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Whale rams and sinks racing yacht near San Diego. All crew rescued.

12:50 PM Sat 31 Oct 2009 GMT
Oct.28,2009

The 40' J-120 'Crosswave' was sunk by a whale while racing 200 miles off the coast near San Diego, California. The boat was competing in the 'Baja Ha Ha' race from San Diego, California to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

According to reports, the vessel's crew noticed a whale in their path, and turned to avoid it, immediately hitting another whale nearby. One of the whales then turned on the yacht, ramming it near the rudder. The yacht began taking on water. 'We basically tried to pump the water out and the water was just gushing in,' said vessel Skipper Eugenie Russell. 'Within seven minutes the boat sank.'

The crew of five then abandoned the sinking vessel. They were rescued by a US Coast Guard helicopter four hours after the sinking. Rescuers have said that the crew did everything correctly. They wore life jackets, launched their life raft, did not panic and activated their Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB), alerting rescuers to their exact location. The rescue was hindered by 30 knot winds, but all crew members from the yacht as well as the Coast Guard helicopter crew were uninjured. 'Crosswave' Skipper Eugenie Russell and her crew are from San Francisco, New York, Texas and San Diego.

by Chuck Lantz

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