French Cup Syndicate Makes Rescue

A chase boat for the French America’s Cup syndicate saved a disabled 38-foot power cruiser, with three adults and two children aboard, from blowing onto the rocks at Point Loma Sunday.

Pascal Apicella, commander of Le Defi Francais tender fleet, was in a 27-foot, outboard-powered inflatable with sailing coach Serge Guillaume accompanying the team’s two race boats out to the course. They saw a Coast Guard helicopter hovering over the cruiser near the Cabrillo lighthouse. They contacted the helicopter by radio and learned the boat, named Ambrosius, after owner Robert Ambrosius, was helpless because of a broken rudder.

The winds were blowing 25 to 30 knots onshore, and Apicella estimated that the boat was 500 meters offshore and drifting in rapidly when they reached it.

“The people were lying on the deck, and I saw they were very scared,” Apicella said.

He threw a line to the boat and towed it to safety before a lifeguard boat arrived to assist. From there, the boat was towed to a police dock on Shelter Island.

“But if we don’t take the boat, it would have been too late,” Apicella said. “The boat would have gone on the rocks.”

Coast Guard Chief Michael Johnson said there were no injuries. Since no one was in physical danger, the passengers remained on the boat as it was towed.

The day’s practice races for challengers were canceled because of the high winds. Starting Tuesday, they are scheduled to race daily through next weekend, except for Friday.

In another incident, an Italian boat, Il Moro di Venezia V, lost its rudder and turned sideways into heavy seas with the mainsail set.

Water washed into a hatch, and the boat made at least two complete turns while crewmen started bilge pumps and frantically bailed by hand, according to Australian photographer Barry Stevens.

Crewmen used a long spinnaker pole to push the boat into calmer waters. “It was 10 minutes of real drama,” Stevens said.