A Lake Macquarie man stood on the bottom of an overturned cruiser in gentle seas off the coast of Forster in pitch dark calling for his dad who had vanished after the pair scrambled from the doomed vessel moments earlier.
It was a calm and clear night, Scott Beeby told a Coronial inquest into the disappearance and presumed death of Alan Bruce Beeby at Newcastle courthouse on Tuesday, but the boat had swung and turned onto its side just after 2am on January 26.
As the vessel began to turn upside-down, it quickly became clear to the highly experienced mariners that they had to get off the boat and into the Tasman Sea.
Scott told the inquest his father - a "super fit" 74-year-old with decades of experience on the water and around boats - was resting when disaster struck about 16 nautical miles off the coast, just north of Seal Rocks.
"We're screwed," Scott said was the first thought that went through his mind when the vessel tipped.
"It went over, it's tried to come up and then it's just gone flop straight on its side windows.
"First thing was life jackets but as [the cruiser] was going down there was just no time.
"The last thing you ever want to be doing on a boat is getting off it into the water."
Alan called to Scott to grab the emergency beacon - Scott then "reefed" his father free after he became entangled underwater on a railing inside the cabin.
By the time the pair got out and Scott heard his father take a large gasp of air, the cruiser was upside-down.
Scott had Alan by the hand and placed it on the boat for him to hold on while he briefly let go - when his hand returned seconds later, his father was gone.
The Eleebana man, now 40, made his way to the overturned swim deck and climbed onto the belly of the boat, where he called for his dad in the pitch dark. But there was no answer.
As he sat wondering what to do next, repeatedly hitting the button on the emergency beacon and not knowing whether it was working, he saw the cruiser's small emergency craft floating away - also upside-down - and he swam to catch it.
He sat on the bottom of the small boat until a crew from a passing bulk carrier rescued him and authorities brought him to safety.
The two-day inquest into Alan's disappearance and presumed death is focusing on the condition of the cruiser, the lead-up to the fatal voyage and how long he likely survived in the water - as well as how exactly he died.
The inquest heard that Alan had arranged to buy the cruiser from a seller on the Gold Coast for $199,000 - which he considered to be a low price for such a vessel. He planned to use it as a lake boat.
The seller provided a list of known defects before Alan, Scott and a marine mechanic friend inspected the boat and Alan committed to the purchase.
Scott told the inquest on Tuesday that he tested it in washy waters and it "didn't react silly".
"I was sort of expecting a bit of a dunger - I thought the photos might have been tarted-up," he said.
"But it actually presented really well, it looked in good nick until you really went through it and saw the known defects."
The inquest heard that the inspection did not concern Alan or Scott.
"We did see the known defects," Scott said.
"We sort of looked at it and there's a lot of boats with those sorts of defects."
The inquest continues.
