From Noonsite:
USA: Rogue Wave Swamps Cruising Yacht off East Coast
Created by sue. Last modified on 2011-05-19 11:10:04
Contributors:
Topic: Safety and Medical
Countries: Germany, USA
As reported in Sail-World.com
The
danger of an unexpected
rogue wave is ever present, no matter where you are sailing, and this story shows how important back-up systems are for the cruising sailor.
The US Coast Guard has rescued two sailors this week, 120 miles southeast of the coast of
Nantucket,
Massachusetts, when a rogue wave hit their
boat during conditions which were described as high but not particularly rough. The wave broke the
mast of the 45ft sailing
boat Eva, and the yacht began taking on
water.
"If you hit a monster wave, you have no chance to survive," Manfred Jabbush of
Germany remarked after the incident, in which he and his fellow crewman were rescued, but
lost their boat to the ocean.
Jabbush and his longtime sailing buddy Heina Fragner of Austria were sailing their 45ft boat from
Florida to
Greece when the seas became very large - 20-30 feet. However, as the distance between crests was very long, neither of the experienced sailors were worried.
Their enjoyable sail came suddenly to an end after the rogue wave capsized the yacht, breaking the
mast and the hatchways and portholes and tearing up part of the
deck. The
bilge pumps were also out of action, all their
food was
lost and the yacht began to take on
water. While their life raft was intact, the
GPS system and the
radio were also damaged and no longer working.
With an old hand-held
GPS they had stowed away and was not damaged by the
capsize they established their position and used a
satellite telephone, which had also survived, to call for help. They phoned a German
rescue station which connected them to the Coast Guard Command Center in Boston.
Less than two hours later the two sailors were hoisted by an Air Station
Cape Cod MH-60 helicopter crew and flown to the Coast Guard air station in Bourne, Mass.
They were taken to Falmouth Hospital, but released after an examination, both in good condition. Both
men praised the speed and efficiency of the
rescue authorities who saved their lives.
"It is a very bad thing to lose the boat," Fragner told
Cape Cod Times after the incident. "It will take days or weeks to understand all this. It is very sad when you lose it. Of course, life is more important," he said.
Incidents like this are a heads-up for all cruising sailors who go "off the beaten track". Yacht communication systems need a back-up, one that is secured in a place unlikely to be compromised when the unexpected happens.