French Help Disabled Boat at Point Loma
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, and an Italian boat nearly sank while under tow in heavy seas at the mouth of San Diego Bay.
Pascal Apicella, commander of the Le Defi Francais tender fleet, was in a 27-foot, outboard-powered inflatable boat and Serge Guillaume and saw a Coast Guard helicopter hovering over the cruiser. They learned the boat 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 when they reached it and threw it a line.
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.
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