Yachts ignore gale warning

Press, 16 February 1980, Page 2

Yachts ignore gale warning

PA Auckland While commercial fishing vessels were hurrying into the shelter of Nonthland’s bays on Thursday, . yachtsmen. in the race round the North Island sailed right into a gale and earned the wrath of the local .search and rescue organisation. The gale was so bad that the skipper of the 10,818tonne Japanese freighter Evergreen said it was the worst he had seen in 17 years at sea. “It was very rough — the waves were 7m to 8m high and the wind was between fprce 10 and 11. The ship was', rolling badly, about 40 degrees, between North Cape and Great Barrier Island,” Captain Fukuoka said. Although he increased speed, The wind was so strong at times that it reduced the. ship’s headway to zero. In spite of warnings of the impending gale, the yachtsmen had set out from Mangonui on Wednesday on the. second leg of their race. Within a day one yacht, the Isalei, had. been dismasted. and was drifting with a damaged rudder, • The Isalei’S' Mayday callwas picked up by another competitor and relayed .to shore stations at Awanui and Mangonui. The yacht was finally taken in tow by two fishing vessels and taken to Mangonui. . One of the rescue organisers, who preferred not to be named, said yesterday it was “madness” for the yachtsmen to go to sea in conditions which drove large fishing vessels to shelter. ' The Awanui radio operator, Mrs Lily Walker, a key figure in Thursday’s rescue said she had telephoned the police in Kaitaia and had asked them to try to stop the race from continuing until after -the gale. However, she said, the police probably did not have the power to stop the yachtsmen. • “The boat owners who go and rescue th°m are risking their own lives,” said Mrs Walker. I