Bellow is a link to a first hand report on Latitude 38 website from — Bryan Chong Saturday April 14, 2012 Crew on Sydney 38 Low Speed Chase in his own words
It also includes a link to Youtube Video from another boat in the Farallones April 14 2012 race titled “Crewed Farallones April 14, 2012” showing the Santa Cruz 50, Deception, and several other boats rounding the island about an hour before Low Speed Chase.
At the same time this race was going on, to the south in Monterrey Bay at Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz Yacht Club with help from Hobie Fleet 240 was running the Annual Kick off Regatta. Due to the high winds, all the Hobie 20 sailors called it a day early and came back in before the first race. It actually settled down for just a bit but picked up again and by the second race, SCYC called it for the day Saturday for safety concerns.
This has shocked the sailing community and my heart goes out to all the families of the sailors. It is also a reminder of how fast things can go wrong on the water and reminds me of the Boy Scout Motto that I remind Jordan's Troop of when we do a Boy Scout Sailing outing - "Be Prepared"
http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2012-04-24#.T5roFtXl_byFrom Bryan Chong:
. . .
A Letter to the Community:
This letter goes out to a devastated sailing community still confused about the events surrounding the 2012 Full Crew Farallones Race. There have been inaccuracies in the media, mostly stemming from the survivors’ silence as James (“Jay”), Nick and I are still reeling from tragedy and the loss of close friends and loved ones.
I’ve chosen to use Sailing Anarchy, Seahorse, Latitude38 and Scuttlebutt for distributing this story because they’re of a kindred spirit and were the favorites amongst the crew of Low Speed Chase and those who already know the answer to the question, “Why would you sail in the ocean on a windy day with big swells?”
I’ve also included the Marin Independent Journal and The Tiburon Ark, as they’re the hometown newspapers in an area teeming with sailors. Many sailors relocate from around the world to Marin and the Tiburon Peninsula in order to live in proximity to the world’s best sailing. Alan Cahill moved from Cork, Ireland to race sailboats professionally in the Bay Area and the Pacific Ocean. He was the best man in our wedding and will be dearly missed while I journey this planet.
This letter does not contain every detail, but my account should provide a basic understanding of our day on the water and what happened after the first wave hit our boat. It is meant both to illustrate how things can look normal until one event changes everything and to begin to address what we can learn. It’s my hope and intention that it will spark a wider dialogue within the sailing community about safety standards and, more importantly, safety practices."
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