Battered solo sailor awaits Pacific rescue

A BRITISH solo around-theworld sailor whose yacht was crippled in a ferocious storm as she crossed the Pacific has stabilised her battered vessel and is awaiting rescue, race organisers said yesterday.

Susie Goodall was briefly knocked unconscious when mountainous seas upended her yacht DHL Starlight early on Thursday, tearing off its mast.

Goodall was attempting to navigate the southern Pacific’s notorious Roaring Forties as part of the Golden Globe Race.

Goodall stopped briefly at Kingston Beach in Tasmania on October 30 at the halfway point of the race.

The 29-year-old, the youngest competitor in the race and the only woman, sent frantic text messages to race organisers throughout her ordeal.

When officials finally managed to contact her by satellite phone several hours later, she confirmed her boat had been dismasted but said the hull had not been breached.

“The boat is destroyed. I can’t make up a jury rig,” she said. “The only thing left is the hull and deck, which remain intact.

“We were pitchpoled [rolled end over end] and I was thrown across the cabin and knocked out for a while.”

Race organisers said Chilean rescue authorities had diverted a Chinese container ship Tian Fu to pick up Goodall. They said that while “beaten up and badly bruised” she was safe and had managed to bring flooding under control and get her engine going, giving her some manoeuvrability when the rescue ship arrives.