closing stages of the Sydney Harbour passage race, testing reaction times and causing sail damage and a few knockdowns.
The icing on top of Keiran Mulcahy’s resounding IRC, ORCi and PHS division 1 victories with his King 40 called Soozal was beating nemesis and Royal Prince Alfred clubmate Bushranger, Gerry Hatton’s Mat 1245 also from Pittwater.
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SSORC Soozal (blue hull) R2 Start - photo by Marg Fraser-Martin
“We come to SSORC to beat Bushranger and we’ve done it two years in a row. I’m walking around at Middle Harbour Yacht Club now with a bucket for their tears and handing out tissues. I’ve been through three boxes already,” Mulcahy joked before heading to the podium to collect the team’s six trophy haul.
The winning Sydney 38 was David Hudson’s Conspiracy (RPAYC).
Hosted by Middle Harbour Yacht Club, the Sydney Short Ocean Racing Championships is celebrating it's 43rd Anniversary in 2020. The Regatta ran over the weekend of November 28 and 29.
For many yacht owners and their crews, the two day regatta sailed on tight courses off Sydney’s Heads, Beaches and, at times, within the Harbour, is vital to their preparations for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race (CYCA) and Pittwater to Paradise Regatta (RPAYC).
Full report by Lisa Ratcliff HERE
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