Causing a Commotion - Tangled Line

BoatU.S. has some recognized heroes among its ranks. BoatU.S. member Ross Hunton and his crew received the U. S. Sailing Association's 2001 Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal in recognition of their life-saving retrieval of three scuba divers off the coast of Florida last summer.

Commotion, Hunton's Beneteau 35, was set to be the committee boat for a race in Fort Lauderdale, FL, when he noticed something amiss about a mile and a half offshore. Facing 25-knot winds and three-to five-foot seas, Commotion set off towards the floating objects and the crew soon realized the objects were people. Three scuba divers had become separated from their dive boat, and had been floating in the choppy, chilly water for over an hour. Luckily the men were wearing their buoyancy-compensating vests and wetsuits.

After one unsuccessful attempt at rescue by coming head to wind, the crew changed their course of action for the second pass by laying the boat ahull and drifting down on the divers' position. Once in range, it took only minutes to haul the exhausted men over the swim ladder and into the boat.