3 Camarillo Sailors Rescued Hours After Boat Capsizes at Sea

Three Camarillo men whose catamaran sprang a leak were pulled to safety early Saturday after spending hours in the chilly waters off Channel Islands Harbor.

The rescue came after two of the men tried to swim to shore. The third, who had lost his life vest in the four-foot swells, remained clutched to the vessel that sank just below the water’s surface.

Ketil Eliot Ness, 27, and Ernesto Cornacchai, 29, survived unscathed, but Dave Edwards, 31, suffered severe hypothermia as his body temperature fell to 86 degrees. He was admitted to the intensive care unit of St. John’s Regional Medical Center and was in fair condition late Saturday.

The men set sail at 3:30 p.m. Friday from Channel Islands Harbor in a 19-foot catamaran, Ness said Saturday.

“We were going straight out about seven miles and coming straight back,” said Ness, a flight instructor for Far West Helicopter in Oxnard.

Trouble hit at 5:45 p.m.

“The last trip out we capsized,” Ness said. “We got the boat back straight up in a couple of minutes, no problem. But at that point we noticed a hull had sprung a leak.”

The boat began to slowly submerge, Ness said. “We were able to set sail again for about another mile before it totally went under.”

While the boat remained inches below water, the three men attempted to hold on, but were tossed around in swells reaching four to six feet high, Ness said.

“At 6:30, I took my (flotation) vest off and dived below the water to get the flare gun,” said Ness, who was wearing a wrist watch.

“A big vessel was coming out of the harbor and coming straight toward us. I fired off a flare, but nobody saw it.”

Ness decided to save the remaining three shells for nightfall, when the trail of light would be more easily detected.

But before he was able to use it again, the gun was lost. “We had no means of signaling our distress,” Ness said.

As the three men clutched the submerged boat, waist deep in water, they discussed their options and tried to remain calm, Ness said.

“I started to worry about succumbing to hypothermia, so we had to do something. We couldn’t just sit there being tossed around. We decided help was not coming.”

At 9:40 p.m., a decision was made.

Cornacchai would stay with the boat; Ness and Edwards would attempt to swim for shore.

“Ernesto stayed with the boat because he lost his flotation device while we were being thrown around,” Ness said. “Recommendations say you should always stay with the boat, but the danger was that all three of us would obtain hypothermia before someone reached us.”

Ness and Edwards paddled toward the shore for about 4 1/2 hours, Ness estimated.

The two remained side by side for most of the swim. “We tried to stay in contact by yelling,” Ness said.

Soon, however, Ness could not hear any responses from Edwards and lost sight of him.

“I had a decision to make: go back and find Dave and try to pull him ashore, or continue on,” Ness said.

“I’m sure I would not have been able to do that. I decided to continue to the shore and get help.”

But the sailboat Second Wind, operated by a Riverside lawyer, happened upon him about 1 1/2 miles off Port Hueneme. Ness was plucked from the water about 1:45 a.m. Saturday, and the Coast Guard began searching for the other two men.

Edwards was discovered about 2:45 a.m.

“He was just about passed out when we found him,” said Coast Guard Coxswain Jim Dubea, 22, who navigated the patrol boat that found Edwards.

“He didn’t even know he was being saved,” Dubea said. “Even after we got him on, he was still trying to cry for help, still trying to wave. He was still trying to tread water.”

Edwards’ body temperature had dipped to 86 degrees, almost 13 degrees below normal level.

“People start to get hypothermic when they get down to 97,” said Petty Officer First Class Marc Engelbrecht. “At 94 degrees, people lose their ability to think.”

The search for Cornacchai and the submerged catamaran continued for more than three hours.

About 6 a.m., a helicopter dispatched from Los Angeles spotted Cornacchai and radioed for a rescue boat, Coast Guard officials said.

Cornacchai, still clinging to the hull of the capsized boat, was soon pulled from water five miles southwest of Channel Islands Harbor.

“I’ve been on these (rescues) before, but they were found already deceased,” said Dubea. “We were happy when we found these guys. It usually doesn’t turn out this well.”