Another Yacht Racing Disaster Off California

[Donn]

Two in two weeks:

Collision suspected in yacht mishap that killed 3

By BERNIE WILSON and DAISY NGUYEN | Associated Press – 1 hr 34 mins ago



LOS ANGELES (AP) — A yacht racing off the coasts of California and Mexico apparently collided at night with a much larger vessel, leaving three crew members dead and one missing, a sailing organization said early Sunday. It was the state's second ocean racing tragedy this month.


The Newport Ocean Sailing Association — organizer of the 125-mile Newport, Calif. to Ensenada, Mexico yacht race — said the apparent collision involving the 37-foot Aegean occurred late Friday or early Saturday several miles off the coast near the ocean border of the two countries.


"It appeared the damage was not inflicted by an explosion but by a collision with a ship much larger than the 37-foot vessel," association spokesman Rich Roberts said in a news release early Sunday.


Race officials believe there are few other possibilities for what caused the accident, Roberts later told The Associated Press, speaking by phone from Ensenada, Mexico.


He said details were still scarce but it was possible that if the smaller boat was bobbing around in light wind, the crew might not have been able to get out of the way of a larger ship, perhaps a freighter.


The race goes through shipping lanes and it's possible for a large ship to hit a sailboat and not even know it, especially at night, he said.


Roberts said a race tracking system indicated that the boat disappeared about 1:30 a.m. Saturday.


A Coast Guard search turned up the boat's wreckage, including the rear transom with the boat's name on it, the association release said.


Three crew members of the sailboat were found dead and a search was under way early Sunday for a fourth. Coast Guard boats and two aircraft as well as Mexican navy and civilian vessels were involved.


It wasn't immediately clear how many people were aboard the Aegean, but the Newport Beach Patch website posted a photo that shows the crew at the start of the race Friday. Four men in royal blue T-****s are on the deck as the boat cuts through calm waters. One man is waving and another
appears to be smiling.


Other yachts near the Coronado Islands in Mexico reported seeing debris Saturday morning. Searchers in the afternoon found the bodies and debris from the Aegean, whose home port is Redondo Beach, Coast Guard Petty Officer Henry Dunphy said


Two of the dead were recovered by a civilian boat, while the third was found by a Coast Guard helicopter.


The Coast Guard said earlier that it hadn't determined what happened to the sailboat.


Dunphy said conditions were fine for sailing, with good visibility and moderate ocean swells of 6-to-8 feet.


A total of 210 boats were registered in the 65th annual yacht race, according to the Newport Ocean Sailing Association's website. The race started off Newport Beach Friday and many boats finished in Ensenada Saturday, with the last ones due in Sunday.


The association's commodore, reached by phone in Ensenada, told the AP that he didn't know the members of the Aegean or how many people were aboard.


"This has never happened in the entire 65 years of the race that I'm aware of," Chuck Iverson said. "We're all shocked by this whole event."


The names of the dead were not released pending notification of next of kin.


The Coronado Islands are four small, largely uninhabited islands about 15 miles south of San Diego.


The deaths come two weeks after five sailors died in the waters off Northern California when their 38-foot yacht was hit by powerful waves, smashed into rocks and capsized during a race.


Three sailors survived the wreck and the body of another was quickly recovered. Four remained missing until one body was recovered last Thursday.


The deadly accident near the Farallon Islands, about 27 miles west of San Francisco, prompted the Coast Guard to temporarily stop races in ocean waters outside San Francisco Bay.


The Coast Guard said the suspension will allow it and the offshore racing community to study the accident and race procedures to determine whether changes are needed to improve safety. U.S. Sailing, the governing body of yacht racing, is leading the safety review, which is expected to be completed within the next month.


The Aegean is owned by Marina Sailing, a Southern California sailing club that rents the sailboat for $325 per day. A call to the club was not immediately returned Saturday night.

[Gerarddm]

Yes, saw this. Ugly, ugly. And sad. Little wind, foggy? We'll probably never know.

