Champion sailors rescued yacht crew after seeing flares

27/06/2019

A champion father-and-son sailing team helped save the crew of a sinking yacht in an Asian race after spotting a flare.

Philippe Grelon and son Cosmas, who compete for Hong Kong, were the first locals to compete double-handed as father and son.
Cosmas is the sailing sports leader and brand ambassador for sports equipment and apparel maker Decathlon in Shenzhen, southern China, reports the South China Morning Post.
During the 2013n Hong Kong to Vietnam Race, Cosmas was lookout on the deck when he spotted a flare and alerted the crew. The distress signal had been set off by the crew of the Walawala 2, which had lost its rudder and was taking on water fast.
“We called the race committee and they told us, ‘They’re sinking, you are the closest’. It took us an hour to reach them. There was only one metre of the mast left. We picked up the crew of 10 from their lifeboat.”.
The Grelon family have lived in various countries and moved to Hong Kong in 2007. At 12, Cosmas enrolled at the French International School and started taking sailing lessons at Hebe Haven Yacht Club. He went on to represent Hong Kong in sailing competitions around the world. In 2011, he won the RS500 World Sailing Championship in Weymouth, and the 29ers Hong Kong National Championship in 2013 and 2014.
Philippe and Cosmas were the only double-handed entry in last year’s Rolex China Sea Race, from Hong Kong to Subic Bay in the Philippines. They finished in just over 82 hours, placing them in second place in their division on their 35-foot (10.5 metre) boat Decathlon Aya.
They entered their second double-handed race last month, the inaugural Hong Kong to Puerto Galera Yacht Race. The lack of wind on the 650 nautical mile passage to the Philippines meant they were among 11 of the 15 boats who retired from the race.
But that hasn’t put them off and they are preparing for another double-handed race in mid-October, a 673 nautical mile race from Hong Kong to Nha Trang, on the southeast coast of Vietnam.
Entering a race is costly. It took Cosmas Grelon three months to prepare the boat for the last race, and was grateful for the support of friends and those in the sailing community who lent them a life raft, flares, radio communication equipment and a satellite phone.
“This race we might have a good chance to win because the boat is super fast. It’s a boat that’s really built for downwind – it can go at 18 knots and other boats go at only half that speed. If there is good wind, we will fly for three days,” says Cosmas.

The image shows the boat TBS-AYA in the 2018 Rolex China Sea Race and is credit Rolex/Daniel Forster.