American solo sailor drowns after falling overboard off Cape Town

by George Thomson, IOL/Sail-World Cruising on 16 Mar 2010 A 36-year-old yachtsman who went sailing solo without a tether or a life jacket has been drowned in calm waters. Russell McKay went sailing from the False Bay Yacht Club in waters off Simon's Town near the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa on Saturday, but didn't return.

Fellow sailors were shocked and confused on Sunday, as conditions had been so calm throughout the day. Colonel Lionel Dyck, commodore of the yacht club, warned that the risks involved in sailing were too great to take any chances. He said many members of the club often went sailing alone, and that the dangers of doing so were real. 'It will never happen to me' is the comment people usually say about these things,' said Dyck.

American-born McKay had been a member of the club for years and was an experienced sailor. Dyck said it was not known what had caused McKay to fall overboard, but speculated he might have slipped while trying to turn on the outboard motor.

McKay's yacht was spotted moving erratically in the water near Simon's Town on Saturday evening. His body was found in the water later that night. McKay had signed out from the False Bay Yacht Club on Saturday morning, writing 'fish/sail' in the club log book, then headed out to sea alone.

At around 7pm, McKay's wife went to the yacht club bar to ask if anyone had seen her husband, who had been expected to return earlier. Around the same time, club manager John Leslie saw McKay's yacht behaving strangely and contacted local port authorities.

'Leslie claimed he had seen a sailor at the helm of the yacht as it headed in the direction of Simon's Town harbour but that the yacht now appeared to be unmanned and going around in circles at the harbour mouth,' said Darren Zimmerman, NSRI Simon's Town station commander.

Two boats were dispatched to investigate, but when NSRI crew boarded McKay's yacht they found no sign of the sailor. A major search operation was launched, with Metro Ambulance and Rescue services, Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services, Disaster Management, the SAPS and a Police Borderline craft all joining the operation.

Several hours later, the search team found McKay's body floating close to rocks.

'During the search a shore patrol spotted the body of a man floating offshore of Simon's Town and the body, confirmed to be the sailor, was recovered and handed into the care of the Forensic Pathology Services,' said Zimmerman.

The police said a postmortem would be carried out.