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At 02:27 UTC on December 2, a crew member went overboard from Johannes Schwarz’s Ocean Breeze, a Volvo 70 competing in the in the 2024 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, an annual event from Gran Canaria to Saint Lucia.
Starting November 24, Ocean Breeze is one of 11 yachts in the IRC racing division of the rally which also included 45 entrants in the multihull division along with 83 cruising yachts. The rescue operation is being coordinated by MRCC Norfolk USA.
MRCC (Marine Rescue Coordination Centre) Norfolk issued an emergency alert to all shipping for assistance, and ARC yacht Leaps & Bounds 2 and motor vessel Project X are now involved in the search. Air cover is not possible due to the distance of the incident from land.
Event organizer World Cruising Club understands that the casualty was wearing an automatically inflatable lifejacket with a personal AIS beacon attached. Conditions on the course were reported to have squalls with 35 knot gusts and a base wind of 22-30 with big swell.
The casualty’s next of kin has been informed.
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