Rescuer finds shattered debris in boat wreck

ENSENADA, Mexico — A sailor who pulled two dead bodies from coastal waters off California and Mexico during a sailboat race said Sunday that he found debris smashed in so many pieces that it looked like the vessel had gone through a blender.

Eric Lamb said both bodies were covered with scrapes and bruises and one had severe head trauma.

Lamb was working safety patrol Saturday morning when he came across the debris roughly nine hours after the crash occurred. He called the Coast Guard for help.

Two race participants who were in the area at the time of the crash also told The Associated Press on Sunday that they saw a tanker or heard warnings on their radios.

The boat apparently collided at night with a much larger vessel, leaving three crew members dead and one missing, a sailing organization said early Sunday. It was the state’s second ocean racing tragedy this month.

The 37- foot Aegean, carrying a crew of four, was reported missing Saturday during a 125mile Newport Beach, Calif. to Ensenada, Mexico yacht race, the U. S. Coast Guard said.

The Newport Ocean Sailing Association, the race organizer, said the accident occurred late Friday or early Saturday several miles off the coast near the ocean border of the two countries.

“It appeared the damage was not inflicted by an explosion but by a collision with a ship much larger than the 37- foot vessel,” association spokesman Rich Roberts said in a news release early Sunday.

Race officials believe there are few other possibilities for what caused the accident, Roberts later told The AP, speaking by phone from Ensenada.

He said details were still scarce but it was possible that if the smaller boat was bobbing around in light wind, the crew might not have been able to get out of the way of a larger ship, perhaps a freighter.