EIGHTEEN dragon boaters were rescued from the water at Soldiers Point after their vessel capsized over the weekend.

At around 11am on Saturday, Port Stephens Marine Rescue Base received a mayday call from a member of the public that a dragon boat with eighteen persons on board had overturned near Soldiers Point and all persons were in the water.

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At the time Marine Rescue vessels Port Stephens 31 and Lemon Tree Passage 30 were training nearby.

Both vessels, along with members of the public, responded immediately to the scene and were able to quickly extract the persons in the water without further incident.

Fortunately no one was injured.

All persons were taken to Soldiers Point where they were met by Port Stephens Water Police and Marine Rescue Port Stephens 30.

Karyn Price of the Port Stephens Dragon Boat Club told News Of The Area, “Capsizing is a small risk of dragon boating and unfortunately it occurred during our Saturday morning training session due to encountering unexpected winds not noted as part of our radar or onsite safety assessments which are completed by a qualified sweep.

“Capsizing practice/training is a safety requirement of dragon boating to ensure all members are confident in the event of a capsize and our team runs through our capsize protocols at the commencement of each session.

“This training ensured all our paddlers remained calm and did exactly as per procedure which resulted in a smooth and calm extraction by Marine Rescue.

“We would like to express our sincere thanks to Port Stephens and Lemon Tree Passage Marine Rescue teams and members of the public who came to our assistance and we will certainly take additional learnings from this event,” she said.

By Marian SAMPSON