Navy rescues racing yacht crew adrift for two days

THE 14 crew members of a racing yacht were rescued by the Royal Navy after being stranded in the Atlantic for two days when a ‘rogue wave’ tore off their mast.

The Clyde Challenger encountered stormy seas about 610 miles southwest of Land’s End as it returned to Scotland after a fourand-a-half month trip.

Scots skipper Roy Graham, 66, said that on Thursday evening, five days after leaving the Azores, ‘we got hit with a rogue wave’ that knocked the vessel over, snapping its mast at deck level in the water.

Four crew members clipped on to the deck were submerged for several seconds, but Mr Graham added that ‘to them it probably felt like minutes’.

They issued an emergency alert to the UK Coastguard and learnt on Friday that the Royal Navy was en route. HMS Dragon, a Type 45 destroyer, was on routine deployment when it was diverted 500 miles to save the 13 Britons and one American on the 60ft yacht.

Travelling at a top speed of 30 knots, the warship arrived at the yacht’s position around 2.30pm on Saturday.

All the crew were safely on the destroyer by 5pm and some were treated for minor injuries.

Mr Graham said: ‘There were maybe a few doubts in my mind but when I knew HMS Dragon was coming for us, I knew it was going to be a positive outcome.’