Distress at sea: Second rescue operation on the Atlantic at the ARC 2021
Kristina Müller
· 02.12.2021
Another accident casts a shadow over the ARC fleet's Atlantic crossing. On Wednesday, 1 December, the five-man British crew of the Hanse 588 "Charlotte Jane III" was taken on board in the middle of the Atlantic by a yacht also taking part in the rally. The reason was the failure of their steering gear, according to a report from the World Cruising Club (WCC), which is organising the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers for the 36th time this year.
It also states that the starboard steering wheel mechanism apparently failed first. Later, problems are also said to have occurred on the port side, whereupon the emergency rudder system is also said to have stopped working.
Skipper Paul Hutley made a distress call on the morning of 1 December. An attempt had previously been made to stabilise and slow down the ship using a drift anchor. Three yachts from the fleet, which were sailing not far from the "Charlotte Jane III", came to the rescue. Among them was the "Magic Dragon of Dart", an Oyster 55 owned by British skipper Rod Halling. The crew of the unmanoeuvrable yacht left it in its life raft to be taken on board by the Oyster crew. The yacht is now sailing west again.
According to the WCC, the "Charlotte Jane III" was abandoned on 1 December at 11:30 UTC at position 17°49.26N, 036°12.24W.
The crew of the Italian Bavaria C57 "JK Sails", who also came to the rescue, apparently tried to transfer additional water supplies to the Oyster, which is likely to be equipped with supplies for far fewer crew. However, the attempt was cancelled due to the weather conditions.
The third yacht on site was the Oceanis 51.1 "Polygala". A professional film team is sailing across the Atlantic on her together with Belgian celebrities to produce a TV series from the events on board during the transatlantic cruise.
The "Charlotte Jane III" was the second yacht to be abandoned in the Atlantic within a short space of time. On 28 November, a cruise ship took the he crew of the French X-Yacht "Agecanonix" on after one of the three men on board was apparently killed in an accident and another was injured. It is not yet known what will happen to the two ghost ships.
Meanwhile, the fastest yachts in the "ARC Plus" rally have reached their destination. This fleet starts every year two weeks earlier than the normal ARC and makes a stopover in Cape Verde.
The first yacht to arrive at the Port Louis Marina on Grenada was the French-flagged catamaran "Piment Rouge", an Outremer 51, on 2 December. The trimaran "Bigbird", a Neel 47 sailing under the US flag, followed shortly afterwards.
The ARC Plus was launched on 19 November in Las Palmas on Gran Canaria. The majority of the fleet is expected to arrive in Grenada in the coming days. The ARC's average-speed cruise ships, on the other hand, are not expected to reach their destination of St Lucia until mid-December.
