From SF Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/18/MN58VLMSO.DTL&hw=daisy&sn=001&sc=1000
Experts mystified by loss of sailboat and 2 aboard
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Two days after a 31-foot sailboat was lost at sea a few miles outside the Golden Gate in an offshore charity race, what caused the boat's disappearance and the loss of both crewmen mystified sailing experts.
While the Coast Guard could not say Monday exactly what happened, the missing boat was among the slowest-rated sailboats in the 40-boat regatta. It had fallen significantly behind the others in the 25-mile race - before disappearing on the homeward leg Saturday afternoon.
One sailor at the trailing end of the fleet told a Sausalito-based sailing magazine that he occasionally looked back at Matthew Kirby Gale's boat but lost sight of the vessel when its sails vanished beyond the steep swells. He figured the boat, Daisy, had merely fallen further behind.
The Coast Guard began searching for the vessel Saturday night after it failed to respond to radio calls. Sunday morning boat debris was found near where Daisy was last seen. The search was suspended late Sunday, when authorities concluded that the boat's skipper, Gale, 68, of Mill Valley, could not have survived hypothermia from prolonged exposure at sea.
Earlier on Sunday, the body of his crew member, 72-year-old Anthony Harrow, had been found washed ashore near Half Moon Bay.
Some sailors focused on Saturday's blustery conditions as the culprit of Saturday's accident, capricious weather that produced radical wind shifts inside the bay and high winds, steep swells and at least some breaking waves outside the Golden Gate.
Others wondered about the condition of Gale's boat, a Cheoy Lee Offshore 31 that had recently undergone upgrades but carried only minimal safety equipment for offshore use.
Still others wondered whether Gale and Harrow had sufficient skills to participate in the offshore race. Both were experienced recreational sailors but not hard-core racers.
Gale and Harrow set out in Daisy on Saturday morning for the 27th Annual Doublehanded Lightship Race - a 25-mile course from a starting line beside the Golden Gate Yacht Club's race deck on San Francisco's Marina Green to a navigation buoy about 12 miles offshore and back.
Exhilarating conditions
For veteran racers, Saturday's offshore conditions were exhilarating, producing big seas that the faster, lighter boats could surf back toward the Golden Gate.
"I considered it to be windy and somewhat steep but regular seas," said Lucy Mewes, the commodore of the Island Yacht Club of Alameda, who participated in Saturday's race. "It was sunny. It wasn't flat water, but it wasn't terrifying water. The seas were regular and well spaced. ... We saw a few breaking waves on the way out. We had a lot of fun. It was a great, surfing ride."
But it was also rough enough for a large wave to temporarily swamp one 22-foot sailboat. That boat, sailed by Stephen Buckingham, a highly-skilled ocean racer, recovered quickly and won its division of slower-rated boats.
Buckingham who skippered a Santana 22, said in an e-mail that he did not recall seeing Daisy. "It was pretty bumpy, and we were surprised by one wave on the way back in that swamped the cockpit," he wrote. "I don't remember seeing this boat."
Rough seas warning
The National Weather Service had broadcast a warning of rough seas outside the Golden Gate in the area of the regatta on Saturday. The forecast, which called for seas 1o to 12 feet with waves at 12 second intervals also called for occasional breakers to 16 feet during maximum ebb tidal conditions.
The warning, which included a small craft advisory for northwesterly winds up to 25 knots, was broadcast continually on the marine weather channel.
Racers said the breeze was more severe - generally 20 to 25 knots, and gusting into the 30s.
"It was a nasty day. I wouldn't have gone out in it," said Tex Hax, the owner of a 45-foot sailboat who did not participate in the race. "My first thought is that they could have called the race."
Race organizers at the Island Yacht Club, which sponsored the charity event to raise money for cerebral palsy, said the conditions were challenging but favorable.
"As far as I know, it was a normal day outside the gate," said race manager Joanne McFee. "I don't think it was bad out there at all for expert sailors, and these were all experts."
