CREW MEMBERS from the Irish entry in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race were last night assessing the damage to their boat, Corkafter it hit a reef in the Java Sea off Indonesia.
All 16 crew members had to abandon ship before being safely rescued.
Corkhit a submerged reef in the early hours of yesterday morning while racing in 20 knot winds from Geraldton in Western Australia to Singapore and as a precautionary measure, all crew evacuated the boat, using life rafts to reach the small island of Gossogn Mampango. The crew, including some eight Irish, five Britons, two Australians and one Chinese, then used the life rafts to head out to two other participants in the Clipper race, Californiaand Team Finlandwho were lying off shore.
Corkis skippered by Richie Fearon from Derry and among the crew are Gavin Kelly from Limerick, Kevin Austen from Dublin, Marco Giana from Cork, Noreen Osborne from Belfast, Orla Mellet from London, Sarah Boyle from Cork and Jacqui Browne from Kerry.
Fellow crew member, Irishman, Sean Coote, who lives at Sunbury on Thames near London, told of how saddened the crew were to have to abandon Corkbut they were relieved not to have suffered any major injuries during the incident.
"After our evacuation and on reaching the island, it was unreal to look back and see Cork on her side with waves breaking over the port beam. Our life raft was picked up approximately half an hour after leaving the island by the California crew," he said.
According to Mr Coote, the teams know each other well and there were plenty of expressions of sympathy and donations of dry clothing from the crew of California.
“Our thoughts are now turning to contacting family and reassuring them that we are OK. We are grateful to have escaped with no major injuries and proud to have rallied together as team and survived a harrowing ordeal and test of our resilience,” he said.
Some eight of the crew went aboard Californiaand have continued on for Singapore while skipper Richie Ferron and seven other crew have remained on Team Finland which is continuing to monitor the situation along with another entry in the race, Qingdao.
Corkis sponsored jointly by Cork County Council, Cork City Council and Fáilte Ireland. The 35,000 mile round the world race, which started in September from the Humber on the east coast of England, is due to call to Cork in July on the penultimate stage.