Excalibur capsized, one sailor drowned, three missing

by Rob Kothe on 17 Sep 2002 Three sailors are still missing from the overturned racing yacht Excalibur off the NSW coast. Police divers sent from Sydney to search the overturned hull of the capsized 15 metre Excalibur off the mid-north coast were unable to enter the water this afternoon because of dangerous conditions.

With a 45-knot southerly sweeping the area and an opposing current, a fixed wing aircraft is still aloft looking for strobe lights, while three NSW Water Police vessels are battling deteriorating sea conditions in a desperate attempt to find the three missing sailors.

Rescue authorities said poor conditions earlier in the day had hampered the search for the three missing crew after finding one body near the boat in the water 42 nautical miles off Port Stephens this morning.

A 17 metre Police vessel had attempted to tow the vessel towards the shore could not progress in the difficult seaway. A more powerful vessel will attempt the tow in the morning when conditions are expected to have moderated.

Owned by Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron's Vice Commodore Alan Saunders, the 15 metre racing yacht Excalibur was sailing south, after racing in the Sydney to Southport, Mooloolaba to Airlie Beach, Hogs Breath Race Week and Hamilton Island Race Week in Queensland's Whitsunday.

Last night, sailing with a 30 knot following breeze, the boat was reaching speeds of 14 knots with a double-reefed main and a number 4 headsail.

Australian Search and Rescue spokesman Ben Mitchell sald 'The surviving crew reported that around 9pm the crew heard a loud noise from the hull, a few seconds before the boat suddenly overturned.'

The rescued crewmember John Rogers recounted how the six sailors were trapped in the cockpit of the overturned vessel. He cut his tether and escaped to the surface.

Earlier in the evening he had strapped his personal EPIRB and strobe light to his arm. On reaching the surface he activated his EPIRB.

The 10-man life raft had automatically deployed but it blew away before he and other crewmember could reach it.

The crew of a 50,000 tonne Swiss merchant ship diverted to the area in response to the EPIRB alarm rescued the two men from the life-raft when a search aircraft spotted a strobe light late last night.

Search authorities are expecting to suspend the search this evening at 10:30pm and resume at 8am, when there will be sufficient light, in the heavy overcast and raining conditions to allow helicopter crew to see sailors on the surface.