I have to give huge kudo's to the skipper and crew onboard the J/30 Radiant Heat for their considerable efforts in coming to assist the crew of Incisor after the capsize. These are some comments from one of the crew onboard Radiant Heat. Very sobering reading_.
I was on board Radiant Heat, the boat that called in the mayday and pulled two people from the water. It all happened really fast and their boat was well below the water with the crew on the side of the hull, we were standing by until the coast guard got there as the seas and wind were too much for us to recover them from the vessel. But two got washed off the boat from a large wave and we recovered them from the water. It was one of the hardest things I've had to do at sea, trying to pull them on board in those conditions. Unbelievable!!!
We had lost our ladder over board with some other life rings and man over board gear. But we had another one with the line attached to the boat. We winched them close as we could then took them on the leuward side of the boat and hung onto them for dear life. Shear man power pulled them aboard, not ideal but we did what we could. Waves were putting them underwater on the side of the boat and we hung on, pulling with everything we had, really scary moments. The guys had nothing left to help they were hypothermic and dead tired. It was a miracle we saw the boat and the captain floating away from the boat. I'll never forget his face looking up over the rail
We really needed a halyard to winch them a board but everything was happening quickly and we couldn't let go. If we needed to get others aboard we would have got a better system going. But we were dealing with watching waves, our sails and a over heating motor, difficultly steering and most importantly the guys in the water and the other boat. I'll be practicing née systems on my boat now that I've experienced this. Truely incredable, the captain and crew really pulled together in the time need