All but two of the boats that set out on the race finished it. One small sailboat abandoned the race early, deciding after passing under the Golden Gate Bridge that the sea conditions were too rough.
Daisy managed to round the "Lightbucket" navigation buoy before running into trouble.
According to the Latitude 38 magazine Web site, the last sighting of Daisy was from competitors aboard a similarly rated boat who glimpsed back now and then to see if a sail behind them was getting closer.
"About six or seven miles out, we looked and the sail was gone," Rob Tryon, skipper of a 32-foot sailboat, Feolena, was quoted as saying. "We thought it was because we were sailing faster."
David Kuettel's Serena, an ultra-fast monohull, returned to the bay in first place with a winning time of 3 hours, 8 minutes. Feolena, the last boat to finish, arrived at about 2:45 p.m.
By 5 p.m., Daisy was unaccounted for. There had been no mayday by radio, no 911 cell phone call to the Coast Guard, no distress beacon activated.
Race organizers tried to hail Daisy via marine radio, but there was no response. Gale's family alerted the Coast Guard, which began a search for the vessel Saturday night that continued into Sunday.
Just last week, Gale had paid about $1,200 for a new VHF marine radio and Global Positioning System - with a wireless, remote control device and mic that could activate those units from the cockpit.
"He was in good spirits. He was excited about the upcoming race," said Ari Castano, owner of Advanced Marine Electronics in Sausalito, whose firm installed and tested the new radio and GPS device on Daisy.
Boat still needed work
Castano said that the vessel still needed work and could have used more safety equipment.
"It's an older boat, and it needed to be rewired," said Castano, adding that Gale planned to soon have that electrical work done.
The boat was not equipped with radar, and workers did not recall seeing an inflatable life raft stowed on the deck. Some offshore sailors carry a spare marine battery well above the water line to reduce the chance of electrical failure; Daisy did not. Gale also did not have an EPIRB, Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, which sends a distress signal for rescuers.
Gale had spent about $14,000 in the last six weeks on repairs at Anderson's Boat Yard in Sausalito - mainly for cosmetic repairs, but also for plumbing, fuel tanks, interior woodwork and rigging.
Race organizers required competitors to carry safety harnesses aboard, which enable sailors to tether their bodies to the boat to avoid being swept overboard. Prudent sailors use these devices offshore, but it can still be tricky and dangerous for a two-person crew to tether and re-tether to different spots of the boat in big seas.
Harrow, whose body was found Sunday morning a few miles south of the Golden Gate Bridge, was still wearing a life vest.
Bits of debris found
Searchers also found bits of debris on Sunday, including a rudder, an icebox and wooden planks believed to have come from Gale's sailboat. "The Cheoy Lee 31 is a good, sturdy boat. People have gone cruising in them across oceans," said Pat Broderick, president of the Yacht Racing Association of San Francisco Bay. "If the rudder or tiller broke off, they would have had trouble. It's a longshot, but they could've collided with one of those navigation buoys ... The shipping channel is dredged to about 55 feet, but in a lot of places it isn't that deep. Boats have hit shallow spots."
A small craft advisory is not unusual on San Francisco Bay and its approaches. However, warnings of rough conditions at the bar channel 11 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge had been posted all week. The maximum current was at four knots, a fairly strong current, about 11:45 a.m. Saturday. The forecast of occasional 16- foot breakers would mean waves more than half the length of the missing boat.
The Coast Guard granted a permit for the race, but does not warn race organizers of dangerous conditions. "Unless the Coast Guard closes the bar channel because of hazardous conditions, it is up to mariners to make their own assessment," said Dan Dewell, a Coast Guard information officer.
The victims:
The lost sailors had dedicated their lives to helping the sick, enjoying the outdoors and nurturing the environment. A12
Chronicle staff writer Carl Nolte contributed to this report. E-mail Jim Doyle at jdoyle@sfchronicle.com.
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