Australian sailor rescued from sinking boat

by Nancy Knudsen, Sail-World.com on 1 Nov 2007 Sail-World cruising Editor Nancy Knudsen reports by sat. phone from the Coral Sea. An Australian yacht in the Port2Port Rally from Vanuatu and Noumea to Bundaberg in Queensland Australia has hit the Cook Reef to the north of New Caledonia. At time of filing this report single crew on the yacht, which is holed and dismasted, is being evacuated by a Noumean Navy helicopter.

Aquantique, an Australian entry in the rally, was being crewed by the owner, Bill Morton. Another Australian boat, Adagio, with Dimitri and Mary from South Australia on board, is standing by.

The waters were too rough for Adagio to get a dinghy to Mr Morton, and so a May Day was called yesterday evening. Yet another entry in the Rally, Melric II, a New Zealand boat with Dave and Fran Chown on board, is standing by as a relay vessel.

The boat was attempting to cross through a pass by the name of The Grand Passage in the reefs to the north of New Caledonia, when it hit Cook Reef. The impact was so great that the boat was both dismasted and holed, and is believed to be unsalvageable.

The Grand Passage lies to the south of Atoll Pelotas and the Iles Belep, and the position of the incident is S18.50, E163.28

The yacht was entered into the rally as a two crew entry, but apparently only one sailor departed with the rally. Owing to the yacht's late arrival into Vanuatu in its journey across the Pacific, it departed later than most of the boats, and was traveling in company with Adagio at the time of the incident.

Bill Morton was at the end of a five year circumnavigation, having spent much of the previous year in the San Blas Islands in the Caribbean. He is believed to be unhurt.

The Skipper of Aquantique has been successfully airlifted off the yacht. The rescue was commenced at 1305 and completed at 1325. (UTC+11)

'I think they have pulled the plug on Aquantique' said Dimitri Skipper of Adagio, who was standing by during the rescue. The boat is considered to be unsalvageable.