Update on the racing boat accident

SAN DIEGO (AP) — An American yacht destroyed while racing from California
to Mexico ended up on the rocky shore of an island just past the border,
according to a website that tracks boats by GPS, potentially undercutting
the theory that it was crushed by a large ship.

Coast Guard investigators have not recovered the GPS device but will
consider the coordinates as they try to determine what caused the crash of
the 37-foot Aegean that killed three sailors and left one missing, agency
spokesman Lt. Bill Burwell said Tuesday.

Investigators are also scrutinizing the sailboat's debris, interviewing
race participants and seeking records of any large ships in the area,
Burwell said.

The GPS tracking information shows the boat landed on Mexico's Coronado
Islands at 1:36 a.m. PDT Saturday at a speed of about 6 knots. The
coordinates were the last posted by the ship a day after it left from
Newport Beach, where the 124-mile race to Ensenada, Mexico, began.
The maker of the device was Spot LLC, a unit of Globalstar Inc. Its
palm-sized gadgets track movements of sailors and other outdoor
enthusiasts.

Michael Patton, a spokesman for the yacht owner's family, noted the
tracking shows the GPS device landed on the rocks but not necessarily the
boat. He dismissed the theory that the boat hit rocks because debris found
just offshore was too small.  "Look at the destruction of it all," Patton said. "You're talking about it
being squished."

Eric Lamb, who found the wreckage Saturday while on safety patrol, said
debris strewn over 2 square miles looked as if the boat had "gone through a
blender," with some of it a quarter-mile from the shore.
The San Diego County medical examiner said Kevin Eric Rudolph, 53, of
Manhattan Beach and William Reed Johnson Jr., 57 (Col Johnson), of Torrance, both died
from blunt force injuries. Rudolph's injuries were to his head and neck.
Joseph Lester Stewart, 64, of Bradenton, Fla., drowned, but head injuries
contributed to his death. The boat's skipper, Theo Mavromatis, 49, remains
missing.

The coroner's report listed all three deaths as accidents but did not say
what could have caused the wreck.
Troy Sears, an experienced sailor who owns the San Diego-based charter
company Next Level Sailing, said the GPS chart "gives an important clue if
not verification of what happened to the vessel."
"It looked like they plotted a course for Ensenada and North Coronado
Island was directly in the way."

Sears, who visited the part of the island where the GPS tracking ended,
said it was unlikely that the device fell off the boat because the chart
shows a steady speed and straight course.

"That section of North Coronado Island is near vertical and it would be
like hitting a wall. There's no beach to stop or slow a vessel, so a vessel
would make contact with a near-vertical wall," he said.
The deaths were the race's first fatalities in its 65 years and came two
weeks after five sailors were killed in the waters off Northern California
when their 38-foot yacht was hit by powerful waves and ran aground on a
rocky island.

By ocean racing standards, the number of casualties in the two races is
startling. Previous major ocean racing disasters have been caused by freak
storms, including the one that killed 15 sailors in the Irish Sea in the
1979 Fastnet Race and one that killed six in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart
Race.

Gary Jobson, president of the U.S. Sailing Association, said the group
would look at the GPS coordinates as part of its investigation.
GPS devices are increasingly popular among sailors, said Jobson, who
attaches one to the rail of his boat.

Mavromatis was a sailor his entire life and did not appear to have ever
faced scrutiny about safety, Conrad Thieme, manager of Marina Sailing, a
company that rented the boat on his behalf.

Mavromatis twice won the Newport-to-Ensenada race in his category and also
placed second and third, said Patton, the family spokesman. The Greek
immigrant told friends that he once tried out for the Greek Olympic sailing
team.

Patton was supposed to be the fifth crew member but canceled when his
mother was hospitalized with symptoms of heart trouble in Illinois. Her
health scare did not turn out to be serious.
"I feel lucky, but it's not like I'm going to go out and buy a lottery
ticket," he said. "I'm not the story."

RIP

One of my good friends who also has come to the coffee club died Saturday morning in a sail boat race, Col Bill Johnson... 

