According to the race management of the Golden Globe Race, the Taiwanese MRCC became involved in the search after it became apparent that a fleet of three fishing trawlers was closest to Ian Herbert-Jones' "Puffin". The boat had capsized yesterday in a storm with 80-knot gusts and lost its rigging. The skipper had also injured his back and suffered a head wound. Yesterday evening, the fishing trawler "Zi Da Wang" managed to reach the scene of the accident. In winds of around 25 knots and a swell of four metres, it lay to windward of the stricken vessel, which was able to manoeuvre its boat into the slipstream. The recovery was then successful. Herbert-Jones is "injured, has cuts, scratches, haematomas and is still in pain from his back injury, but at least he is now safe". The fishing boat has now set course for South Africa, where it intends to set the Briton down.
After rounding Cape Horn to the north-east of the Falklands, Herbert-Jones sailed into third place in the Chichester classification and got caught up in a heavy storm. It brought average winds of 45 knots and gusts of up to 80 knots, plus a huge, almost eight metre high sea from the south-west, which was additionally overlaid by an almost two metre high old sea from the west. The skipper tried to weather the storm in the cockpit under rig without sails before the wind, as he had previously told the organiser in a conversation. But even then he was hit by gusts of up to 70 knots of wind and his Tradewind 35 was pushed flat on the water several times.
Yesterday evening, the race organisers were unable to contact the Brit on his Tradewind 35 "Puffin" during the round call at 17:25, and shortly afterwards the skipper triggered the yacht's epirb because he repeatedly failed to contact the race organisers. A short time later, Ian Herbert fortunately contacted us by satellite message: "Capsized, lost mast, back injured, head wound, two feet of water in the boat." He was washed out of his cockpit twice by the breakers, but luckily he was on a lead.
The race organisers were able to reach him by phone a short time later. The 52-year-old reported that he had severe pain in his back and was finding it increasingly difficult to move, and that he also had a head wound. Nevertheless, he is fighting against the water ingress on board, which he has probably got under control. He assumes that most of the water is entering via the companionway. But the broken rig is still hanging over the side in the water and hitting the hull, so there is a risk that it will punch a hole in the side of the boat. He is currently trying to cut it loose, but the weather conditions make this almost impossible. The storm is still raging, probably for at least another five hours. Nevertheless, the father of three seems calm, like a Radio recording well documented by today's race organiser. The sailor, who lives in Wales, is a very experienced skipper and has already sailed the entire Clipper Round the World Race as watch leader. In the meantime, he has probably also deployed a drift anchor to prevent the boat from rolling again in the waves.
The nearest ship for a possible rescue is currently a tanker, which is travelling around 120 nautical miles from Herbert and has to steam towards him against the storm. The race organisers of the Golden Globe Race do not believe that it will be able to reach the scene before 10 to 12 hours.
