Why did the Grizzly Bear sink? - yacht mystery
by Sail-World Cruising/NZ Herald on 20 Sep 2010
Dennis - no memory of incident SW
Was it shock after some traumatic incident? or had he had a heart attack? Mystery still surrounds the sinking of the yacht Grizzly Bear, 35 nautical miles off the Queensland coastline last week.
The story told by New Zealand sailor Dennis McManaway, who was solo sailing his yacht Grizzly Bear does not cast any light on the subject either, as he cannot remember the incident.
He told to the NZ Herald this week that, during a solo sail from the Gold Coast to Cairns, all was going well but then he woke to find his 11.5m yacht sinking and him overboard. He has no memory of how this happened.
He managed to cling to his inflatable dinghy, and was rescued 12 hours later, fortuitously, by a passing fishing boat who noticed him in the water.
Friends told the paper that McManaway is an experienced yachtsman and fisherman who had competed in national and international races. He set off from Nelson on July 7 with two friends on a long-planned trip to Cairns, but when they disembarked on the Gold Coast and the replacement crew failed to turn up, he proceed on alone.
Mr Mc Manaway is reported to be waiting for doctors to confirm whether his extraordinary experience was caused by a medical condition before commenting further.
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