Bermuda Report Retracted By US Coast Guard
When the young ocean sailor Abby Sunderland and her father, Laurence appeared on NBC’s ‘Today’ show on June 30, 2010, host Meredith Vieira asked Laurence Sunderland to comment on the extensive critical press coverage of his daughter’s recent rescue from her boat in the Indian Ocean. Mr. Sunderland said that she had been singled out saying “I mean, let’s look at the Newport-Bermuda race. A boat tipped upside down, lost its keel, we don’t hear any of that in the news.”
That statement turned out to be untrue, with the race organizers saying there was no capsize, no loss of a keel, and no other serious damage in the Newport Bermuda Race fleet. Each of the 183 boats that started the race at Newport on June 18th finished safely at Bermuda.
Abby Sunderland [pictured] is a 16-year-old American sailor who in 2010 attempted to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, and ended up having to be rescued by the Australian government at an estimated cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. On June 10, 2010 while sailing in heavy seas and high winds in a remote area of the Indian Ocean, her sailboat was dismasted and she activated her two manual emergency EPIRB distress beacons, triggering a search and rescue effort. She was rescued two days later, almost four and a half months after setting sail.
The incident was widely reported by various international media outlets, many critical of various aspects including letting a 16 year old attempt such a dangerous thing alone, as well as the financial issues. The UK’s Daily Telegraph said “failed teen solo sailor Abby Sunderland’s team did not put a cent towards her rescue but still tried to get the public to pay for the boat’s salvage.
Abby posted on her blog that “Laurence Sunderland, told the Today show on Monday June 28th that the recent Newport Bermuda Race had lost a boat, he was relying on an erroneous USCG report. The USCG has now issued a retraction. The Bermuda Race Organizing Committee has asked Laurence to correct his statement.” She then posted the US Coast Guard retraction.
“We take Laurence Sunderland’s charge very seriously because we take safety extremely seriously,” said Newport Bermuda Race Chairman Bjorn Johnson. “We won’t let a boat sail unless we believe that it and the crew are prepared to meet the demands of racing 635 miles across the Gulf Stream. Every boat is inspected. The list of required safety equipment and procedures is very long. Sometimes we tell captains they can’t race unless the boat is strengthened or the crew is more experienced.”.
Mr Johnson continued on to say that “The Coast Guard statement was inaccurate and, in fact, implausible,’ said Johnson. ‘The boat could not possibly have been a participant in the race, which started on June 18 – three days after the accident – more than 1,000 miles west of the location of the accident.”
The US Coast Guard issued this retraction on their blog on July 8th:
The Newport Bermuda Race 2010 commenced on June 18, 2010 and On Scene is happy to report that all race participants successfully completed the race without incident. The On Scene Weekly SARSAT Rescue Report dated Wednesday June 23, 2010 incorrectly stated that the sailing vessel associated with the June 15th SARSAT Rescue was participating in the Newport Bermuda Race 2010 when high winds caused the vessel to lose its mast. Many thanks to the On Scene subscribers who pointed out this inaccuracy.
In the 47 Bermuda Newport Races that have been held since 1906, 4,860 boats and nearly 50,000 sailors have raced, and in that time, two boats have been lost; one due to an onboard fire in 1932 and the other wrecked on Bermuda’s reef in 1956. The only life lost in the race’s history was in the 1932 fire.
