Man rescued from sailboat off Maui

An Australian man was rescued off Maui after he was blown off course during a journey from Panama to Australia in a homemade boat, the Coast Guard said Tuesday.

The Coast Guard and a good Samaritan rescued the 62-year-old man about 3.5 miles west of Keehi Harbor on Sunday.

The man was in the Kehaar Darwin, a 30-foot sailboat, without communication equipment or an engine, and his sails were in poor condition. He departed Panama 104 days earlier.

On Sunday afternoon he flagged down the commercial passenger boat Trilogy V for help, appearing disoriented and saying he was having trouble making it into port. He was rescued in 17 to 23 mph winds and 4-foot seas.

A Coast Guard crew in a 45-foot response boat towed the man to Sugar Beach on Maui.

“Being disoriented while at sea in a vessel with no communication capabilities aboard can be deadly if not handled quickly,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Jacob Schlereth, a boarding officer and engineer at Station Maui, in a news release. “We commend the good Samaritan for recognizing the complications and contacting the proper authorities to initiate a rescue.”

Maui

Owner of drifting paddleboard sought

The Coast Guard is asking the public’s help in identifying the owner of a drifting red paddleboard found two miles off Maalaea Bay on Tuesday.

A 45-foot boat crew from Coast Guard Station Maui launched a routine search in the area.

The Coast Guard base in Honolulu issued an urgent marine information broadcast notice to mariners to keep a lookout for signs of distress. There were no reports of missing persons in the area.

Anyone with information on the kayak is asked to contact Sector Honolulu at 808-842-2600.

Hawaii island

Fire engulfs Kamuela farm lot structure

Hawaii island firefighters extinguished a difficult-to-reach fire burning a dwelling on a Hawaiian Home Lands farm lot early New Year’s Day.

At 12:14 a.m., firefighters went to 64-0768 Ainahua Alanui Road in Kamuela and found a single-story, residential, wood-frame structure engulfed by fire. The home was unoccupied at the time, according to the fire department, and access to the fire was difficult due to overhead vegetation that had to be cut back.

It was an unpermitted structure.

Firefighters also discovered two 100-gallon propane tanks venting gas upon arrival and cooled the tanks with hoses before extinguishing the structure fire.

The value of the 700-square-foot structure is unknown. No injuries were reported.

Food stamp recipients drop

HILO >> The number of food stamp recipients on Hawaii island declined slightly in 2017.

Data from the Hawaii Department of Human Services shows while 37,964 people on the Big Island benefited from the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program — commonly referred to as food stamps — by the end of November 2016, only 37,349 did so by the same time in 2017, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.

The decline reflects an ongoing trend in program participation since 2015. An average of nearly 40,000 people per month benefited from the program on the island that year.

The data show $9,113,778 in benefits was distributed to island residents in 2017, with each participant receiving an average of $244.02.

Program participants dropped statewide to 142,616 in 2017 from 148,848 in 2016.

National data for the 2017 fiscal year were not available, although a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities earlier in 2017 revealed 12 percent of Hawaii’s residents were involved in the program in 2016, slightly fewer than the national average of 14 percent.

But, while fewer families with children are involved in the program than the national average — 64 percent versus the nation’s 68 percent — 53 percent of participants are in working families, compared with the national average of 44 percent.