An inquest was held into the disappearance of 64-year-old Glenn Yates, who went missing in 2020. Photo: AFP.
A retired deputy principal was sailing alone on Australia’s southern ocean when he disappeared and there was no sign of him when his yacht was discovered floating off NSW’s Far South Coast.
The inquest into the disappearance of 64-year-old Glenn Yates found he died from misadventure in the ocean off the coast of Eden, but what precisely happened to him was unable to be solved.
Mr Yates bought a 30-foot sailing yacht called ‘Bonne Idee’ and left Hobart, Tasmania on 13 November 2020 with the aim of sailing it to his home in northern NSW, Deputy State Coroner Stuart Devine said this week in his findings.
He talked to his wife on the phone the next day from the Bass Strait and said he would call again when he had reception, but this was the last time she spoke to him.
Early in the morning of 20 November, he contacted NSW Marine Rescue to say his boat had been damaged by severe weather, including very high winds ripping his main sail, and he was drifting about 75 nautical miles south of Green Cape, which is near the NSW/Victorian border.
He also told Marine Rescue he was not in distress, had some fuel and a working engine. He said his plan was to reach Eden, but he might need assistance to get there and would check in every two hours.
But Marine Rescue didn’t hear from him again. They tried contacting him numerous times before the search began at about 3 pm that afternoon and a plane found the Bonne Idee that evening.
Victorian Water Police arrived and could not find Mr Yates onboard. But they did find a danbuoy floating in the ocean while still attached to the vessel and another line trailing in the water.
A danbuoy is a safety device that can be used to mark the position of where a person has gone overboard.
Air and water searches continued until late on 22 November, but Mr Yates was not found.
Before he went missing, he lived in Lake Macquarie, NSW and was a fit and healthy person with no known medical issues that impeded his ability to sail, Deputy State Coroner Devine said.
He was a very capable boat handler, sailed almost every week and competed in world title events in Australia and overseas.
Deputy State Coroner Devine said while Mr Yate’s body was never found, he must be deceased, based on the evidence.
He said he could only speculate on the precise cause of his death, but the only plausible explanation was that he fell from the Bonne Idee into the ocean.
The investigating police officer thought he must have grabbed the danbuoy after he fell from the yacht, but the horseshoe buoy, which is a safety flotation device, that it was tied to was not released.
The officer thought he was then unable to hold onto this buoy, was forced away from the yacht and died.
Deputy State Coroner Devine closed the inquest by expressing his sympathy for “the tragic loss of Mr Yates” to his family.
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