More than ten people were rescued on Lake Burley Griffin earlier today after the iconic boat, The Gull, owned by revered local boatman Jim Paterson, sank.

At about 12:30pm on Sunday 22 December, police received a call for assistance after the cruise boat started taking on water and was sinking.

AFP Maritime and ACT Policing swiftly responded and were able to get the passengers on board to safety on a nearby embankment. No people were injured during the incident.

CD spoke with an eye witness (who wished to remain anonymous) who was part of the crew that arrived on the scene to assist after receiving a call from Jim when his boat started taking on water.

“The guy who needs to get some recognition is a guy called Iain Kerr, he owns a boat called the Debbie Lee, which is moored in Kingston Harbour,” the eye witness said.

“He got a call from Jim saying ‘I’m taking on water, and I’m going to need some help’. So, he was the one that said, ‘Okay, I need some crew’. He went off with a couple of crew, and I was one of those.

“It was on the other side of the lake, so it took about half an hour to get there in the craft we were in. But when we pulled up, the boat was nearly at the water level—up to the gunnel, which is pretty much deck level.

“There were nine adults and one little kid plus Jim. They all had their life jackets on when we arrived. Within seconds of us getting there, the boat started to sink even further, so they all jumped into the water,” he said.

“Five of them got onto Ian’s boat, and three were left on the superstructure of The Gull—three on the other side. Then, about five minutes after Iain arrived, the police launch arrived.

“The officer on that boat was brilliant—he jumped overboard, helped a lady who was nervous about swimming, floated her over to the police boat, and got the other two [who were] in the water to the police boat.

“Then he came over to The Gull, where the remaining three were, and got the two passengers onto the Debbie Lee and then got Jim, the skipper, onto the Debbie Lee.

“It was all a bit surreal, really, because the boat was just taking on water. It’s an old wooden boat, and all wooden boats take on water, but you have bilge pumps to help. Evidently, the bilge pumps weren’t able to handle the amount of water coming in.

“Honestly, if Iain hadn’t arrived when he did and the police hadn’t come shortly after, it could’ve been much worse.”

The witness said there were 11 people who needed rescuing, Jim and the 10 passengers who were part of a regular cruise on the lake. The police report stated 12 people were rescued.

“Actually, it was 11 people rescued—10 passengers plus the skipper. They might have counted me because I was in the water, helping, particularly with this little kid who was crying,” he said.

He said that Jim is well known in the boating community in Canberra and that the incident came as quite a shock.

“Jim’s been around for years. I think he’s been running The Gull for about 20 years, but he’s been on boats all his life. No one knows boats like Jim does. So, we were all a bit shocked that this happened because The Gull was such an iconic boat. It had just passed its complete five-year survey very recently.”

It is not known whether The Gull is salvagable but thankfully everyone made it out of the incident safely.