The Australian sailing community is numb today and will stay that way for a long while. More because the conditions just before 3am on Saturday morning amongst the Five Islands off Port Kembla were so unlike those of Bass Strait 1998.
Here at Sail-World we’ve been involved in an offshore yacht racing tragedy at sea and the media and coronial aftermath.
It is our intention to wait for the official coronial enquiry, rather than to speculate on just what might have happened as Andrew Short’s Riechel Pugh 80 PriceWaterhouseCoopers rounded Flinders Islet.
However for our international audience here is some of the mainstream media coverage from yesterday’s tragedy.
Having sailed with and against Shorty and Sal over many years, all we can say is ‘we, the Australian sailing community loved you both, you will be missed deeply. Fair winds.’
Rob Kothe, Allison Constable and the Sail-World Team
Matt Pearce, one of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers rescued crew explained what happened to Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
'We were rounding Flinders Islet, all of a sudden these couple of (wave) sets broke in front of us and out of nowhere I saw the reef,' Mr Pearce said.
'The bow came down, and we hit the ground hard. We tried to get off, but the keel was on the bottom.'
The crew pulled down the yacht's sails and started its motor in a bid to stay clear of the rocks.
'The boat gybed and the rig (mast) snapped and went over the side,' Mr Pearce said.
'The boat came back over the other side, and a couple more waves broke on the boat ... there was two metres of green water slapping the boat, dragging people out.'
Mr Pearce said he saw Ms Gordon washed overboard and Mr Short holding the steering wheel before the enormous force of a wave washed it off its pedestal, and the skipper overboard with it.
'I didn't see him again. Then the boat just got lifted up (by a wave) and landed on the island on its side. We had a 30-second window of opportunity, and we all jumped.'
Mr Pearce said the next few minutes were a blur of chaos.
'This big set came in and just grabbed it (the yacht). It just destroyed it.
Sailors who rushed to the rescue of the stricken yacht PricewaterhouseCoopers and her crew off the NSW South Coast yesterday were so stunned by the amount of debris in the water, they believed there had been an explosion at sea.
But Quest crewman Peter Messenger said the terrible truth of the tragedy became apparent when he saw a small piece of the yacht, with her former name Shockwave written on it, floating among the mess.
Mr Messenger said he and his crewmates' worst fears were realised when they spotted what they at first thought was a sailing jacket floating among the debris.
'I've never seen a boat look like that,' Mr Messenger said. `It looked like it had just exploded The water was just littered with the boat, diesel, strobe lights, a couple of boots and a jacket, a wet weather jacket.
'From a distance we thought [the jacket] was empty. We went back.
Australian Channel Ten's Weekend News coverage of a fatal yacht accident at Flinders Islet off Wollongong which claimed the lives of well respected skipper Andrew Short and crew member Sally Gordon. Both were experienced sailors who had each contested the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 15 times each.
Sally Gordon offshore -
by www.sail-world.com
1:24 AM Sun 11 Oct 2009 GMT
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