* How A J/24 Rescued A Boat and Saved Lives At the Lipton Cup
(Port Philip, Australia)- The 2011 Lipton Cup was sailed in true Port
Philip conditions, from a 10 knot North Easterly through to 30 knot
South Westerly on Saturday. Mix this with blinding rain that persisted
all day and you have conditions that test the best of us. Fortunately
the weather improved on the Sunday, however, most of the fleet stayed on
shore, as the previous day was enough.
Simon Grain and Lisa Simonov won the regatta with 4 straight wins, their
J/24 MAKE MY J was quick, well sailed and when required picked shifts
that pulled them up through the fleet to win yet another race.
However, something else took place that day that saved a sailor's life.
Here's Hugo Ottoway's account from aboard his J/24 BRUSCHETTA VI-
"There was another event that took place that day that made me feel glad
that (1) our crew competed (as we only decided to sail the previous
day) and (2) that I sailed such a great boat as a J/24!
In the third race the wind had turned to the South west and kicked in at
recorded 30 knots. After a screaming downwind run with the spinnakers
Simon and I rounded the bottom mark together, back on the wind, we
sailed lower and both boats were about ten boat lengths apart on port
tack with Simon slightly astern and to windward.
My crew alerted me that there was a boat from another division that was
on starboard and hardly moving, we bore away and as we passed astern we
could see that the boat was a mess with her headsail half-furled and two
crew occupied with something going on in the open cockpit. The boat’s
crew shouted “we have a man overboard”, which sent a shock right through
the whole of our crew, we replied “where”, one pointed directly
downwind. Through the blinding rain we could just see a tiny black shape
about 200 meters away.
Jack on the bow tripped the jib, and kept his eyes firmly on the MOB,
whilst Matt eased the vang and Michael readied the life ring, the MOB
was waving his arm and as we approached we assured him and asked him to
keep calm.
Our first pass was too quick and we felt that the wind was too strong to
throw the life ring as it would never have made it. Our second pass,
much slower allowed the MOB to swim to the windward side of the J where
it took all three of my crew to get him on board.
The rescued person, Dominic, was ash white, shaking and exhausted, we
put him down in the cabin where Jack kept a eye on him. It was only then
that I looked around to see that through the rain the only other boat I
could see was the stricken yacht, no one else was in sight. The
stricken yacht had managed to bare away and was able to run downwind
some distance away, we both headed to the nearest harbour at RYCV.
Dominic advised us that there was a injured crew on the other yacht and
that the events that caused his injury had caused his fall from the
boat. I estimate that Dominic would have been in the water for a
minimum of ten to fifteen minutes, we were concerned that he might be
effected by shock so I got Jack to keep eye on his condition all the
whole way home.
J/24′s are great to sail in heavy windy conditions, their low free board
made getting Dominic on board much easier, and the speed in which we
could do a second pass, took some of the panic out of the situation. Had
we been in a much bigger boat, this MOB rescue would have been much
harder and taken a lot longer, of that I am sure.
When we entered to harbour, the stricken yacht managed to get assistance
from a rescue boat who rushed the injured crew to a waiting ambulance.
After we had docked we were met by the crew of the other yacht who
thanked us and advised us that they could never have been able to pick
up Dominic.
On reflection, my crew and I agreed that we had all had a rewarding and
special day, as no one else knew Dominic was out there until we reported
what had happened when we came ashore. We later learnt that the race
was shortened due to the wind strength and reduced vision of 100 meters.
A very, very special "Thanks" to Jack Crawford, Matt Weston and Michael Lewenhagen, my crew on BRUSCHETTA VI."
Note from Simon Grain- "Hugo’s actions quite probably saved
Dominic’s life on Saturday. The visibility was terrible with heavy
driving rain, rising seas and lots of spray making looking to windward
almost impossible and painful. This might have meant that no other boat
would have seen him in the water. This is a very sobering thought, as
losing a crew member overboard can happen in the blink of an eye to any
of us on the water in these conditions. Make sure you practice your man
overboard retrieval in all kinds of weather. Hugo was awarded redress
and scored an equal first place in this race and came second overall in
the Lipton Cup." For more J/24 Australian fleet sailing news.