Rescue efforts underway for sailboats stranded in Atlantic

HALIFAX — The Canadian Coast Guard has dispatched two ships to the mid Atlantic to assist three sailboats battered by a powerful storm during an across-the-ocean race.

A spokesman for the Halifaxbased joint rescue co-ordination centre said Friday evening that two of the disabled, mono-hull vessels have one crew member on board, while a third has two crew.

Lt. Len Hickey said the vessels — which were racing between Plymouth, England, and Newport, Rhode Island — encountered bad weather Thursday, 1,660 kilometres east of Newfoundland.

Hickey said conditions in the area remained difficult on Friday evening, with 10- to 15-metre waves and winds gusting in excess of 100 kilometres per hour.

The vessels are widely spaced out in the ocean, over a distance of about 380 kilometres.

Portugal sent a military aircraft, while the Canadian Forces dispatched a Hercules and an Aurora to fly over the area where the damaged vessels are drifting.

Rescue officials tweeted late Friday that Canadian warship HMCS Charlottetown and two coast guard vessels were steaming toward the ships.

There are container ships in the area, but rescue officials said the vessels can’t get too close to the sailboats because of the sea conditions and the difference in size between the merchant ships and the sailboats, which are all under 15 metres in length.