3 Sailors Die In Another Fatal Yacht Race Accident Off California

The Newport Sailing Association, race organizers of the California yacht race, said three sailors have died during a race when their yacht ‘Aegean’ collided with a large ship off the coast near the border of US and Mexico, ‘an area close to where the race route crossed shipping lanes,’ BBC said.

Race officials said the yacht Aegean disappeared from their tracking system early on Saturday and after a search found the wreckage scattered over a wide area in ‘small bits and pieces’ in another fatal yacht race accident that claimed more lives.

The Coast Guard identified two of the dead as William Reed Johnson from California and Joseph Lester Stewart from Florida but did not release the names of the other people on board.

One of those involved in the search, Eric Lamb, said "We have pulled a lot of boats off the rocks over the years and boats that hit the rocks, they don't look like that. This was almost like it had gone through a blender."

A race official suggested that the yacht might not have been able to get out of the way of the large ship because of ‘light winds’ blowing onto its sail.

Chuck Iverson, the commodore of the Newport Sailing Association, said "This has never happened in the entire 65 years of the race that I'm aware of, we're all shocked by this whole event."

On Thursday, the Coast Guard suspended yacht racing around San Francisco after five people died when their yacht was hit by powerful waves throwing it onto a rocky island.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17890213