Local man’s lucky escape after whale strikes boat

PORTMARNOCK man Larry Archer had a lucky escape when a whale collided with his boat off the coast of Spain, causing potentially catastrophic damage to his vessel.

Mr Archer, who worked as a boat builder in Malahide, was left speechless when the giant mammal lifted his boat, named

‘Freedom’, two feet off the water in mid August.

Mr Archer and his sailing companion, Roddy Delaney, were left shocked when they realised they had come in contact with a whale.

They were unaware that the damage caused to the boat by the mammal would have them abandoning ship four days later.

“Having caught a small tuna for our supper, Roddy and I were motor sailing in a light breeze on a calm sea when the boat was suddenly hit by something very solid which forced the vessel to rise up about two feet,

? Mr Archer told Northside People.

“It felt like a rock, but we were 60 miles from the Spanish coast in 3km of water.

“Then we saw the outline of a whale about 10 feet from us with its tail above water.

“We were fortunate we were hit in front of the keel, as if we’d been hit behind the keel we could have sustained damage to the propeller and rudder which would have left us disabled.

?

Initially the boat seemed to have escaped the astonishing collision unscathed. However, the potentially catastrophic damage caused to the vessel only became apparent four days later when Mr Archer was back on the high seas.

“On the fourth day sailing the sea was particularly rough,

? Mr Archer explained.

“We’d fallen off a few big waves when Roddy suddenly noticed water escaping above the floorboards.

“It appeared we were taking water at a fast rate. We carried out a quick check of the cabin, which had water swirling around it at that stage.

“We couldn’t see the hull beneath the floor because the water was a couple of feet deep so we knew then the situation was getting serious.

?

The two men sprang into emergency mode to pack their panic bags before launching their liferaft.

“While this was happening the boat’s self steering was taking us nearer to the coast,

? said Mr Archer.

“In the meantime, I sent out a mayday and within 20 minutes the Spanish lifeboat authority had responded and reached us.

“It was too rough for them to transfer the pump, so they towed us at 10 knots to Luarca about six miles away.

“I recall it was like being on a submarine, with the weight of water on board and the amount of sea coming across the deck, I was worried the cleats (metal fixings) in the deck would pull out.

“Once in harbour they pumped us out and the source of the leak was found in the front hull.

“The damage would have been slight and not visible at first but increased in size in the heavy seas.

?

‘Freedom’, which has sailed from Norway to south Brazil, around Africa and across the Indian Ocean, is now out of action while repairs are being carried out. Mr Archer hopes to set sail again in 2013.

Incidentally, this wasn’t the first encounter the Northside man has had with a whale. While sailing across the Atlantic a few years ago a whale with her young calf came within 30 feet of his boat.