Cape's notorious ship graveyard claims corpse of hi-tech racing yacht

01 November 2017 - 17:57 By Bobby Jordan
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The 18-member crew of CV24 Team Greenings‚ one of 12 boats participating in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race‚ had to be rescued on Tuesday night.
The 18-member crew of CV24 Team Greenings‚ one of 12 boats participating in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race‚ had to be rescued on Tuesday night.
Image: Brenton Geach/Gallo Images

Cape Town's maritime community woke up to a conundrum on Wednesday: how did a world-class ocean racing crew with state-of-the-art technology run aground in one of South Africa's most infamous ship graveyards?

The 18-member crew of CV24 Team Greenings‚ one of 12 boats participating in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race‚ had to be rescued on Tuesday night from an offshore reef at Olifantsbospunt between Cape Town and Cape Point.

The team escaped unharmed in relatively calm conditions‚ not long after the Table Bay start of the third leg of the race.

Sailing experts said the Olifantsbospunt site has claimed several victims over the years and is near a treacherous shipwreck hot spot called Albatross Rocks.

A boating social media site was abuzz with speculation as to the cause of the mishap: “Albatross Rocks infamous for shipwrecks. There’s already a good few on there‚” said one commentator. “The wrecks were there in the days of no GPS however‚ so not sure what reason these guys have to hit it.”

NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon said the accident site was near to but not exactly at Albatross Rocks.

Ships that have sunk in the area include the Dutch coaster Nolloth in 1965; the US liberty ship Thomas T Tucker‚ laden with tanks and other military equipment‚ in 1942; and the South African trawler Phyllisia in 1968.

Maritime historian Michael Walker described Albatross Rocks as “probably one of the most historic rocks in Southern Africa”. He said there were about six major wrecks in the area‚ including a Royal Mail steamer. The NSRI described the rescue as a success and said the crew had not been in serious danger. “On arrival on the scene we found the yacht hard aground on rocks and all casualty crew onboard were in life-jackets on the yacht and safe and in no imminent danger in an onshore 14 knot North Westerly wind and 1.5 meter swell in a rising Spring High tide‚” the organisation said in a statement.

“An NSRI Kommetjie rescue swimmer ... swam to the yacht through the surf and boarded the yacht to assess the casualty crew medically and to assess the damage to the yacht. All casualty crew were safe and not injured.”

Clipper Round the World organisers said the incident would be investigated. Pictures of the rescued crew were posted on the race website. “Greenings skipper Andy Woodruff and crew are doing well after some rest in Cape Town and are currently being debriefed by the Clipper Race office team‚” the organisers said.

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