Video has recently surfaced online of ocean researchers’ encounter in the Atlantic with an abandoned Dun Laoghaire yacht — one that was the subject of headlines a decade ago.
It’s nearly 10 years since Alan McGettigan and crew were rescued from their Swan 48, Wolfhound, some 70 miles off the coast of Bermuda in February 2013.
McGettigan — who died in November 2022 — was joined by fellow Royal Irish Yacht Club members Declan Hayes and Morgan Crowe as well as Tom Mulligan from the National Yacht Club on the yacht, which had suffered both power and engine failure amid stormy conditions while en route from Connecticut to that year’s RORC Caribbean 600.
Some time later in 2013, a vessel from the Ocean Research Project happened upon the ghost yacht “somewhere in the Atlantic”.
Unaware of the previous incident, the team — including experienced solo circumnavigator Matt Rutherford — noted the boat’s “strange behaviour” before approaching and boarding to learn more about its fate.
“I’m afraid to open doors and cabinets,” says Rutherford as he explores the cabin, fearful that he might happen upon the remains of an unfortunate sailor.
Rutherford and his crew mate set up a tow to bring the stricken Wolfhound some 800 miles to Bermuda, but as he explains in the video they were forced to cut it loose following difficulties of their own, which left them becalmed in the Doldrums for nearly four weeks.
IrishCentral has more on the story HERE.
