Coast Guard, BOAT/U.S. Partnership Pays Off

Boat/US Magazine, Sept, 1999 by Elaine Dickinson

Delivery captain Bernardo Herzer is about as experienced a skipper as you can find -- he's circumnavigated the world, delivered boats through the Panama Canal and has 40,000 miles of blue water sailing to his credit. Heading out of his Southern California home for a routine yacht delivery for the start of the Transpac Race, he made one extra stop at the BOAT/U.S. Marine Center in Marina del Rey.

There Herzer rented a Safety Kit, provided by the BOAT/U.S. Foundation. Calling the decision a "nobrainer," Herzer said, "For $35 you get equipment that can save your life. It seemed like the right thing to do... I was responsible for the lives of my friends."

His forethought paid off. Little did Herzer know that the kit -- a bright orange plastic case containing a handheld VHF radio, a 406-MHz Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB), a GPS receiver and flares -- would be all that stood between him and disaster in the frigid waters of the North Pacific.

He left the kit's flares behind as he flew to Oregon to pick up the 60-foot trimaran Pacific Challenge, owned by BOAT/U.S. member Clive Armitage of Eugene, OR. The $400,000 space-age custom racer, formerly known as Sebago, has a carbon-kevlar composite hull and a carbon fiber mast. Herzer and two crew sailed Pacific Challenge out of Portland, OR, and settled in for a routine cruise down the coast to Los Angeles in time for Armitage to race her to Hawaii.

On June 21, Pacific Challenge was 47 nm northwest of Fort Bragg, CA, in choppy seas with winds blowing 40 knots. Ahead of schedule and not wishing to take any risks, the crew had double-reefed the boat's enormous mainsail and had shortened the roller-furled jib about halfway in as well. Pacific Challenge has been known to sail at speeds over 30 knots. The Pacific swells gave her a steady pounding but nothing the boat hadn't handled before, according to Herzer. The skies were sunny.

Without a second's warning, the boat's carbon fiber mast "exploded," Herzer said, after a large wave hit her. The 76-foot-high mast and rigging came crashing down on deck, with a wire stay hitting Herzer on the back of the head. But worse, the heavy boom came down on his crewman, knocking him unconscious. Herzer suspected he had internal injuries so a rescue call was imperative.

The skipper first tried to hail the Coast Guard on the boat's single-side-band radio but the dismasting had also taken out the radio antenna. He tried the boat's VHF radio but that wasn't working either. Meanwhile, a pool of water was filling the cabin below. Herzer eyed for a moment their uninflated dinghy and thought about the 50-degree water they'd be tossed about in.

He then went for the BOAT/U.S. Safety Kit down in the cabin. Dropping it several times in his rush to get back on deck, Herzer opened the case and used the hand-held VHF radio to try again to raise the Coast Guard. At 4:06 p.m. he made contact with Group Humbolt Bay. He also activated the safety kit's EPIRB.

Within six minutes the Coast Guard had issued a general alarm and dispatched a helicopter crew from Eureka to the stricken vessel off Cape Mendocino. USCG pilot Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Kleckner monitored Channel 16 and listened as Pacific Challenge communicated on the hand-held with a Chinese freighter in the area that had the trimaran in sight. Using his radar, the pilot located the freighter, then the Pacific Challenge, and arrived on scene in 50 minutes.

Twenty-five minutes later, all three were safely on board the helicopter, which then sped to the nearest hospital, a 17-minute flight. Within 98 minutes of the initial "mayday" distress call, the crewman with broken ribs and internal bleeding was being tended to by doctors at Mendocino Coast Hospital.

In talking about the quick rescue later, Cmdr. Kleckner was unfazed and said simply, "It's what we do."

Some may wonder how a VHF radio transmission was picked up over 50 miles from shore. The Coast Guard has installed "high site" antennas in certain areas of the coast. Normally a VHF signal is expected to have a range of no more than 20 miles.

And what about the satellite EPIRB distress signal that also went off as Pacific Challenge foundered? It worked as well, and when officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) alerted the Coast Guard, they learned that a radio "mayday" had already been received.

Like radios, EPIRBs run on batteries expected to last only a few days. However, NOAA command center reported that the beacon was still going off on the drifting wreckage of Pacific Challenge more than a week later.

As part of its unique rental program, the BOAT/U.S. Foundation has over 100 satellite beacons available for rent. Safety kits can be rented for $35 per week from participating BOAT/U.S. Marine Centers. To buy the same set of equipment would cost $1,500. For just an EPIRB, the rental fee is $30 per week and they can be mail-ordered by calling 888-66-EPIRB. The program is funded by contributions from BOAT/U.S. members and a grant from the Aquatic Resources (Wallop/Breaux) Trust Fund administered by the U.S. Coast Guard.