Cowes Week Carnage

by on 3 Aug 2000 COWES, UK — Reports from the fleet of nearly 900 boats racing on
the Solent in this annual extravaganza indicate that vicious wind and sea
conditions sank three boats and dismasted several others. According to
various reports, though there were no significant casualties, winds of 35
knots wreaked havoc on the fleet.

Geoff Cass's 37-foot Blue Wave suffered steering problems and
subsequently collided with Philip Tolhurst's Farr 40, Warlord VI, tearing
off the 40-footers headstay and snapping the top of its mast off. In
another incident, Oliver Laughton-Scott's Daring I smashed into Stewart
Simpson's Melges 24 Barbarians at the Gate, sinking the boat in
seconds.

The organizers also confirmed that David Bevan-Thomas's Argosy
sank, as did Fiona Jackson's XOD Elicia, though details were not
forthcoming. For more information and scores, log on to
www.cowesweek.co.uk.

Near-Disaster for Single-Hander
INDIAN OCEAN — Solo
sailor Vinny Lauwers' attempt to
become the first paraplegic to round
the world non-stop and unassisted
nearly came to an unexplained end
yesterday rounding Eclipse Island
south of the western Australian
coast. At 1:00 a.m. August 1, he
slowed down within 12 miles of the
island to wait for daylight and a
passage between the island and the
coast of Australia, a three-mile wide
section of navigable water. Lauwers
has been nursing damaged steering gear that has had him nervous
about keeping Vision Quest between the two landmasses. At dawn,
under full mainsail and headsail, Lauwers approached the island to find
the wind variable before it died altogether, leaving Vision Quest wallowing
and drifing toward the rocks, pushed at one knot by the sea swell. "I've
been nursing rigging failure, steering problems along with other mishaps
through the most treacherous oceans I have ever experienced, the
southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Now, so close to home I found
we were about to get smashed up on the rocks," Lauwers relayed on
his website. "All I could do was sit and look at the gauges telling me we
were drifting straight for the rocky cliff edge. I was not happy. It took a
lot of courage while I was picturing being smashed up on the rocks not
to race downstairs, turn the engine on, and power out of there. Vision
Quest came within two hundred meters from certain disaster and using
the engine to power away from the rocks would surely have disqualified
my unassisted part of the voyage."

Finally a zephyr accompanied by a light drizzle materialized, providing
enough wind to sail Vision Quest away from the rocks and out into
deeper water five hundred meters away. "I felt like all my Christmases
had come at once and thanked my lucky stars. I felt I'd truly been looked
after that day."

Last reports had Lauwers 1,000 miles from home where a shoreside
celebration will greet his entry into the record books. For more
information see http://www.parasail.com.au/index.htm.