Graeme Harding, NSRI Knysna station commander, said; “At 16h15 on Saturday 1 October, our NSRI Knysna volunteer duty crew were activated following reports of a small cabin house boat capsized on Knysna Lagoon, just upstream past the Train Bridge where Salt River enters the Knysna Lagoon.
“Our NSRI volunteer duty crew launched our sea rescue craft JAYTEE III and NSRI Knysna rescue swimmers responded directly to the scene by road.
“On arrival on-scene we found that a local fisherman had loaded 3 children, an 11 year old and a 6 year old and a 3 year old onto his boat and brought them safely ashore. The fisherman had responded to assist after seeing the Cabin Boat capsize. Their fathers, 42 year old Lionel Koster, (father of the 6 year old and of the 3 year old), and 40 year old Abri Lewis, (father of the 11 year old) were still in the water holding onto the boat, which was capsized in shallow water, but they were holding onto the boat to prevent the boat from drifting away. Our NSRI rescue swimmers waded into the water, about 30 meters off-shore, in shallow water and helped both men ashore and then recovered the boat.
“We have been told that initially one of the fathers and one of the children were initially but briefly trapped under the boat but no one was injured.
“As a precautionary measure we requested an ER-24 ambulance to attend at the scene and had the three children transported to hospital for observation and they were all released shortly after the two youngest children were treated for some mild hypothermia.
“The families are from Strand in Cape Town.”