I recall doing an Annapolis-Newport Race once and we were off Long island in a fog, light wind, swell, and no engine for an emergency. We could hear large prop noises,made us very nervous. Had up a large radar reflector and we were blowing freon foghorns every half minute or so for what felt like hours.

[Ian McColgin]

I hope we can get more info. I have seen how some commercial vessels exempt themselves from Rule 5 an not really watch where they are going, but a crewed yacht in busy waters should be alert to such dangers. Unfortunatly, even if the vessel that struck the yacht can be identified (if that's what happened) it's unlikely that they ever saw, felt or heard anything.

[Tall Boy]

I've raced in every one of those races from the mid 70's to mid 90's. Something seems a little off. That boat was a middle of the fleet type, if it was hit by some sort of heavy boat going north, the boat would have passed a 100 or so boats on the way up and you'd think they would have had an eye out. As for Agean. one is usally pretty focused on the competition in a race (and anything else around) .........I just seems strange. I hope they figure it out.

[Osborne Russell]

Doesn't sound like conditions where you wouldn't see a ship coming, even at night -- if you were watching.

[Tall Boy]

Doesn't sound like conditions where you wouldn't see a ship coming, even at night -- if you were watching.

Some of the rumblings going around the guys that sail these parts is a little more sinister, We've had nuke subs hit things around here a few times and, the smugglers like to use the Ensenada race as good cover to move product and bodies North. I've seen the subs surface close to that location many many times.

[Phillip Allen]

Some of the rumblings going around the guys that sail these parts is a little more sinister, We've had nuke subs hit things around here a few times and, the smugglers like to use the Ensenada race as good cover to move product and bodies North. I've seen the subs surface close to that location many many times.

I wondered about that... I was on a boomer and we never surfaced until the patrol was over and of course, no patrol in those waters

[John of Phoenix]

Yacht debris, bodies found off US-Mexico coast

By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press – 11 hours ago, 30 April 2012

ENSENADA, Mexico (AP) — Eric Lamb was the first to find debris of the boat — most no larger than six inches — scattered over about two square miles Saturday as he worked safety patrol on the race. He saw a small refrigerator, a white seat cushion and empty containers of yogurt and soy milk.

"We pulled a lot of boats off the rocks over the years and boats that hit the rocks, they don't look like that. This was almost like it had gone through a blender," said Lamb.

A Coast Guard helicopter circling overhead directed him and a partner to two floating bodies. Both had severe cuts and bruises, and one of them had major head trauma.
Two race participants who were in the area at the time the Aegean disappeared said they saw or heard a freighter.

Cindy Arosteguy of Oxnard, Calif., remembers hearing on her radio someone say, "Do you see us?" as she saw a tanker about a half-mile away.

"I got back on the radio and said, 'Yes, I see you,'" she said. "It was definitely a freighter."


-----------------------------------
I read that the transom was mostly intact but for "most pieces to be no larger than six inches" sounds like going through propellers.

That radio exchange with no call signs could have been very misleading if that's the way it went.

[Phillip Allen]

so... it looks as though they were run down and under the screws... it would explain a lot

a small freighter full of drugs and running lights out?

[Tall Boy]

Well, if it was a large ship engaged in legal trade, this will get settled when they find it.

[John B]

Report emerging about the boats spot tracker terminating at an island.

[John Bell]

They did have a spot tracker and it shows what appears is the nautical equivalent of controlled flight into terrain. We'll know for certain if they find the keel at the base of the cliff they apparently hit. But what is being speculated right now is that the boat hit a cliff and was dashed to bits in the swell.

[Concordia 33]

They did have a spot tracker and it shows what appears is the nautical equivalent of controlled flight into terrain. We'll know for certain if they find the keel at the base of the cliff they apparently hit. But what is being speculated right now is that the boat hit a cliff and was dashed to bits in the swell.

Do you think it could break into so many pieces with an island strike?

[Ian McColgin]

The boat getting that ground up by wave action against rocky cliffs is more consistent with the incredibly mangled wreckage than just being run over.

[Phillip Allen]

The boat getting that ground up by wave action against rocky cliffs is more consistent with the incredibly mangled wreckage than just being run over.

I suppose the results of the strike were influenced by tides... didn't they find the wreckage away from the island?

