FED: Sailors tell tales of terror

AAP General News (Australia)
12-28-1998
FED: Sailors tell tales of terror

EDEN, NSW, Dec 28 AAP - "When the breeze gets to 70 or 80 knots and the seas are 10 metres
and likely to get bigger, no-one's racing, you're just surviving," Terra Firma skipper Peter
Bartels said of conditions in Bass Strait.

Terra Firma was one of the many Sydney to Hobart competitors that chose to shelter in Eden
on the NSW south coast rather than brave some of the worst conditions in the race's history in
Bass Strait.

The 41ft sloop, which won its division in the race last year, was 12 hours ahead of its
time last year by Gabo Island and was on track to break the 1975 record before conditions
became too risky.

Mr Bartels described the sea as "horrific".

The crews who pulled into Eden today, some of them under tow, were today sharing tales of
remarkable survival.

A crewman aboard Sea Jay was swept off the deck with such force that his harness broke as
he was trying to run lines off the back of the boat.

"The boat was still doing seven to eight knots and he was still hanging on by a line
wrapped around his arm," Mr Bartels said.

Sea Jay crew were able to float him another harness on a line and winch the sailor back on
board.

"There were so many great stories of people doing the most incredible things," Mr Bartels
said.

Team Jaguar owner and skipper Martin James, also a director of the Cruising Yacht Club
which hosts the race, said his 65ft yacht speared down a wave under water to its rear hatch
before it was disabled.

"When the mast broke it wasn't all that big - it was probably a 3m wave," Mr James said.

"That wave wasn't extraordinary, it was the one that broke the boat that was
extraordinary."

"At that stage we were motoring back, we'd been motoring for about hour and a half when it
completely snapped the boat around."

Mr Martin estimated the wave was 20 metres high that destroyed everything above the deck.

"As it came up we didn't see it until it was hanging above the boat and it hit the boat
really hard.

Team Jaguar drifted helplessly from midday yesterday and used all its flares before a
fishing boat found them and towed them into Eden at 4am.

AAP rmg/mw/sco/de

KEYWORD: SYDHOB SURVIVOR

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