High Anxiety's navigator describes man overboard

by Lisa Ratcliff on 26 Mar 2007 Chris Piggott, navigator of the Lake Macquarie boat High Anxiety which lost a crewman over the side in the Audi Sydney Southport Yacht Race, has described the events surrounding the incident which occurred south of Smokey Cape just after 2pm this afternoon.

'We were sailing in 35 knots and six metre seas when a rogue wave hit us side on just as the off watch crew was coming up on deck.

'Watch captain Tim Park was coming out of the cockpit when he looked up and saw the wave. It slapped us on the side of the boat…there was a lot of water in it… and Tim was washed over the top of me, pinning me down, before sliding between the lifelines into the water.

'Tim’s brother Barry watched where he went in and didn’t take his eyes off him while owner/skipper Mark Benson spun the boat 360 degrees to starboard.

'We deployed the life sling and within 10 minutes we had retrieved him over the stern.

'We worked very efficiently to recover him, we were just lucky it was daylight as we did lose sight of him briefly at one stage,' admitted Piggott tonight.

Ironically, Tim and Chris were sailing on New Horizons together in the 1998 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race when Chris was washed overboard

Shaken by their ordeal and with a broken running stay, High Anxiety decided to retire to Coffs Harbour where they are tonight enjoying hot baths after finally peeling off their wet foul weather gear. Unfortunately they will have to climb back into them tomorrow as their clean clothes are waiting for them at the finish.

Seven yachts have now finished, Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki and Karl Kwok’s Beau Geste the latest, and the party is well underway at Southport Yacht Club.