Matt Rutherford

In April we posted about a drifting Nautor Swan 48 sailboat named Wolfhound which had been abandoned in a storm just north of Bermuda in February by her owner, Alan McGettigan, and a crew of three. Initially, the boat was reported to have sunk, but nine weeks later the boat was sighted very much afloat, looking only slightly worse for the wear.

Then, at the end of July, Matt Rutherford literally sails into the story. Matt Rutherford is the remarkable young sailor who completed a record breaking 309 day, more than 27,000 mile, non-stop circumnavigation of the Americas in April of 2012. He also raised over $100,000 for the Chesapeake Regional Accessible Boating (CRAB.)  This year Matt was awarded the Ocean Cruising Club’s Jester Medal, for an outstanding contribution to the art of single-handed sailing.

Since completing his amazing solo-circumnavigation, Matt has founded and become the Executive Director of Ocean Research Project, a non-profit designed to help scientists better understand the problems facing the oceans.

Their most recent voyage was to the Sargasso Sea-Gyre.  On day 55 of the expedition on the cat-ketch Ault, Matt Rutherford and Program Director and Field Operations Scientist, Nicole Trenholm, saw a sailboat in the distance. From the Ocean Research blog:

The day after we finished our research we were sitting on the back of the boat enjoying an early dinner. Nikki suddenly stopped eating and said ‘look there is a sail boat over there’. It looked strange to me as the sails were not up and it seemed to be drifting around. Our first thought was that someone might be in need of some assistance so we changed course and turned toward the drifting vessel. As we passed close by I yelled out ‘HELLO’ half expecting to see some unshaven desperate sailor pop his head out but nothing happened. Nikki warned me that if I went onboard the sailboat I might find a dead body. I had to see if someone was in danger so I jumped into our flimsy kayak and paddled over then climbed aboard the injured sailboat. After a full inspection of the boat I found that it was abandoned.

The boat was a 48 foot Swan named Wolfhound full of nice gear. I could have easily striped the boat but I wanted to do the right thing. I found the owners phone number and the number for his insurance company and called them both telling them I found Wolfhound the 48 foot Swan and asked them what they would like me to do. As expected the owner wanted his boat and asked if I could tow it to the Chesapeake Bay. I told him I would be lucky if I could tow it 715 miles to Bermuda. I thought the sailboat still had a lot of life left in her and we could use the salvage money. It was worth a try.

As reported by the Washington Post, the salvage offer was $45,000 to tow Wolfgang to Bermuda, over 700 miles away.   After pumping Wolfgang’s bilge and securing the rigging to the extent possible, they sat down to figure out what they would do next.

Nikki and I discussed our game plan. We didn’t have enough fuel to tow Wolfhound all the way to Bermuda so the next day I was going to kayak back to the Swan and pump out its fuel tank hoping to get at least 30 gallons of diesel. The next day I disconnected one of my ships batteries placed in in the kayak and paddled back to the Swan. I used a waste pump that I found which was brand new still in its box and my big group 31 battery that I brought and started to pump Wolfhounds fuel tank dry. I was disappointed when I only got 12 gallons of diesel. I tried to bring back a jerry can with the Kayak but the Kayak flipped, I was being drug behind the Swan with one hand on the kayak and the other hand on the swim ladder. I dragged myself and the kayak back onboard and decided there was no way to get my battery and three jerry jugs back to my boat using the little kayak.

After searching around I found a Zodiac inflatable on Wolfhound so I pumped it up and threw it overboard. At least now I have a good way to shuttle the 12 gallons of diesel and my big battery back to my boat. Then craziest thing happened. On the way back to my boat the bottom fell out of the dingy. One minute I’m just rowing along and the next minute I’m looking down at nothing but water. My 100 pound battery I brought with me had a line attached to it and the line nearly rapped around my leg. If it had it would have taken me to the bottom of the ocean with it. I struggled to get back to my boat and climbed aboard, but I did manage to save the 3 jerry cans that had the 12 gallons of fuel in them. Nikki and I set aside 20 gallons of fuel in reserve and decided if we can’t get Wolfhound to Bermuda with the remaining fuel then we cut her loose and use the 20 gallons of reserve fuel to get to Bermuda without her.

The next day we spotted a freighter and asked the freighter if it could spare 50 gallons of diesel. At first they were hesitant but when the saw that we were towing a sailboat the freighter agreed to help. I had to pull up next to a slow moving freighter, stay 10 feet from its hull and maintain a prefect course in order to get the fuel. It took every bit of skill I had to hold my boat in that position for an hour as the guys on the freighter lowered one jerry jug at a time down to Nikki. It was absolutely nerve racking. You never want to be that close to a freighter in the open ocean, but if we could pull it off we would have enough fuel to easy tow the boat to Bermuda.

Unfortunately, the fuel from the ship was dirty and shut down the Ault‘s engine.  They attempted to start the Wolfgang’s engine, with no luck.   Any hope of towing Wolfhound to Bermuda ended. With, no doubt, mixed feelings, they cut the towline and set Wolfgang adrift.  And so adrift Wolfgang remains.

To learn more about Matt Rutherford, Nicole Trenholm, and Ocean Research Project, click here.

Thanks to John Steele for passing the story along.