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Solo sailor rescued by rival
24/11/2006 14:08 - (SA)
Gosport, England - British solo sailor Alex Thomson was rescued from his crippled yacht on Friday on the icy Southern Ocean by a Velux 5 Oceans race rival who turned back in heavy waves and wind.
The keel on Thomson's racing yacht failed, causing his boat to capsize on Thursday. After attempting repairs, Thomson, who was not hurt, decided to abandon the yacht.
Another British sailor, Mike Golding, turned back from his second place position in the nearly 56 000-kilometre race to pick up Golding at daybreak about 1 600 kilometres southeast off the Cape of Good Hope.
Race organisers said it took four tries and nearly two hours for Thomson to make it from his stricken yacht Hugo Boss to Golding's boat in a life raft because of the waves and 45-kilometre-per-hour winds.
"This has been without doubt the most terrifying and emotional experience of my life," Thomson said in a statement.
Golding, aboard Ecover, had spent the night within sight of Thomson's boat, and described the rescue as "very scary at times."
Thomson, dressed in a survival suit, had to get into his life raft and then allow it to drift away from his yacht in rough seas before Golding could approach and pick him up.
"I am hugely grateful to Mike for turning back to rescue me," Thomson said. "The operation was fairly hairy and the sea was lumpy which wasn't very pleasant for either myself or Mike.
"At one point I caught my hand between the life raft and Ecover and it wasn't until this point, when I cut my hand, that I thought to myself: 'this is actually quite scary."'
Fremantle, Australia
The two are now headed toward the race's first leg finish in Fremantle, Australia. The statement said Golding asked Thomson not to participate in sailing, or help in any other way, due to the single-handed nature of the race.
Golding, aboard Ecover, will be credited with the time he lost due to the rescue, race officials said.
Thomson had been closing in on Golding when the keel system failed aboard Hugo Boss. The racing yachts have canting keels, which use hydraulic rams to swing the keel up to 40 degrees off the boat's centreline to increase performance by reducing the yacht's lean.
Thomson said the rams on his boat had broken completely free.
As of early Friday, defending champion Bernard Stamm was leading the race, followed by Golding, Kojiro Shiraishi, Robin Knox-Johnston, Graham Dalton and Unai Basurko.
The fleet left Bilbao, Spain, on October 22. The yachts are scheduled to finish the first leg in Fremantle in early December. The race is set to finish in Bilbao in April.
The around-the-world race has been has been staged every four years since 1982.
- AP
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