Abhilash Tomy dismasted and injured – Southern Ocean rescue

   Rescuers have reached the 39 year old Indian Naval Commander Abhilash Tomy who was injured when his newly built Suhaili replica Thuriya was rolled 360° and dismasted in a severe storm on Friday. Tomy who was unable to move, and was confined to his bunk after the accident has now received first aid and been transferred to the French fisheries patrol vessel Osiris, which was the first boat to reach the scene at 39 32.79S and 78 3.29E – 2,000 nM SW of Perth in Australia, this morning. Crewmen from Osiris got aboard Thuriya from inflatables while Australian and Indian long range P8 Orion reconnaissance aircraft circled overhead. 

 

Osiris reached Tomy’s position at 05:30 UTC today and a radio briefing was held between the captain and the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre on Reunion Island, with a doctor based on Amsterdam Island, to where Tomy will be taken for a full medical examination. The hospital on Amsterdam Island is well equipped with X-ray and ultrasound equipment.

Tomy’s fellow GGR skipper Gregor McGuckin’s yacht Hanley Energy Endurance was also dismasted in the same storm around 40nM away from Tomy, and has been making 2.2 knots towards Thuriya’s position, sailing under jury rig. The 32-year old Irishman is still 18 miles to the West, at 0945 GMT this morning, and in radio contact with the reconnaissance aircraft. He is not in distress but has asked for a controlled evacuation from his yacht.

Faced with a 1,900 mile sail across the Southern Ocean to Western Australia under a small jury rig and without an engine (his fuel was contaminated when the yacht capsized), this is a responsible decision taken by a professional sailor when all the rescue assets are close by. The alternative would have been to continue sailing singlehanded without the aid of self-steering (also smashed in the capsize) and risk having to call on the Rescue Services again should he be disabled further in another storm. He will also be taken aboard the Osiris and join Tomy in the passage to Amsterdam Island.

Local winds this morning were described as being 15-20knots from the South West, giving 2m swells, with good visibility

Once the two solo yachtsmen are safely aboard the Osiris the French fisheries patrol ship will proceed to Amsterdam Island where the rescued sailors will be given a full medical examination. The hospital on Amsterdam Island is well equipped with X-ray and ultrasound equipment.

 

 

Abhilash’s radio call with GoGoR base on 20th September before the storm:

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Tomy’s first dramatic text was on Friday just after noon GMT: it read: ROLLED. DISMASTED. SEVERE BACK INJURY. CANNOT GET UP. Prior to the roll Tomy had been making very good progress working up to third position in the fleet, behind Dutchman Mark Slats and Frenchman Jean Luc Van Den Heede.

On Saturday morning Tomy texted: “Activated EPIRB. Extremely difficult to walk, might need stretcher, can’t walk, thanks safe inside the boat, unable to reach 2nd YB3 or anything. Sat phone down.”

Tomy was  using a portable Yellow Brick YB3 texting unit for messaging. Batteries on this unit may last days. His external YB3i tracking unit is still providing position data to the online GGR tracker but the power link to ship’s batteries is damaged so may go flat sometime. The hand held YB3 is a back up tracker also.

The primary sat phone is damaged. but for comms there is a second satphone and second YB3 texting unit in his Emergency GRAB BAG, though he could not reach those units. He also has an AVIATION hand Held VHF radio in that bag.

Thuriya’s rig still remains in the water acting as a sea anchor. It is unlikely that this yacht or Hanley Energy Endurance will be towed to safety.

On Saturday Mark Slats called in to race control to confirm he was still in 15mtr seas and 40kts but it felt calm compared to what he went through. Conditions were moderating. He was washed overboard at one point and flooded inside the boat when one wave smashed through his companionway door. He was Knocked down numerous times and has never seen conditions like it before. His HF radio is damaged and other electrical gear too. He is bruised and OK, but frustrated now that his position and the forecast winds do not make it possible for him to head toward Tomy, 230 miles to the west. GGR advised him NOT to try, as it is too risky for him in strong headwinds.

The only person unaffected by the storms was Jean-Luc Van Den Heede whose yacht Matmut is running towards the Cape Leeuwin longitude in a different weather system to the rest. On Friday, the Frenchman reported: “QUIET SUNNY DAY. LUNCH ON THE TERRACE! WHAT A CHANGE!”

GGR continue to work closely with The Australian Joint Rescue Co-ordination Center and is extremely grateful for the efforts being made by all involved.

The rest of the GGR fleet, strung out 3,500nM behind the leaders did well to make NORTH over the past few days meaning the worst of the BIG storm would have passed south below them. There would have been big swells and strong winds, but nothing like the middle fleet experienced over the past 24 hours.

But the race has seen half the original entrants quitting through gear failure or accident. The nine are:

Abhilash and Gregor join Antoine Cousot, Are Wiig, Ertan Beskardes, Francesco Cappelletti, Kevin Farebrother, Nabil Amra and Philippe Péché who are all now out of the race.

At present still racing are the leader Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, with Mark Slats second followed by Uku Randmaa, Susie Goodall, Tapio Lehtinen, Istvan Kopar, Loic Lepage, Igor Zaretskiy and Mark Sinclair. Lepage, on his Nicholson 32 Laaland, was put into the Chichester class after he stopped in Cape Town to repair his SSB radio and YB3 Texting unit which were not working leaving him without any ability to pick up weather forecasts.