57-Foot Yacht Sinks After Being Hit by Whale, 3 Men Rescued

Three San Diego men were shaken but in good condition Sunday after drifting in a life raft off Monterey for nearly seven hours after their boat was damaged by a finback whale Saturday afternoon, authorities said.

In another rescue effort over the weekend, Coast Guard crews also aided a scuba-diving boat carrying 32 people off San Clemente Island when the vessel began leaking after apparently striking a rock Sunday morning. No injuries were reported in that mishap.

Also, four people were forced to jump into San Diego Bay Sunday when their 36-foot power boat burst into flames, the Coast Guard reported.

In the Monterey rescue, authorities said the three men were pulled from their raft about 13 miles west of Cape San Martin after a harrowing afternoon adrift at sea.

The men, identified as William Reich, 45, Charles Gray, 40, and Mark Felix, 39, sent a Mayday call about noon Saturday, saying the 57-foot Chriscraft yacht, the Lady Ruth, was taking on water after being struck by a whale about eight miles south of Point Sur.

After temporarily losing radio communication with the men, three Coast Guard boats, a helicopter and a jet located the raft after spotting two distress flares. The men had tied the raft to their disabled vessel, which was then partially submerged. The boat later sank.

The men reportedly were professional yacht deliverymen hired to take the boat to Discovery Bay in the Sacramento River Delta, according to Petty Officer Steve Tierney, a Coast Guard spokesman.

“One of the guys used to work for professional whale-watching charter and he knew what he was talking about,” he said.

Reich, the boat’s captain, told friends that the men came upon a pod of fin-backed whales that might have included a mother and baby. One whale suddenly attacked the boat.

“He told us they came upon a whole school of whales, bigger than gray whales. Then they disappeared, moments before the boat was struck,” Tierney said. “When the whale hit, the men said they saw the bow just split in half and they saw blue water pouring in.”

The three men boarded a plane to San Diego on Sunday, the Coast Guard said.

In the second incident, two Coast Guard helicopters and a cutter were dispatched after the 65-foot Sea Ray reported taking on water about 11 a.m. as it passed within half a mile of Pyramid Point on San Clemente Island.

The skipper of the Sea Ray, based in San Pedro, used a cellular phone to call his family, which reported the incident to the Coast Guard, Dewell said.

The helicopters, from San Diego and Los Angeles, arrived shortly after noon with three water pumps, which were lowered to the Sea Ray.

“It was a full hour between their arrival and the initial call and the ship was still afloat,” Dewell said. “Right now, we don’t know how bad the damage is or how much water the ship took in.”

The helicopters left the scene about 2:30 p.m. when the cutter Tybee arrived to tow the vessel back to San Diego.

Four Forced to Jump

On San Diego Bay, the Sea Gal caught fire about 11 a.m. Sunday as it motored a couple of hundred yards off the Coast Guard station on North Harbor Drive, Coast Guard spokesman Dan Dewell said.

The skipper and three passengers used a fire extinguisher on the flames, which erupted in the boat’s cabin, but eventually were forced to jump into the water not far from shore.

“They were pretty lucky they were so close to the station,” Dewell said. Emergency crews from the Harbor Police and San Diego Fire Department helped extinguish the blaze and the boat was later towed to the Harbor Police dock on Shelter Island.

“A guy in a rowboat apparently saw the whole thing and scooped the passengers out of the water,” Dewell said.

Rescued were the boat’s skipper Don Huber, 58, and Teresa Young, both of San Diego, and two passengers who were visiting from Arizona.

“They were pretty wet, that’s for sure,” Dewell said. “There was a big puddle of water in the lobby after they sat around, being debriefed by our folks.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, authorities said.