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Ocean race accidents stun sailors

 
Published May 1, 2012

SAN DIEGO — For 65 years, sailors have raced 125 nautical miles from Newport Beach, Calif., to Ensenada, Mexico, with expectations of a safe overnight voyage followed by beers at a popular cantina.

Likewise, sailors in the century-old Full Crew Farallones Race off San Francisco would return to the docks jubilant at having mastered winds averaging 10 to 20 knots and churning Pacific Ocean swells that can reach 14 feet.

Death was an afterthought. At least until this spring.

Two weeks after five sailors were killed in the waters off Northern California when their 38-foot yacht was hit by powerful waves and ran aground on a rocky island, the sailing community was stunned again over the weekend.

Three sailors were killed and one is missing, their yacht found in pieces near the Mexican border, perhaps in a collision with a large ship in the middle of the night. Among the dead was Joseph Lester Stewart, 64, of Bradenton.

The Coast Guard was seeking records of any large ships in the area when the 37-foot Aegean was believed to have been destroyed early Saturday, Lt. Bill Burwell, an agency spokesman, said Monday.

Burwell, a Coast Guard pilot who helped locate the three bodies, said he isn't ruling out that the yacht collided with rocks on Mexico's Coronado Islands.

By ocean racing standards, the number of casualties in the two races is startling. Previous major ocean racing disasters have been caused by freak storms, including the one that killed 15 sailors in the Irish Sea in the 1979 Fastnet Race and one that killed six in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race.

Gary Jobson, president of the U.S. Sailing Association, said he was "horrified" by the latest accident. "We need to take a step back and take a deep breath with what we're doing. Something is going wrong here," he said.

Jobson said he's scheduled to speak by phone with a Coast Guard official in San Francisco today to decide on an independent review panel, and then hopes to quickly do the same in San Diego.

Dennis Conner, a four-time winner of the America's Cup who has also won the Newport to Ensenada Race, called the two accidents in different conditions in different races a "tragic coincidence."

Conner didn't participate in this year's Newport to Ensenada Race.

"That race has been going on, sometimes with 500 boats, although there were more like 200 this year, and there's never been a problem in 65 years. Hopefully it doesn't disrupt the continuity of the race," Conner said.