Belfast sailor seriously injured in Atlantic accident

SAILING:Irish boats have been involved in two rescues in the Atlantic, but the week has ended tragically with the news that Belfast's John Thompson remains seriously ill from injuries sustained in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), scheduled to finish by Sunday.

Last Friday, Thompson, skipper of the Belfast-registered Avocet, a 12-metre Oyster 41, received a serious head injury when struck by a winch in big seas.

The incident occurred mid-Atlantic while the yacht, competing in the 2,700­mile rally from the Canary Islands to St Lucia, was 980 nautical miles east of St Lucia and 1,090 nautical miles west of the Cape Verde Islands, well beyond any land-based assistance.

With Thompson unconscious, urgent medical support was sought by his Royal Ulster Yacht Club crew. The Maritime Rescue Control Centre in Martinique tried to locate a ship to evacuate the casualty.

After a difficult and stressful night on board Avocet, an evacuation took place at first light last Saturday and Thompson was transferred to the cruise ship Costa Mediterranea, where he was placed under the care of the two ship's doctors.

His son Daniel, who was part of Avocet's crew, accompanied his father. The Costa Mediterranea made landfall in Barbados early on Monday and he was transferred to hospital.

According to postings on the yacht's website last night, his family are by his bedside and he remains on a ventilator.

Avocet, with her four remaining crew, is continuing on to St Lucia and is expected to make landfall this weekend.

Conditions in the Atlantic have been unusually severe for yachts relying on trade winds from a favourable direction for a comfortable passage. The majority of the 235 ARC yachts are in the final countdown to the finish at Rodney Bay St Lucia this weekend.

In a separate incident last Sunday, the Irish aluminium yacht Northabout, best known for undertaking the first westward circumnavigation by a small craft of the North Pole, was crossing the Atlantic with six Irish crew when it received a distress call.

It picked up a signal from Thompsons's yacht, Avocet, which had in turn received a distress call from a French yacht, Nevee. The French vessel had lost its steering gear in heavy weather and was sinking. It was not involved with the ARC.

The location for the incident was given as 15°N 460 W, about 800 miles east of Barbados.

The Irish yacht, skippered by Mayo man Jarlath Cunnane, diverted to the area, and managed to locate the two French crew, a man and a woman, in their life raft.

The pair, Gilbert Brun and Marie Rose Haufman, had experienced two days of severe weather, and were encountering swells of up to three metres when the storm eased. They had been forced to cut the rope tying the life raft to their vessel when it began to go under.

Such was the extent of the swell in the area that it took the Irish crew five attempts to pluck the survivors from their inflatable.

The pair are now on Northabout, which is continuing its passage from the Canaries to Grenada. It is expected to arrive in about a week.

In a third incident involving an Irish yacht, Brian O'Sullivan of Tralee Sailing Club was the first of several ARC competitors to arrive on the scene following a Mayday call from a 31-foot catamaran called Spam last Saturday.

O'Sullivan, the chairman of the Irish Marine Federation, and a member of Tralee's lifeboat crew, is sailing the 50-foot Bavaria Navillus in his first transatlantic crossing.

The catamaran - not participating in the ARC - had been dismasted and holed earlier in the morning. The crew were transferred to Navillus using their life raft, which was then slashed to sink it.

The dismasted catamaran was then abandoned, afloat, and a message sent to all ARC yacht to keep clear. Navillus has resumed course for St Lucia with guests safely aboard.