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Search scaled back, three still missing after boat capsizes near Tofino

Rescue centre says case turned over to RCMP as missing persons case
Map - Duffin Cove

Update: The search for three missing men after a small boat capsized Friday has been turned over to RCMP as a missing persons case.

In a statement posted on social media, the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria said it had called for a search reduction after 18 hours of searching.

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The search continued Friday evening for three men missing after a small boat capsized in the waters off Tofino.

Five men were on board the 20-foot vessel when it sank without putting out a mayday.

Several people near Duffin Cove called 911 at 3 a.m. after hearing calls for help, said navy Lt. Melissa Kia, a spokeswoman for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria.

Jae Valentine, owner of the oceanfront Cable Cove Inn, woke up at 2:45 a.m. and heard two people calling for help somewhere on the water.

Valentine heard one man say: “Help me, help me.” Then a second man yelled: “Where are you? I’m coming for you.”

Her neighbour shouted: “Help is on the way.”

Valentine walked down to her cove, between Duffin Cove and Grice Point, but she couldn’t see in the darkness. She said she didn’t think the men were in the water because she did not hear laboured breathing. She thinks they might have been hanging onto a bluff or a rock.

The voices called out for at least half an hour, she said.

The rescue centre sent out a mayday to all nearby vessels and dispatched several Canadian Coast Guard vessels and a Cormorant helicopter.

About 3:30 a.m., a coast guard vessel rescued one man, who was not wearing a life-jacket, south of Felice Island.

A second man swam to shore and was found at 4:20 a.m.

Both were transported to hospital for treatment.

As the day went on, Valentine watched rescue boats and helicopters whir past her property.

At 9:15 p.m. the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre tweeted that the search had been scaled back.

“This case has been turned over to the RCMP,” the centre said. “Our thoughts are with the loved ones of the missing.”

“I just feel so sorry for the family,” Valentine said Friday afternoon as another rescue boat glided across the water.

Elmer Frank, who lives in Tofino, was among those out on the water taking part in the search. “Lots of debris had been found in the area where the boat was reported sinking,” Frank said.

“There’s about 30 boats out searching with the … coast guard. There are people from Ahousaht, Tofino that are out looking for these three people.”

Tofino RCMP Sgt. Todd Pebernat said the two survivors were from out of town and have been released from hospital.

Pebernat said the search for the three missing men, members of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, would continue as long as it was light out.

“It’s a sad situation,” he said.

Conor Paone, spokesman for the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, said counselling and emotional support is being provided to their families.

“We have a really strong cultural community at the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and we also have a strong community locally in Tofino,” Paone said from the First Street dock, which was blocked off by police tape.

“So the families are being supported through community members, through emergency-operation-centre resources, through the administration of the First Nation and the District of Tofino. You can see everyone behind me is gathered and waiting for news.”

Tofino Mayor Josie Osborne said the community was “110 per cent focused on the search and supporting the families that have gathered.”

“Everyone is here on the dock waiting. There’s tons of support from the town, providing food and coffee and water and everything that’s needed.”

Osborne said it’s no surprise that dozens of local vessels have been involved in the search since the mayday call came in.

“This is how it works here,” she said. “We’re such a small community. It doesn’t matter who it is, when somebody’s missing, it’s all hands on deck, everyone gets out there.”

The coast guard was searching an area of about 41 square kilometres — most of Templar Channel between Chesterman Beach and Wickaninnish Island.

This would be the fourth fatal boating accident in Tofino in three years, and comes just a week after another boating tragedy claimed the life of an Indigenous man on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Peter Knighton, 78, drowned June 5 after his boat capsized in rough weather south of Carmanah Point as he was bringing supplies to Chez Monique, the remote makeshift store and restaurant that he and his late wife set up to cater to West Coast Trail hikers.

In April 2017, two Alberta men, Alvin Beckley and Mike Cutler, died after the sportfishing charter boat Catatonic capsized near Vargas Island, northwest of Tofino. Three others survived.

Five Britons and one Australian died when the 20-metre Leviathan II, a whale-watching vessel, sank off the coast of Tofino in 2015.

Rescuers from the nearby First Nations village of Ahousaht raced to help in boats after seeing a single emergency flare.

Safety board investigators said most passengers and crew were on the top deck of the vessel’s port side when a wave hit the starboard side. The vessel tilted, rolled and capsized, the board said.

Survivors described being thrown into the ocean without life-jackets, grabbing hold of a single life ring that floated in the waves.

ldickson@timescolonist.com

kderosa@timescolonist.com

— With files from Jack Knox