[Ian McColgin]

Yeah, tides carry stuff and there's remarkable rebound from rock faces. Actually, the rebound can be real fun for experienced and daring kayakers but that's another matter.

The 'hit the cliff' bit is based on the Spot rumor. If they find the keel, that will tell us better. Till then, it's another plausable hypothesis.

[John Bell]

Also, remember many modern boats are made from thin FG laminations over foam or balsa cores in order to get a stiff hull with minimal weight. They bust up like when a styrofoam beer cooler full of ice and a 12-pack falls out of a moving vehicle on the interstate. A boat like this on the rocks in the presence of significant wave action is cheese grated down to not much pretty quickly.

FWIW, I own a Spot and have found the positions it gives to be very reliable. I have no reason to doubt they hit the rocks under power while on autopilot. The were going a consistent 5+ knots over a several hour period right up the time they hit. The evidence is very strong that hitting the island happened first and the boat broke up later, not that boat broke up in a collision and the tracker drifted into the island as some have speculated.

[Dan McCosh]

If the GPS is tracking the boat, how do you hit an island?

[Hwyl]

If the GPS is tracking the boat, how do you hit an island?

By being incapacitated by sleep or carbon monoxide or a host of other reasons.

It's time to respect the dead.

[John Bell]

If the GPS is tracking the boat, how do you hit an island?

All a GPS does is tell you where you are. If you aren't paying attention to where you are, that knowledge is useless. Why they weren't paying attention is something we'll likely never know.

[John of Phoenix]

The spotter device just tracks and transmits the boat's position, it doesn't steer the boat.

[elf]

I've never been clear about whether the Spot tracks continuously or only when asked to transmit.

[John Bell]

I've never been clear about whether the Spot tracks continuously or only when asked to transmit.

When tracking is turned on, Spot sends the current position every 10 minutes. My experience is there are occasional dropped reports, but the vast majority get through. The user can force a position report at any time by pressing the "OK" button.

[Hwyl]

I've never been clear about whether the Spot tracks continuously or only when asked to transmit.

When tracking is turned on, Spot sends the current position every 10 minutes. My experience is there are occasional dropped reports, but the vast majority get through. The user can force a position report at any time by pressing the "OK" button.

It actually depends on what package you purchase, I have the least expensive one where you press the button to transmit

[John Bell]

It actually depends on what package you purchase, I have the least expensive one where you press the button to transmit

Correct. All Spots have the capability to track progress, but it's an extra cost subscription. I have it, but only because one of the races I do requires it.

[Ian McColgin]

There are a few points I must have missed. I thought these guys were racing, which would mean engine off. Or had they dropped out due to the calm conditions, put the motor on and the auto pilot on and either gone to sleep or, running downwind in a calm, gotten monoxide poisoning? Whatever, facts are missing. Is an autopsy of the recovered bodies to be part of the investigation?

[Hwyl]

They were racing in a cruising class in which limited logged engine time was allowed, that however is moot, because they had retired earlier in the evening.

[Phillip Allen]

you don't suppose there was no watch?

[Dan McCosh]

I don't know what the course for that race looks like, but there have been several instances locally of people programming a destination into a GPS without looking at what's between them and the destination. Usually this isn't too serious, but running on shore at night has been one result, and it could easily turn fatal.


----After i wrote this, I looked at a map, and this does appear to be what happened.

[Phillip Allen]

I don't know what the course for that race looks like, but there have been several instances locally of people programming a destination into a GPS without looking at what's between them and the destination. Usually this isn't too serious, but running on shore at night has been one result, and it could easily turn fatal.


----After i wrote this, I looked at a map, and this does appear to be what happened.

so, then, no watch... I guess racers aren't the same as cruisers

[John Bell]

According to some sources they had retired from racing some hours before the accident. As previously pointed out, the were in a cruising class that allowed motoring during some part of night. It's pretty certain they were under power and probably being steered by auto-pilot when the accident occurred. Why they lost situational awareness is unknown and will likely never be known. Boats don't have flight data and cockpit voice recorders like commericial aircraft.