Transpac captains recount night rescue from sinking yacht

As the Santa Cruz 70 OEX trans-Pacific yacht sailed briskly through the oceanic darkness about 240 nautical miles off the coast of California at about 2 a.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) on July 15, captain and crew heard their vessel’s death knell.

“(We) heard a loud bang and lost our steering,” skipper John Sangmeister recalled in a Tuesday video provided by the Transpacific Yacht Race. “We were worried we would go into a crash jibe (an unexpected deviation from the point of sail) and were preparing for that, when we realized we had no steering whatsoever and were taking on water pretty rapidly,” he said, appearing alongside skipper Roy Disney of the Andrews 70 Pyewacket, which came to the rescue of the OEX crew.

Upon investigating, “it appeared the entire lower rudder bearing had blown off the boat, and the rudder was can-opening the bottom of the boat,” Sangmeister said.

Some crew members bailed water while others prepared the life rafts and radioed a distress call, and one “sat on top of a bucket to try and stop the water intrusion and was blown off as if it was a geyser.”

OEX had taken on four to five feet of water when Sangmeister saw the Pye-wacket’s running lights and gave the order to abandon ship. At about 3:30 a.m. the OEX became the first boat to sink in the 106-year history of the Transpacific Yacht Race from Long Beach, Calif., to Honolulu.

“It was a pretty tragic thing to see,” Disney remembered as the two captains stood in early morning darkness on the dock at Marina del Rey, Calif., where the Pyewacket delivered its 10 crew members and the nine from OEX.

He evoked “the eerie sight of a mainsail up on a boat that was going under the waves and two lifeboats lashed together, (their) lights flashing.”

In a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, Disney, a member of the Waikiki Yacht Club, described the open-ocean rescue in 15-16 knot (about 17-18 mph) winds.

“The seas were probably 5-8 feet, which is pretty lumpy,” Disney said. “(The rafts) were very low in the water, and they were moving, so we had to pull up to them with the wind on the right side of the boat, but I have guys who know exactly what to do.”

When it picked up the mayday signal, the Pyewacket was sailing along with the wind, “all powered up, so slowing down was not that easy” when the navigator announced the OEX was right in front of them. But they “altered course a bit to the left and came on them pretty quickly, like about 15 minutes,” Disney said.

“None of us could really figure out what caused the snapping noise,” Disney said, “but you see trash during the day when you sail, and it’s quite possible something hit the rudder and pulled it right out of the bottom of the boat.”

Speaking of floating obstructions, Disney said OEX wasn’t necessarily gone for good. Like the Pyewacket, he explained, it had a watertight bulkhead in front, “enough to keep that boat just afloat for an extended period of time.”

He added, “The Coast Guard calls (a drifting boat) a hazard to navigation.”

While recovery would be terribly expensive, he’d heard of another option: “Sometimes the Navy comes out and shoots at it to sink it.”

Asked whether he’d considered continuing the race, “That wasn’t a possibility,” Disney said. “Two thousand miles (ahead) and no food. And 19 people.”

Instead, he broke out the Pyewacket’s stores, including ribs and wine, for a celebration on the 26-hour sail back to California.

And he, the crew and families will fly to Honolulu to join in post-race festivities.

First arrivals in the 50th Transpacific Yacht Race are expected to cross the finish line off Diamond Head today.