A competitor who survived being thrown overboard during the Sydney to Hobart yacht race has told how he survived the harrowing experience.
Luke Watkins, skipper of the 15ft Porco Rosso, was sent flying overboard when the 2013 handicap winner, formerly known as Victoire, passed Green Cape on the New South Wales coast in strong winds at around 3.15am am on Friday.
Watkins said he was caught off guard when the ship hit a strong wave that completely washed away the deck and momentarily capsized it into the ocean.
As the boat rolled on its side and Mr Watkins was thrown into the water, he said he desperately tried to free himself from the boat fearing he was “on his last breath”.
After managing to free himself from his harness and then orient himself underwater, he returned to the surface to see his boat 200 meters in front of him and still moving away.
Watkins said his safety training helped him survive as he set off, searching his pockets for supplies and activating his personal locator beacons.
He found a flashlight, some food, and a couple of glow sticks in his pockets which he opened to make himself more visible in the darkness around him.
That same night, in particularly rough seas for a notoriously tough race, one sailor aboard Flying Fish Arctos and one on Bowline also lost their lives after winds caused a boom and sail, respectively, to collide with them. throwing them over the deck.
Luke Watkins was swept away from his Proco Rosso boat while passing Cape Verde on the New South Wales coast amid forecast strong winds at around 3.15am on Friday.
Watkins downplayed his life-threatening situation once on dry land, but said he was well aware of how serious his situation was before he was rescued.
“The first thing I thought was ‘this is not fun’ and then I basically tried to stay calm and work on my safety training,” he said. he told ABC.
“I just tried to curl up and stay warm (but) after about 10 minutes I felt like I was starting to get a little cold, so I got into a survival stance and kept my elbows in.
“It was quite hard being swept away by the waves and it was quite difficult to keep my head above water most of the time. I swallowed some salt water but tried to keep my thoughts under control.”
Cruising Yacht Club of Australia vice-commodore David Jacobs said the experience is one of the most terrifying any boater can imagine.
“That’s one of the most terrifying experiences you can have,” Mr. Jacobs said.
‘(And) it was at night, which makes it ten times scarier.
“Fortunately, there are systems and procedures developed to address that situation and recover the person.”
The ship’s captain said his survival instinct saved him.
The incident activated the crew member’s emergency position indication radio beacon, a safety device that all sailors must carry in the regatta.
As a result, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority was automatically notified of the incident and contacted the Sydney and Hobart race committee.
AMSA also deployed an emergency aircraft to begin searching for the crew member.
“We believe they had been swept about 1.2 kilometers from the ship,” Jacobs said.
Four-time honors champion Master Lock Comanche, who had retired earlier in the race, was diverted to assist Porco Rosso in the search and rescue efforts.
After about half an hour in the water, Mr Watkins saw a light breaking through the darkness around him and realized Porco Rosso was sailing back to position.
Watkins was largely uninjured, but Porco Rosso opted to withdraw around 4:45 a.m. rather than continue into Bass Strait, where strong to gale-force winds were blowing.
Deaths earlier in the evening. They were the first in the regatta since the tragic Hobart of 1998, which claimed the lives of six people in violent storms and triggered massive reforms to the regatta’s safety procedures.
‘The nautical community is a very close-knit community. “There are about a thousand sailors in the water in this regatta, and to lose two like this is just devastating,” Jacobs said of the recent deaths.