A yacht has been left grounded on the beach during the horrific storms that claimed the life of a yachtsman from Sydney over the New Year break. The yacht called M3, owned by Peter Hickson, was one of those vessels that fell afoul of the awful sea conditions during Club Marine Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race that started on 2nd January from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club.
M3 was incapacitated, and it ran aground north of the Port Stephens on Wednesday evening, but lucky for it, the crew members safely made it to shore. A severe catastrophe was avoided when M3’s crew members had to abandon vessel near Seal Rocks and they swam to shore after Port Stephens Volunteer Marine Rescue could not reach out to them because of rough conditions.
A leading Greece bareboat charters company suggested that M3 was coming back from ending 2nd in the Pittwater to Coffs Harbour race, and had got into troubles earlier in the day after a sailor spent 7 hours stuck up a mast in the bad weather.
Still, a tragedy had struck this week when sailor Malcolm Lennon fell into the sea from a yacht off the coast of Port Stephens, north of Newcastle. Lennon was onboard Amante, which is owned and skippered by Dennis Cooper. Search efforts ended in vain. It was reported that he was not sporting any life-jacket.
Filed under: Yachting Tags: by admin Date 20 January, 2016
