Crew lost

[nicho]

Reports on teletext today that a yacht capsized off Sables d'Lonne on French west coast - one crew member dead, the other missing. Worrying thing is it was registered in Scotland - any of our Northern correspondents know more??

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[Deep_6]

Any name of vessel given?

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[Solitaire]

Latest news is here - Boating is <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.powerboat-training.co.uk>Serious Fun

 

[sandralav]

I have heard the yacht is called reliance a.c and one of the britons on board, the one who has survived is richard heath, aged 23

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[starboard]

spent 15 years with RNLI recovering those not so fortunate...enjoy it while you can but remember the sea is not a place to be taken lightly..my thoughts with family and friends of those lost.

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[nicho]

Poor devils - must have been a terrible experience for the survivors. The sea can be an awful force to reckon with.. I feel very sorry for the families concerned.

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[Solitaire]

Yep! I lost a friend at sea earlier this year - not easy.

<hr width=100% size=1>Boating is <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.powerboat-training.co.uk>Serious</A> Fun

 

[Strathglass]

Not very nice.

I have had to collect and dispose of a sailing dinghy in behalf of the widow with a young famly after her husband drowned on Loch Lomond some years ago.

Iain

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[qsiv]

My father drowned off Salcombe when I was a tiddler - I've always treated the sea with respect, particularly when mixed with alcohol.

The bravest thing my mother did, I suspect, was to allow me to indulge my love of boats from an early age. Even now I never tell her when I'm leaving - I simply phone to say I've arrived.

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[Roberto]

French TV

reported they found the boat crashing near the shore with only one person aboard and the deployed liferaft still connected to the boat. Apparently the boat dismasted and then slowly drifted towards the shore, when the crew tried to swim ashore.

Just tv journalist reports don t know how precise they are.

Impressive night video footage of the hull crunching wildly on the rocks and the survivor arriving on the beach and being led to the ambulance still walking on his legs.

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[ianj]

Re: French TV

It appears from press reports on the internet that it was being sailed by Reliance Yacht Management to the Caribbean and had set out from Les Sables just a few hours earlier in to F10 conditions, which had been forecast.

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[Aja]

Alisdair Crawfors (24) from near Castle Douglas died when vessel capsized. Two other crew members survived (Richard Heath and Casper Dieperink).

Spokesman for Les Sables d'Olonne "It is a miracle that two of the three survived. There had been severe weather warnings issued all day. No one in their right minds should have attempted to sail a yacht in such fierce winds. It appears that the captain and crew were experienced yachtsmen. What they did was an act of astonishing foolhardiness. We dont know what possessed them to sail."

The winds quoted at the time of departure were 90mph. They were heading for Biscay after a proposed stopover in either the Canaries or Tenerife.


Donald


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[Roberto]

conflicting reports

from various sources, as often happens right after these tragedies happen, local newspaper states

They went out at noon, after having refuelled at port olonne captain s dock. Local capitainerie weather forecast indicating Force 7 winds for the following hours.

Force 9 winds were forecasted with the following bulletin, issued at 1600h, when the boat was reported to be at 30ish miles from the port. They decided to come back towards Sables d'olonne as weather had already worsened a lot. Around 0100h (night) the boat is dismasted and rolled, near Barges lighthouse (reputed by locals as one place where swell causes breaking seas even in moderate conditions). Two people are thrown overboard, they share one lifejacket and reach the shore: one of them is in severe hypothermia, the other manages to walk until a camping where he loses his senses after having found a shelter. The following morning he goes back to the beach looking for his companion whom in the meantime had been found dead my firemen. A passing car driver finds the man and brings him to the port authorities.


<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.ouest-france.fr/ofinfosgene.asp?idDOC=113310&idCLA=3636> french report here </A>

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[Twister_Ken]

Translation

of the Ouest France article...

Leaving on Saturday lunchtime, after strong winds had been forecast, the delivery crew of a sailing boat were shipwrecked offshore of Les Sables d'Olonne. The skipper, a young Scotsman, has been found dead. The two other crew members, an Englishman and a Dutchman are safe and well.

"We were at least a mile from Sables d'Olonne when a enormous wave flattened the boat. It was dismasted then rolled through 360 degrees. Alastair and myself were thrown out. Mike, the third crew member was able to stay aboard". As he recounted the circumstances of the drama to the harbourmaster, yesterday morning, Richard Heath, a 23-year old English yachtsman, was still shocked. But he is safe and well. Like Mike, the third crew member, a 17-year old Dutchman, brought ashore by a rescue diver. But Alistair Crawford, a 24-year old Scot and a professional skipper was found dead, during the night, on the shoreline.

(subhead) An extremely dangerous area

"When we fell into the water we tried to get back to the boat, but we couldn't," related Richard Heath. For a long while Alistair and Richard shared a lifejacket and swam, trying to reach the shore. When they got there, they were exhausted. Alistair Crawford was hypothermic and was no longer speaking. Richard Heath then left to look for help. At a nearby campsite he found some caravans which he thought were inhabited. Getting inside one he found some blankets to warm himself, and then lost consciousness. When he came to, in the small hours, he went back to the beach. He couldn't find his friend, whose body had, in the meantime, been discovered by the rescue services. The young Englishman spent the morning in the area until he was found by a motorist and taken, at around 1100 hours, to the harbour office where he had been reported missing. It was there, wrapped in a blanket, that he told what had happened.

What were they doing at sea in such weather? Employed by an English company, the three young men were delivering the boat to Tortola (BVI) in the Caribbean. The yacht, a 15 meter Sun Odyssey belongs to the Moorings, one of the world's leading charter companies. They had taken possession of it last Wednesday, and had 13 weeks in which to cross the Atlantic.

Saturday, towards midday, they let go their mooring lines to set out. After stopping at the port office to fill up with fuel they set course to the south. Were they up-to-date with the forecast? "That morning we put up the forecast, also in English, which was for Force 7" explained the harbourmaster. That was already a lot, but much less than the gale warning which we only received at about 1600. By then the crew were 30 miles south of Sables d'Olonne. With conditions becoming too difficult, the skipper decided to turn around and come back to port. The storm was then at its worst. It was about an hour after that that the drama happened near to the Barges lighthouse, an area known locally as being extremely dangerous.

An enquiry, lead by the maritime police from Sables d'Olonne, is underway. On the orders of the State procurator (?) the yacht, disabled on the beach, has been examined without revealing anything significant.


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