On Monday night, 42 nautical miles from the Australian harbour of Port Stephens, what was probably the worst accident in Australian sailing since the 1998 Sydney-Hobart race disaster occurred.
In three metre high waves, the 15 metre long racing yacht "Excalibur" unexpectedly lost its keel. The yacht capsized within seconds. "We were riding a wave when the keel suddenly broke off," says crew member John Rogers, describing the cause of the disaster. He managed to cut himself free from his lifebelt.
After surfacing, he saw his mate Brian McDermott, also in the water. However, all calls for the other crew members and attempts to find someone else were in vain. The two rescued themselves in the yacht's state-of-the-art life raft, which could accommodate ten people, and signalled a distress signal. They tied themselves together and crossed their legs to conserve their body temperature as much as possible. After more than six hours in freezing water, with 40 knots of wind and high waves, they were found and picked up by a Swiss cargo ship.
On Tuesday, security forces found the body of 51-year-old crew member Christopher Heyes. Peter McLoyd, 51, Tracey Luke, 32, and Anne Marie Pope, 30, are still missing. The likelihood of the three being rescued alive is decreasing by the minute. They were all experienced sailors and had already sailed many trips together.
The owner of the "Excalibur", Alan Saunders, was completely distraught when he heard the news. "It was a steel boat, built with the intention of being indestructible," said the businessman. Perhaps, Saunders said, it had collided with a shipping container. He himself had only failed to take part in the transfer voyage from the Whitsunday Islands (Queensland) to Melbourne due to an intervening appointment. The ship, which cost one million Australian dollars, was only launched four months ago.
Ten helicopters and seven ships are still involved in the search for the missing crew members. The flags of the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron club, to which most of the sailors on the "Excalibur" belonged, have been lowered to half-mast. Commodore Peter Chapman was devastated, but refused to give up hope: "There is always a glimmer of hope until a body is found."
