Sometime late Friday night or early Saturdaymorning, near the Coronado Islands, during the 125-mile Newport-to-Ensenada yacht race, something went terribly wrong on the 37′ yacht Aegean, leaving three sailors dead and one missing. A statement issued this morning by the Newport Ocean Sailing Association, which hosts the race, said, “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.”
This is the second ocean racing tragedy in California in the last two weeks. On April 14, five of eight sailors died when their yacht, Slow Speed Chase, was struck by large waves and ran aground on the Farallon Islands off San Francisco, CA while competing in the Full Crew Farallones Race.
3 crew members die as yacht apparently hits larger vessel
Three crew members of a sailboat were found dead and a search was under way early Sunday for a fourth, in the state’s second ocean racing tragedy this month.
Coast Guard boats and two aircraft as well as Mexican navy and civilian vessels were searching for the missing crew member.
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 Assn.’s website. It wasn’t immediately clear how many finished.
Watching and reading the Media reports and the wreckage description one gets the impression that the vessel may have been overrun and chewed up by a catarmaran hulled vessel. These are operated by both the Navy and civilian shipping companies. Perhaps we could suggest that an investigation of these types of vessels to show their presence in the area at the time of the incident. Some of the new Navy vessels are currently undergoing builders sea trials, so the possibility of a coverup could exist.
Good Watch.
Now there’s speculation about an autopilot somehow being involved. Still too much speculation and not enough fact.
Pat Byrnes: Speculation is good! In my job as an Incident Analyst Consultant one thinks outside the box – sometimes way outside. By doing that I can suggest an investigative path or paths to the actual Investigative Authorities. Sometimes that “crazy idea” can lead to an eventual solution. In this one the remark “looks as if she went through a blender” suggests being chewed up by propellers rather than hitting rocks. Since no Mayday seems to have been broadcast it further suggests a sudden high speed impact with extreme damage. That in turn might focus on a naval rather than a civilian vessel. These remarks are just that made without any accusation whatsoever since I have no firsthand evidence.
Good Watch.
I am not opposed to speculation, but at this point there are so few facts that I wonder if it is wholly productive. The boat was apparently very broken up. That could be from a higher speed collision or from being crushed under the hull of a larger ship then mangled by the propeller.
I tend to lean toward a collision with a much larger vessel which might not even be noticed on the larger ship while a smaller higher ship vessel would at least feel the “bump.” I recall a power boat about the size of this sailboat which cut between a tug and its barge in tow, at night, snagged the tow line and was crushed by the barge. The tug captain was not aware of the collision until investigators matched the paint smudge on the bow of the barge.
If the boat was chewed up from the prop/props of a larger vessel, I think there would be a chance of the same fate to some of the crew…but the possibility of being run over is still a viable theory. The depth of water on the lee side of those Coronado Islands are steep and deep, but the other side is much shallower. I would think some kind of scanning device might be able to locate the yacht, if it went down close to the islands. Finding the yacht could yield important information.
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