Three dead as tragedy strikes yachting race

Three dead as tragedy strikes yachting race

Three sailors are dead and the Coast Guard was looking for a fourth Sunday after a yacht apparently collided with another vessel during a race off the coast of Southern California.

The accident occurred the same weekend that Coast Guard officials temporarily suspended offshore racing in the San Francisco area because another yachting accident killed five sailors two weeks ago.

The 37-foot yacht Aegean disappeared early Saturday from a tracking system monitoring the race from Newport Beach, Calif., to Ensenada, Mexico, according to a statement from Rich Roberts, spokesman for the Newport Ocean Sailing Association.

"A Coast Guard search was launched that led to discovery of the boat's wreckage, including the rear transom with the boat's name on it," Roberts said. "An investigation is continuing, but it appeared the damage was not inflicted by an explosion, but by a collision with a ship much larger than the 37-foot vessel."

The Coast Guard and civilian boat found the dead sailors among wreckage in the water about 10 miles off the coast of Mexico and 10 miles south of U.S. waters. The names of the dead haven't been released, pending notification of relatives.

The Newport race had 213 boats entered this year, and the accident marked the first fatalities in the 65-year history of the race, according to spokesman Roberts.

In the April 14 accident, five sailors died when their 38-foot yacht smashed into rocks and capsized during a race near the Farallon Islands about 27 miles west of San Francisco. Three other sailors survived the wreck.

The Coast Guard had already temporarily suspended yacht racing around San Francisco so that organizers could review safety plans and chart new courses for races that had been scheduled April 28 and May 12.

"This temporary safety stand-down from offshore racing will allow the Coast Guard and the offshore racing community to further our common safety goals," Capt. Cynthia Stowe, a member of the Coast Guard in San Francisco, said in announcing the changes.