Fed: Skipper's heartbreak as Tasman claims Koomooloo

AAP General News (Australia)
12-27-2006
Fed: Skipper's heartbreak as Tasman claims Koomooloo

By Paul Mulvey

SYDNEY, Dec 27 AAP - Skipper Mike Freebairn choked back tears as he abandoned the yacht
his family had spent a decade restoring, only to give it up to the wild seas of the Tasman
today.

Freebairn and his seven crewmates on board the 38-year-old timber yacht Koomooloo were
rescued by fellow Sydney to Hobart competitor Adventure today as it was taking on water
after falling off the back of a huge wave 60 miles off the NSW south coast.

He said the crew ripped up nearly every floorboard of the 1968 Sydney to Hobart winner
but could not find the leak and had no option but to abandon ship.

"We did everything we could to keep it afloat. The last sighting it was afloat, but
we expect it to sink," Freebairn said by phone to race organisers at the Cruising Yacht
Club of Australia in Sydney moments after being rescued.

"We're all pretty devastated. Standing on the boat looking around, it's been pretty
hard to believe.

"We took on a lot of water, we were bailing but we had to make the decision for the
safety of the crew to abandon.

"We've had the boat 10 years and it's got a pretty big history. We thought it was pretty solid.

"But everyone's safe and well, the boys did an awesome job transferring by liferaft."

British entrant Adventure answered a Mayday call at around 9am (AEDT) today and changed
course to reach Koomooloo and transfer its crew by liferaft in treacherous seas.

A police launch from Bateman's Bay picked up the crew off Adventure this afternoon
and took them to Eden on the south coast.

The Freebairn family had lovingly restored every nut and bolt on Koomooloo since buying
it a decade ago.

The 41-footer was actually leading the race on handicap, in its 10th Sydney to Hobart,
when the seas took control this morning.

Freebairn said the southerly winds which gusted up to 28 knots were not uncomfortable,
but they had whipped up seas of up to six metres.

The crew tried to find calmer waters closer to shore, but the Queenslander said they
were too far out.

After punching through one wave, Koomooloo was left with a massive drop, thumping back
into the water with a force which eventually sunk the boat in inaccessible deep seas.

"It's tragic, she's a beautiful old boat," CYCA Commodore Geoff Lavis said.

"It's off the continental shelf there, that's a long way down."

Koomooloo is the eighth boat to withdraw from the race in heavy seas, but Lavis said
conditions were nowhere near as bad as the tragic 1998 race in which six yachtsmen were
killed and five boats sank.

The eight yachts that have now pulled out of the race include maxis ABN Amro and Maximus
who lost their masts in big seas while leading the race.

AAP pmu/hn/imc/de

KEYWORD: SYDHOB KOOMOOLOO NIGHTLEAD

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