Yacht sinks off Cowes 11/11/19

[Ianfs]

This happened yesterday, I've been trying to find out what actually caused them to hit the anchor chain the No2 lateral fairway buoy and rip off the rudder, they are quite large . I guessed they put it in their GPS as a waypoint and set the Autopilot. The tide would have been fully ebbing possibly dragging the buoy over with the chain at an angle to its anchorage. If they got too close I guess their keel may have caught it and dragged it down only for it to snap up and take out their rudder. However one of my sources suggested it had a hole in the bow.

There was a lot of assistance given to the crew and thankfully no one was hurt. The 3 sailors were Swiss, bound to Cowes out of Portsmouth, I believe in a Sunsail bare bones charter. Two crew were taken off by a crew support vessel and the last member taken off once it was clear the boat would sink. It was towed to shallower water off Gurnard so anyone out that way look out for a buoy and its mast sticking out, stay safe.

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/180295 ... s-harbour/
https://www.countypress.co.uk/news/1802 ... ear-cowes/

[ian h]

Those bouys are not exactly small and it was in the middle of the day, conditions did not look bad, Wonder what caused the collision ?


Good to see alll 3 safely rescued