Shark attack may have played role in rowers’ rescue
Published: January 16, 2006
A shark attack in December may have been responsible for ending a New Zealand trans-Atlantic rowing pair’s race but it may have also saved their lives after their boat capsized today in huge seas today.
Team Sun Latte’s Tara Remington and Iain Rudkin were sitting in 11th place overall, and second mixed crew, in the fourth Atlantic Rowing race when their $100,000 boat capsized, leaving Remington with head injuries requiring stitches.
They transferred to a liferaft and then to a support yacht where they are expected to remain for another week until it reaches the end of the race in Antigua.
Shore-based manager Rob Hamill, himself a winner of the race in 1997 with the late Phil Stubbs, said that on Saturday night (New Zealand time) a leak in the stern of the boat underwater began letting water into the cabin.
He said that leak was in such an unusual spot on a seam below the water line that it was likely to have been caused by a combination of the December shark attack and heavy seas at the time the leak sprung.
In the attack, an approximately 3.5m shark battered the plywood vessel for 15 minutes.
Hamill said it was hard to know how else the damage could have been caused and it was that leak that meant the crew had called for help ahead of capsizing.
Bailing furiously and with no prospect of fixing it themselves, the pair sent out an emergency call for the support yacht, which was to take about 12-18 hours to reach them.
That alone might have forced Remington and Rudkin from the race but with the support yacht just 1½ hours short of them, they capsized in 8-10m seas.
At 1am today New Zealand time – about midday local time – “they were bailing, a wave hit them and over they went”, Hamill said.
“Iain said it happened very, very quickly. They didn’t hardly know what had happened.”
Although on one level, it was probably the shark which had caused the trouble in the first place, Hamill said the fact it caused the crew to call for help earlier may well have saved them.
If the support yacht had still been 12-18 hours away, things could have turned very nasty.
“Iain didn’t dwell on it but he kind of made me feel he had been through something pretty scary.
“He indicated they felt very fortunate they had already contacted the mother ship 12 hours prior. Otherwise, if they had waited another 12 hours after the capsize. . .”
Hamill said the pair were devastated at being forced out of the race and despite the scare, it was still possible Remington and Rudkin may try again the next time the race gets under way.
The rowers left the Canary Islands of the coast of Africa on November 27 on what was to have been a 4727km journey.
Rudkin and Remington had been hoping to finish early next month and at the time of today’s accident had been about 950 nautical miles (1760km) from the finish in Antigua.
With this race the fourth since the first in 1997, it will now be the first one not won by a New Zealand crew.
Team Sun Latte’s boat was not scuttled, as is standard practice to prevent becoming a danger to shipping, but was definitely lost, Hamill said.
“They just let the boat go.”
At last report, the support yacht was on its way to a second rescue.
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