Rudderless, heavy seas and a lee shore - Loki

Loki’s race track - no they did not go over land, the tracking system has drawn a straight line between their last mid-ocean point, before the tracking stopped and the beach, when it started again. SW

Loki - it was blowing a wee bit Photo: Marcus Jones © Marcus Jones

Ainsworth tells the story. ‘We were power reaching, the winds were averaging 30 knots in three metre seas, but we were well reefed down. We were averaging about 15 knots.

There was a loud bang and Cam lost steering, he switched to the lower wheel - still no steering. As we rounded up we looked behind us and we saw our carbon rudder floating away.

‘It happened about quarter past five in the afternoon, it was quite dark as it is approaching winter in the northern hemisphere.

As soon as the rudder fell off, the navigator was straight on the radio to try and get assistance from the coast guard.

‘The nearest big port was the Sicilian capital of Palmero and there are coastguard stations scattered along the coast. But we had some difficulties because English isn’t very widely spoken in that part of Italy.

‘We were lucky; we had a boat called Atalanta come along and it stood by us, we managed to speak to them. We found Loki’s VHF was not transmitting properly so we were relying on the handheld VHF. We could communicate with Atalanta who advised a boat was coming to tow us. But when we had was a debrief with the racing committee, they told us a boat had been sent out from Palmero to tow us, but it turned back because of the conditions.

‘We were on a lee shore in heavy winds and a solid seaway. We started out about 15 miles from the coast but with the wind blowing us at towards the bricks at two knots through the water, you’re only six or seven hours away from disaster.

‘We had a drogue and you're supposed to be able to steer off of that. But it is difficult, secondary steering systems on a yacht really means emergency tillers…but we had no rudder, still you’re supposed to be able to steer without that. In such a big boat in heavy seas, we were in uncharted territory.

‘The guys tried to make an emergency steering system by chopping up cots and trying to fashion a rudder, but that was unsuccessful. It is 60 footer and to try and manage it in those conditions is fairly difficult.

‘We actually were dragging sails in the water to change the attitude of the boat to the sea, so we could motor in the direction we wanted to. To some extent we were able to do that. It actually bought us some time because initially we were drifting to the rocky cliffs to the east of Guidaloca Bay.

‘We bought ourselves time ans space by getting more to the west and that gave us several more miles. As it happens, our satellite yacht tracker had stopped pretty much when we lost the rudder. It re-activated when the boat hit the beach in Guidaloca Bay near Golfo di Castellamare 0as you can see by the chart from the event website.

‘We still believed the coast guard boat was coming to tow us. What finally turned up was a boat that was actually sent out to stand by and pick us up if Loki sank. The boat was too small to tow us.

‘We were drifting closer and closer to shore and the conditions were not improving. It comes to the point where you say … ‘well, we have done everything that we could.’

‘Eventually all the options just closed.

‘We had to get everyone into the rafts, remember Loki had16 people aboard. The rescue authorities said they could take eight crew at a time in the chopper and they made it clear the turn around time to get those people in (to the helicopter), fly back to the base, refuel and then come back, was at least 40 minutes.

‘Drifting towards the shore I had to decide whether to leave Loki or not. I said we have to get off. The helicopter turned up 30 minutes later around 9:30pm, and the first eight people got into the raft - we basically jumped into the raft off the back of the boat.

‘We kept the raft standing off from the boat and it took at least an hour for the first eight people to get lifted up.

‘The helicopter rescue fellow would come down and he was a swimmer; he had a double sling. He would swim up to the raft, and on the edge of the raft, you were able to get into the sling. You then launched yourself into the water and once clear of the raft, he would signal up to the chopper. Of course the chopper was usually not directly above you, so you tended to get the tea bag treatment as you were winched up.

‘I think, almost all of the crew had been through Sea Survival classes at least once; some of us had been through them twice and I think we had only one young bloke who hadn't been through the experience at all. Those classes were a massive help.

‘Having been through that type of situation at the Qantas pool (the airline’s training pool) in Sydney, helped with getting into the raft, just understanding the routine was some comfort and I think it was a big help to the Italian authorities as well.

‘We all knew we had to get away from the boat, we took a hand held radio into the raft and we had grab-bags. We were prepared. No one was panicking. It couldn't have gone any easier. The only time we got into the water was when we were in the sling. No one was in the raft unless there was a chopper there…. the whole exercise was controlled.

‘I was in the first raft. The second eight crew strung as much chain and line off Loki as they could and threw out the anchor. When they got off her, she still wasn't touching the bottom because the water was too deep.
‘It was around midnight before the last crew member was lifted off the life raft.

‘The next morning we heard reports that Loki was about a mile off shore in Guidaloca Bay. The anchor had actually grabbed.

‘We had been dealing with salvage and the insurance people back and forth. You needed permission from the coast guard to leave port and they weren't letting anyone out. We realised by the end of the day that it was just too rough for a boat to get out and tow Loki back.

‘It really is a shame because the conditions moderated that night and the next day was relatively calm. If that anchor line had just held…we would not be in the situation we are now with the boat completely destroyed. But as it turned out, by mid afternoon the line had parted and Loki wound up on the beach.

Loki on the shore © Marcus Jones

Ainsworth concluded Loki’s sad tale. ‘When we saw the boat on the beach, the keel had snapped off. As it got washed in I guess it was bouncing on the sand. The stainless steel fin had snapped off and the rig was a tangled mess. I imagine that once the keel fell off she rolled over and the mast probably hit the surf and sad. There was a lot of sand inside.

‘The boat had been stripped of anything considered of valuable… that didn't take long.’

When asked what his plans were for the coming Australian offshore season Ainsworth commented; ‘I am almost looking forward to having a year off. I was never thinking of doing a Hobart this year. After this the boat was actually been taking to the Canary Islands to do the ARC Rally across the Atlantic. I was going to do the Newport to Bermuda race.

‘More than once the crew have said to each other that at least we weren't half way across the Atlantic when it happened.

‘I have already spoken to Jim Pugh of Reichel-Pugh about a new boat design. It will be a little bit bigger I think, it will be somewhere 62-64 ft. I'd definitely be going for a fixed keel boat again and I might even go to make it simpler still because of the penalties they've introduced for powered winches and the like in IRC.

‘I would