Yesterday afternoon, the crew of the sailing yacht "Noah" abandoned their ship and allowed themselves to be towed away by a research vessel that had rushed to their aid. This was preceded by a desperate and ultimately futile struggle by the sailors to locate the leak and pump the inflowing water outboard.
The "Noah", a 41-foot aluminium yacht designed 20 years ago by Oswald Berckemeyer, set off from Gran Canaria for St. Lucia on Sunday as part of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. On board was a family of four from Wuppertal and a fellow sailor friend.
Yesterday at midday, skipper Alexander G. informed the rally organisers that the yacht was taking on considerable amounts of water. The cause could not be found. Although measures had been taken to bring the water ingress under control, the crew was unable to find the cause of the leak.
Finally, at 14:09 UTC, the "Noah" sent out a mayday call as the electric pumps were no longer working and the manual pumps were unable to bring the water ingress under control. The distress call was received by several ARC yachts sailing in the vicinity as well as the 90 metre long research vessel "James Cook". Alexander G. then announced that he would accept help from the "James Cook" and asked the ARC ships to continue their journey.
The Tenerife Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre finally coordinated the evacuation of the crew. Once the sailors were safely on board the research vessel, it set course for Santa Cruz de Tenerife at around 16:45 UTC. It will arrive there tomorrow morning.
The position of the abandoned yacht continued to be monitored by satellite tracker. It was expected that the "Noah" would sink completely during the night. The last position report is from 22:00 UTC yesterday evening.
The accident involving the "Noah" is the tragic conclusion to a boat building and long-distance sailing project that was ill-fated from the outset. Various construction delays and faulty installations meant that the original three-year sailing holiday was ultimately reduced to just one year. In the end, the family was only able to enjoy their long-cherished sailing dream for a few weeks.
You can read more about the background to the accident in YACHT 2/2017.
Pascal Schürmann
Editor YACHT
