Beloved charter skipper Robert “Smithy” Smith is being remembered after his death in a Sunshine Coast boating accident, with the community rallying behind his family.
A fundraiser has soared past its goal in just two days, collecting $125,000.
Fundraiser organiser Tim Graham from the Sunshine Coast Game Fishing Club said, “He was a local legend and a pilar of the club over a long period of time. He’ll be sadly missed by so many people.”
“Our thoughts are with Jules, Joel and their extended family.”
The 52-year-old boat captain died after a commercial boat overturned in the river mouth between Mooloolaba and Point Cartwright.
Police were called to reports a boat had overturned with five men on board around 5.20am on Wednesday 27 August.
The boat washed up on Mooloolaba Beach and four people made their way to shore. One man was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and three other men were uninjured.
Mountain Creek resident Robert Smith was tragically found dead in the water.
Inspector Jason Overland said, “The captain of the vessel was a well-known charter boat operator and was taking people out on fishing tours and has been doing so for some time. So it’s a loss to the community.”
“The waves are quite treacherous at that location on the bar. I don’t imagine it was too far from the shore. Clearly they were able to make it to shore, so that’s where the waves generally break there, so quite close to shore.”
Inspector Overland said the captain was thrown into the water when the the vessel capsized.
“There were fears that the the captain was entrapped in the upturned boat and our police made every effort they possibly could to get in there and make the termination one way or the other, as it turns out he wasn’t entrapped in the boat at that point.”
He said three of the survivors made it to shore unassisted on their own.
“However, a fourth person made it to the shore sometime after that. He was assisted with like an Esky or something like that,” Inspector Overland said.
Investigations are ongoing and police will prepare a report for the Coroner.
To donate to the GoFundMe visit www.gofundme.com/f/j5jdv-robert-smith?cdn-cache=0
