Within about 30 seconds the $1 million ocean racer turned upside down, her mast pointing to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Skipper Brian McDermott had just enough time to yell out: "The keel´s gone!" as he fell two metres into the water. Within moments all six crew members were trapped under the yacht and everything was plunged into darkness.
The wind was strong, sometimes gusting up to 50 knots. Mountainous waves up to five metres high were cresting, and a three-quarter moon provided the only light. In sailing terms, the conditions were very challenging but not extreme. McDermott unclipped the harness that attached him to the boat and immediately inflated his life jacket. It was an automatic response for a man who had been sailing for 16 years. Using his fingertips to feel the deck above his head, he made his way to the back of the upturned yacht, and yanking himself free of the ropes that were entangling him, he bobbed out from under the boat.
His friend of 30 years and fellow yachtsman, John Rogers, cut his harness with his sail knife and also freed himself. Following standard survival procedure, McDermott shouted: "One!"
"Two!" Rogers yelled back as he switched on his strobe light. But that´s where the numbers stopped.
"Swim to the light! Swim to the light!" shouted Rogers, and within moments they were together, but effectively alone in the empty ocean. With 45 centimetres of lanyard, similar to a car seatbelt, Rogers clipped his harness to McDermott´s.
Joined together, with their life jackets inflated, they yelled out the names of the other four crew members as the wind blew them like "balloons on the water" further and further away from the boat. Forced by a strong current, they ended up about 200 metres away from the yacht. In the dark, no one could hear their cries.
It was 9pm on Monday, September 16, 2002, when the Excalibur capsized 40 nautical miles off Port Stephens on the NSW mid-north coast. (www.theage.com.au)
Seven years later, the court has pronounced a sentence. A boat builder has been sentenced to up to three years´ jail for the deaths of four people.
The former director of the company that built the boat, Alex Cittadini, was found guilty in April of four counts of manslaughter over the accident at Seal Rocks.
A 2005 coronial inquest found the keel of the yacht had been cut and re-welded during construction.
The Crown argued that Cittadini, who was in charge of the keel´s construction, should have known it was cut.
But in sentencing in Sydney´s District Court today, judge Stephen Norrish said he was not satisfied Cittadini knew what happened to the keel.
He said he believed Cittadini when he said he would have rectified the problem if he had known about it.
The boat builder will be eligible for parole in 18 months but in an unusual move, his lawyers have applied for bail.
Cittadini´s lawyers have also lodged an appeal against the sentence.
The man´s employee, welder Adrian Presland, was found not guilty of manslaughter over the boat tragedy in April.
Two sailors survived the Excalibur tragedy, which happened in 2002 while the crew was returning from a week spent racing in the Whitsunday Islands.
The boat had drifted almost 300 nautical miles when it was found a week after the accident. Only one of the victim´s bodies was found.
The victims were Christopher Heyes, 51, Ann Maree Pope, 30, Tracy Luke, 32, and Peter McLeod, 51. (www.abc.net.au)
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