Torrance, Manhattan Beach men dead, Redondo Beach skipper missing in yacht race tragedy

From wire service reportsdailybreeze.com

Posted: 04/30/2012 06:41:30 AM PDT

April 30, 2012 7:5 PM GMTUpdated: 04/30/2012 12:05:15 PM PDT

 

This Friday, April 27, 2012, photo shows the Aegean with crew members at the start of a 125-mile Newport Beach, Calif. to Ensenada, Mexico yacht race. The 37-foot Aegean, carrying a crew of four, was reported missing Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The yacht appeared to have collided at night with a much larger vessel, leaving three crew members dead and one missing, The Newport Ocean Sailing Association said Sunday, April 29. Race officials believe there are few other possibilities for what caused the accident. (AP Photo/newportbeach.patch.com, Susan Hoffman) MANDATORY CREDIT; LINK TO STORY: http://patch.com/A-sPbD (Susan Hoffman)

This undated California Department of Motor Vehicles photo shows William Reed Johnson Jr. from Torrance, Calif. Johnson was one of the four crew aboard the 37-foot Aegean, who died after the ship was reported missing Saturday April 28, 2012. The yacht appeared to have collided at night with a much larger vessel, leaving two other crew members dead and one missing. (AP Photo/DMV) (HOEP)

| » NO DISTRESS CALL HEARD | » PHOTOS

LOS ANGELES - The body of the skipper of a yacht apparently smashed to pieces by a ship off the Coronado Islands remained missing today, as the families of all four men aboard wondered how the accident could have happened.

A spokesman for Newport Ocean Sailing Association, which puts on the annual Newport to Ensenada race, said the wreckage of the 37-foot Aegean dropped off the race's boat-tracking system about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, and the debris field found when the sun rose later the same day suggested it was hit by a much larger vessel.

Sailors who knew skipper Theo Mavromatis, 49, of Redondo Beach, said he was conscientious, safety oriented and had his Hunter 376 outfitted with "all the bells and whistles," including radar, which is a collision-avoidance tool.

Winds were light at the time, and if only one person were on deck, he may have had trouble starting the boat's auxiliary engine and getting out of the way in time.

On Saturday afternoon, the bodies of Joseph Lester Stewart, 64, of Bradenton, Fla. and 57-year-old William Reed Johnson Jr. of Torrance were recovered, along with the body another crew mate whose name was unavailable early today.

Monday morning,

Leslie Rudolph of Manhattan Beach, the wife of 53-year-old Kevin Rudolph confirmed that he was the third sailor killed.

The ship that struck the fiberglass sloop has not been identified. Some of the first rescuers on scene were able to identify a debris field as that of the Aegean, because its transom, emblazoned with its name, was still afloat.

The yacht was one of 213 sailboats in the roughly 125-mile race, which started about noon Friday. Most boats finished Saturday.

A white seat cushion is seen on a white tarp covering wreckage recovered from a yacht that collided with a larger vessel, on a boat used for a rescue search in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, Sunday, April 29, 2012. The 37-foot Aegean, carrying a crew of four, was reported missing Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The yacht appeared to have collided at night with a much larger vessel, leaving three crew members dead and one missing,(AP Photo/Elliot Spagat) (Elliot Spagat)

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Sunday afternoon.

"It's never easy to make the decision to suspend a search and rescue case," said Capt. Sean Mahoney, the commander of the agency's San Diego sector. "The Coast Guard extends its sympathies to the families and friends of the Aegean crew. They will be in our thoughts and prayers."

The fatalities were first in the 65 years that the Newport to Ensenada race has been run, race organizers said.

Rich Roberts of the Newport Ocean Sailing Association, which puts on the race, said the collision occurred just south of border near the Coronado Islands, a group of four islands about 8 miles off the Baja California coast.

The course of the Aegean crossed

In this image taken from U.S. Coast Guard video, a rescuer retrieves a piece of debris from the ocean off the Baja California, Mexico coast near Ensenada Sunday, April 29, 2012. The 37-foot racing sailboat Aegean, carrying a crew of four, was reported missing Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The yacht appeared to have collided at night with a much larger vessel, leaving three crew members dead and one missing. (AP Photo/USCG Petty Officer Third Class Seth Johnson) (PO3C Seth Johnson)

shipping lanes used by commercial and military ships headed to and from the ports of San Diego and Ensenada, and maritime investigators will attempt to identify the ship involved. The captain of ship hundreds of times as big as the Aegean might have been unaware of the collision.

The deaths marked the second yachting disaster this spring. On April 14 off San Francisco, five lives were lost when a yacht in a race around the Farallon Islands was disabled by a breaking wave and washed onto a rocky shore. That prompted the Coast Guard to suspend offshore sailboat racing in Northern California.