Disney grandnephew comes to aid of fellow sailor in trouble

“Rule No. 1 in the Racing Rules of Sailing is save lives. It’s not even a question.”

Roy Pat Disney

Roy Pat Disney was just getting out of his bunk at 2:30 a.m. Monday when he heard a distress call from another sailboat in the 50th Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Disney couldn’t immediately make out the words but knew it was urgent. He definitely heard “OEX,” the name of the yacht owned by friend and sailing rival John Sangmeister, and then “abandon ship.”

Disney and another crewman aboard Pyewacket roused the navigator to figure out where OEX was.

“We thought they were 30 miles to the south, but they were less than 2 miles ahead of us. It was easy to change direction, 2 degrees or so, and we were there in 15 minutes,” said Disney, the grandnephew of Walt Disney.

OEX, a Santa Cruz 70, was sinking about 200 miles off the coast after its rudder was damaged. The race also was over for Pyewacket, an Andrews 70.

“Rule No. 1 in the Racing Rules of Sailing is save lives. It’s not even a question,” Disney said in a phone interview from his home in the L.A. area on Tuesday.

Sangmeister, who was part of Dennis Conner’s winning America’s Cup campaign in 198687 and sailed with Conner in the 1992 defense trials, was in OEX’s aft cockpit, his crew having inflated two life rafts.

When he saw Pyewacket’s running lights, “I said, ‘OK, boys, it’s time to go.’ We have a watertight bulkhead in the bow and I thought the boat would go down by the stern and the mast would land on top of our rafts,” Sangmeister said, with Disney at his side, in a dockside interview released by race officials after Pyewacket returned with both crews early Tuesday.

Pyewacket sailed alongside the rafts and retrieved OEX’s nineman crew.

“John made the decision not to leave the boat, which was the smartest thing to do if it’s still floating, until he could see us.” Disney said.

The trip back to Marina del Rey “was darn pleasant, even though it was crowded on the boat, 12 bunks for 19 guys. But it was a really fast sail back,” Disney said.

The two crews shared baby back ribs, swordfish and several bottles of wine.

Making the rescue in the dark was a challenge, but Disney praised both crews.

“We all try to surround ourselves with people who are quite competent, but when it comes to these things, you never know until you know. We had a good group of guys with a ton of experience . ... We knew what we had to do.”

Pyewacket’s crew includes Paul Cayard, Brad Jackson and Mark Towill, veterans of the Volvo Ocean Race. Cayard, a San Francisco native, is also an America’s Cup veteran.

Disney was sailing the biennial Transpac for what he said was a record 23rd time. This was Sangmeister’s eighth Transpac, which covers 2,225 nautical miles.

“Roy, I’m really sorry we ruined your race,” Sangmeister said in the video interview.

Disney said he’s flying his crew members and their families to Hawaii on Saturday.

“It was the right thing to do. We’re all disappointed that we don’t get to sail down Diamond Head and Molokai Channel but we did what we had to do,” he said.