River Murray paddle boat Lady Rae sinks

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A River Murray paddle boat has sunk at her mooring in Murray Bridge over the weekend.

The Lady Rae was reportedly in good nick on Friday, but began listing on Sunday and by Monday had mostly disappeared beneath the river’s surface.

Boat restorer and neighbour Steve Moritz told Murray Bridge News he had a fair idea about why she might have gone under.

Recent rain had made the river’s water cleaner than usual, he said, and that had caused trouble for a number of wooden boats up and down the river.

“When you get a lot of rain and there isn’t any sediment in the water, it washes all the mud out of any leaks in the wood,” he said.

“Usually, when water starts to leak in, the sediment blocks it up.

“But since we’ve had all the rain, all the wooden boats are leaking.”

Ordinarily, that would not be much of a problem – a riverboat would typically be fitted with a bilge pump to pump out any water that might leak into its hull.

However, he suspected the Lady Rae’s bilge pump had failed, and that no back-up pump had been installed.

The Lady Rae was not actually an historic paddle steamer, but a replica, built about 15 to 20 years ago by Mr Moritz’s reckoning.

She was used as a houseboat, though not as the owner’s main residence.

He expected to meet the owner on Monday afternoon and come up with a plan to re-float her as soon as possible.