Yacht run down by cargo ship

Artikel om Alf

Yacht run down by cargo ship

S/Y MICA med Alf på St Martin 2000

S/Y MICA med Alf for fulde sejl i Caribien 2000

"Sakset" fra :http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,146764-1-7,00.html

Swedish yachtsman Alf Jaselius

Nov 11, 2002

It could take a few days before officials are able to identify the vessel that ran down a yacht off North cape on Saturday night.
Swedish yachtsman Alf Jaselius was lucky to escape alive after the bow of his seven metre boat was torn off by the impact.
"Five minutes later the boat was sinking," Jaselius said.
He managed to send out a distress call before taking to a lifeboat and spent three freezing hours in the water before being rescued by a Russian container ship.
"There was water in the liferaft so I was sitting on the pontoons and I was worried that they didn't find me. I saw them far away, strong lights. I was shaking. It was freezing so I was really scared, but now I'm here so I'm really happy," said Jaselius.
Jaselius was sailing his yacht Mika from Tonga to the Bay of Islands when it was struck 30 kilometres off North Cape.
Six vessels answered the call for help but it was not until three hours later that the Russian ship en route to Tauranga came to his aid.
Captain Mikhail Sladkov says he was close to the position given by the yachtsman in his distress call.
He was able to manoeuvre his 21,000 tonne ship around to protect the liferaft from the three to four metre waves as much as possible, allowing his crew to throw a line to the yachtsman.
The Maritime Safety Authority now has the task of doing the detective work to find out just what ship hit the yacht.
It may come down to a simple process of elimination. The investigation will focus on a number of ships in the area on Saturday night and one in particular.
"There was a vessel that was picked up on a radar that was moving away from the yacht and the scene of the collision...it didn't respond to the relay," said Russell Kilvington of the Maritime Safety Authority.
This is third time in 10 years a large container ship has run down a cruising yacht in New Zealand waters. The worst case came in 1995 when three members of the Sleavin family died after one collision.
In the weekend's case, the Maritime Safety Authority admits it has sympathy for both parties.
"The ability of a large merchant vessel to pick up a small yacht in the sort of storm seas that were out there on Saturday night is very, very difficult indeed," said Kilvington.
The Authority's investigation will take a few days and legal action may follow if the tanker was reckless.
As for Jaselius, this was one yachting trip too many. He is farewelling the high seas for dry land - at least in the short term.

Mica Run Down by a Freighter near the New Zealand Coast

"Sakset" fra :http://svzephyr.net/saga1.htm

We met Alf, who is Swedish, in the Galapagos. Alf was single-handing a 28 ft. boat named Mica. We shared a few beers at the Distribuidor, and then we left the Galapagos, continuing our odyssey across the Pacific. We stayed in Vava'u, Tonga for nearly two months, so a lot of boats caught up with us, and we crossed paths with Alf again in Vava'u the week before we left for our own passage to New Zealand.

For most of us, the passage from the tropics (either Fiji or Tonga) to New Zealand was THE ONE TO WORRY ABOUT. Certainly not our longest passage, but definitely the passage with the worst reputation and the biggest potential for gales, big wind and waves, and scary conditions. Fortunately, Zephyr's passage was uneventful; but Alf wasn't so lucky.

Our friends, Ed and Julie, (S/V Free Radical) happened to be on passage from Fiji to New Zealand at the same time that Alf was sailing from Tonga to New Zealand. We were checking in with Free Radical twice a day, and they were having a terrible trip - winds generally on the nose, and they were hit by four fronts. Even so, Free Radical made it safely through, but Ed and Julie ended up playing a part in Alf's tragedy on Mica.

Late on Free Radical's last night at sea, sailing in 15-20' seas with big winds, 30-35 knots from behind, Ed and Julie heard Alf put out a Mayday call on the VHF radio. Mica had been hit by a freighter, the boat was sinking fast, and Alf was stepping into his liferaft, hoping that someone was listening and that the liferaft would save him. Alf's Mayday was heard. Free Radical was the closest vessel to Mica, only 16 miles downwind, but the conditions were bad enough that when Ed and Julie tried to turn around and go back into the wind to help they were making less than 2 knots. Free Radical radioed the Coast Guard that they could not get to Alf in time, so the Coast Guard asked that Free Radical heave-to (basically try to stand still in the water) while arrangements were made for a freighter to rescue Alf. A couple of hours later Alf was picked up by a Russian freighter, and Free Radical was released to continue on their passage to New Zealand. Alf was lucky - his hand was badly burned by a flare that malfunctioned when he tried to attract the attention of the Russian freighter, he was near frozen from 3 hours spent in the 60 deg F water waiting to be rescued, and he'd lost everything but the shirt on his back, but he was alive. Very sobering.

Alf Jaselius, ex-Mica

18.11.2002 Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Sakset fra: http://www.kristiina.kaapeli.fi/log13.htm

Our first NZ-week was full of happenings, and not all pleasant. A terrible one was the sinking of the Swedish yacht Mica after collision with a ship. We had talked with Alf, the skipper of Mica, on VHF near the Minerva reef, but soon the 28-foot Mica was far behind us. Alf didn't have a SSB-transmitter, so he wasn't with the Swedish net during the sailing.
Only 55 miles from the north end of New Zealand, at 10 pm Saturday evening (9.11.) Alf heard terrible noise. He rushed out and saw a huge ship wall side by side his boat. He tried to steer free without luck. The ship was tearing apart the chainplates of the Laurin design glassfiber boat. Mica started to take water in. Alf launched his liferaft and sent a mayday call on VHF including his position. The water was knee high already. Alf couldn't pull the liferaft close enough the boat, so he had to swim into it in the 12-14 deg. sea.
The weather wasn't bad, about 25 knots of wind, 2-3 meters waves and a good visibility. Mica had mast top navigation lights on - still when the boat was sinking. Alf was left alone in the dark sea without knowing will he be rescued or not. After a while he saw lights of a passing vessel and he lit a handheld flare. At the same time a huge wave rocked the boat and he dropped the flare. It burnt a whole in the bottom and the raft was filled by water. Alf had to sit on a pontoon.
The New Zealand Coast Guard got the mayday call and forwarded it as a digital selective call both on VHF and SSB to all stations. This call opens automatically a DSC-transceiver, which is obligatory on professional vessels. Seven vessels - ships and yachts - answeared the call, but not the ship that had droven over Mica. A Russian ship nearby went for help and managed to find Alf after three hours, as well as get the frozen man aboard. Alf was saved but his home and everything he owned was lost. Mica wasn't insured.
The officials have not published the name or the flag of the ship that sunk Mica, but the ship has been traced. Because this happened on the international waters, the NZ authorities can not do anything, only Alf as a individual could sue them.

Sidste Nyt fra ALF 1/2-2006

Sidste nyt fra Alf er, at han lever i bedste velgående og sejler rundt mellem Marshall Øerne. Alf har efter tabet af MICA arbejdet i en længere periode i Whangerei og Napier i New Zealand.