This story is all over the news and the sailing forums. Anyone else following this? There’s quite a bit of Navy and small craft activity in the area so it’ll be interesting to learn just what happened.
I’ve been following what I can find on the ineternet while I’m working overseas.
Used to spend a lot of time offshore racing.
ENSENADA, Baja California, Mexico—Newport Ocean Sailing Association (NOSA) officials learned late Saturday that three sailors in their Newport to Ensenada offshore race had died in an apparent collision with a large vessel several miles off the coast near the border.
Theo Mavromatis is the owner and skipper of the sailboat Aegean, a Hunter 376 representing the Little Ships Fleet club, but it was not known if he was one of the victims. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter led Vessel Assist to two bodies and later retrieved another. None of the bodies had been identified. A crew list was not immediately available, nor was it known how many other crew may have been on the boat, which is usually sailed by five or more persons.
The first indication of the incident was at 1:30 a.m. Saturday when the boat’s image vanished from the online race tracking system in place for the race. A Coast Guard search was launched that led to discovery of the boat’s wreckage, including the rear transom with the boat’s name on it.
An investigation was continuing, but it appeared the damage was not inflicted by an explosion but by a collision with a ship much larger than the 37-foot vessel.
The race started off Newport Beach in mid-day Friday and many boats finished in Ensenada Saturday, with the last ones due in Sunday. Weather conditions were lighter than normal at the time and place of the incident, with boats reporting winds of only 1 or 2 knots.
These would be the first fatalities in the 65-year history of the race, in which as many as 675 boats have competed in 1983 and 213 were entered this year.
Photos of the boat and debris can be found in this article: http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2012-04-30#.T58YY8RYuq0
More information came to light late yesterday, including a “Spot” satellite track for the vessel:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0PPpktkSXb0QR2ojCNeoelyfYAx2eVZzF
It would appear that the boat motored directly into the cliffs of North Coronado Island, Mexico (winds were calm at the time of the accident).
He would have to have been motoring far faster than the hull speed of that boat to do that much damage, based on the photos and text linked to this thread.
The tracking device may have floated free.
[QUOTE=water;68477]He would have to have been motoring far faster than the hull speed of that boat to do that much damage, based on the photos and text linked to this thread.
The tracking device may have floated free.[/QUOTE]
It’s still too early to tell but a boat getting chopped up by a ship’s propellers strikes me as less plausible then broken up on the rocks. There was a 6-8 foot swell at the time.
Generally when the ship’s bow hits a floating object it gets washed around the hull by the bow wave. An exception is vertical floating logs, the so-called “deadhead” I could see the boat breaking in half after a ship strike but most of it would stay on the surface at least till the ship passed.
On the other hand dropping a fiberglass boat 6-8 feet onto rocks every 10-15 seconds could conceivably break a boat up.
This is just speculation on my part. I don’t have any real info.
Heart breaking for family and friends in any case
K.C.
[QUOTE=water;68477]He would have to have been motoring far faster than the hull speed of that boat to do that much damage, based on the photos and text linked to this thread.
The tracking device may have floated free.[/QUOTE]
Apparently there was a 6-8 foot swell that evening and someone else reported that (from the SPOT track) the boat appears to have kept a fairly steady speed of 6.5-7 knots during the entire track.
No official word on this that I’m aware of, just picking up bits of info from the various sailing forums.
How does the location of the SPOT compare to the USCG search area?
My heart goes out to all of those involved. Two tragic sailboat races in CA in such a short time.
…any body else notice it was a HUNTER? that brand doesn’t have the best reputation for craftsmanship or durability. at least it didn’t 10-20 years ago. sad story nonetheless.
Here’s a report on the accident:
http://offshore.ussailing.org/AssetFactory.aspx?vid=19623
Also other reports from other sailining accidents:
http://offshore.ussailing.org/SAS/General_Information/Current_Safety_Studies.htm