Two sailors were killed when a Davidson 50 Finistere yacht racing in the Bunbury and Return Ocean Race capsized. This happened six hours after the start of the race, which began on February 23 in Fremantle , Australia.
Shortly before midnight, one of the crew members activated his life beacon. This happened 11 miles off the town of Manjera. The Australian Coast Guard received the signal and then unsuccessfully attempted to contact the yacht. When the Finistere tracker failed to update the yacht's location 15 minutes later, the Coast Guard contacted Fremantle Water Police and a rescue helicopter, which happened to be conducting a drill at sea. The helicopter arrived at the scene a half hour later and found the boat upside down and half sunk.
Three nearby yachts, also racing Huckleberry (S&S 34), Fourth Dimension (Dufour 40) and Circa (C&C 115), raced to the rescue and were able to pull five of the six crew out of the water. Four of the rescued men escaped serious injury but the fifth, 60 year old Paul Charles Owens, was already dead by the time help arrived.
Those involved in the rescue operation were also unable to locate the sixth crew member, Finistere owner and skipper Rob Thomas. In the early morning hours of February 24, police began searching for him in a total area of 233 square kilometers 40 kilometers southwest of Manjera. At 12:30 p.m., Rob Thomas' body was found within the search area.
Regatta organiser, Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club commodore Dean McAullay said it was too early to draw conclusions about how Finistere capsized. He also stressed that the 170-mile offshore Bunbury and Return Ocean Race is a category three race, which requires all participating sailors to carry beacons that will signal SOS if the carrier is in the water.
Finistere was one of the symbols of Western Australian offshore sailing. She flourished between the 1980s and 1990s. She is a veteran of the famous Rolex Sydney Hobart race, having competed in it three times: in 1994, 2008 and 2012. The section of the Rolex Sydney Hobart website dedicated to the 2012 race says of Finistere: «Owner Robert Thomas rebuilt her for the race around Australia. It is now a comfortable cruiser that is particularly good in medium to heavy wind conditions».
