Alliance - Holed and sinking 300 nm out, Newport Bermuda Race
The 40 ft J/122 Alliance struck a submerged object in the Gulf Stream at 2:45 a.m.; all nine aboard were taken off by fellow racers before she was lost.
What happened.
The 40 ft J/122 Alliance struck a submerged object in the Gulf Stream around 2:45 a.m. on the third day of the 2024 Newport Bermuda Race, roughly 300 nm from land; she flooded and was lost, but all nine aboard were taken off by two competing boats that answered the Mayday.
At about 2:45 a.m. on 23 June 2024, some 300 nautical miles into the Newport Bermuda Race and the same distance from the finish, the J/122 Alliance hit a large submerged object in the Gulf Stream on a clear, moonlit night. The impact stopped the boat, tore through the rudder housing, and opened a jagged hole in the hull; within minutes the crew was ankle-deep in water. Co-owner Mary Martin issued the Mayday — "catastrophic damage, the boat is sinking, nine souls aboard" — knowing the Coast Guard was too far away and their only realistic help was the fleet around them. The nine ran an emergency plan they had drilled for months: two electric dewatering pumps firing (the race required only one), life raft deployed, drybags packed, personal effects left behind. Two competitors, Ceilidh and Banter, were within four miles. Fifty-five minutes after impact the crew loaded into the raft; by 4:06 a.m. all nine had been hauled aboard Ceilidh across 7 ft swells — the raft's upper tube punctured in the process. With no injuries, Ceilidh carried both crews on to Bermuda. Alliance was lost. US Sailing later awarded the responding crews its Arthur B. Hansen Rescue Medal.
What it teaches.
- 1Carry the redundancy you aren't required to. Alliance had two electric dewatering pumps though the race mandated only one; running both bought the minutes the crew needed to wait for help instead of going straight into the raft.
- 2A drilled abandon-ship plan turns panic into procedure. The crew had practiced and been quizzed for months, so the response was calm and ordered — pumps on, raft out, grab bags only, boat written off. Nearly all had taken Safety at Sea courses, though organizers required only 30 percent.
- 3The transfer is the most dangerous moment, and your raft can fail when you need it most. In 7 ft swells the rescuers hauled each person aboard by the wrists hard enough to bruise, and the raft's upper tube was punctured during the rescue — ending the plan to split the crew between two boats.
- 4Offshore, your nearest rescue is the boat next to you, not the Coast Guard. Three hundred miles out the CG couldn't reach Alliance in time; competitors Ceilidh and Banter, within four miles, did. Keep a listening watch on VHF 16 and assume you may be someone's only help.
Where this comes from.
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