Seamanship Lessons From the Sinking of the J/122 ALLIANCE

From SAIL Magazine- Lydia Mullan- Managing Editor at SAIL magazine

During the Newport Bermuda Race this year, the J/122 ALLIANCE struck a submerged object in the Gulf Stream in the middle of the night, suffering damage that caused her to sink (see “A Eulogy for Alliance,” October 2024). Fellow racers aboard Ceilidh, a J/121, and Banter, an Archambault 40, responded to ALLIANCE’s mayday call. And, while Ceilidh took on the entire nine-person crew from their liferaft, Banter stayed close by until everyone was safely in Bermuda.

In September, US Sailing awarded the responding crews its Arthur B. Hansen Rescue Medal. SAIL Managing Editor Lydia Mullan was a member of ALLIANCE’s regular crew and spoke with others about key takeaways from the sinking.

From its onset, the J/122 ALLIANCE program was designed for learning. It created opportunities for talented young sailors to participate in offshore races alongside veterans, held scores of training days to prepare and foster crew dynamics, and enriched the on-water experience with supplemental educational materials. We learned countless lessons on seamanship and the practical skills of running a boat. In the wake of her sinking, boat owners Mary Martin and Eric Irwin, along with crewmembers from the boat that rescued us and carried us to Bermuda, share the program’s final lessons.

1. Keep Learning
For Eric, the successful rescue of all nine crew members on ALLIANCE can be traced to the founding ethos of the program. “When we bought the boat four years ago, we wanted to establish a solid foundation for everything: safety, navigation, crew development…That solid foundation from the very beginning was key. Practice, repetition, muscle memory, all of that made a difference in an emergency situation,” he says.

“We recognized that we needed to learn. As new skippers of an offshore race boat, we had to,” says Mary. “We had offshore experience, but being the owners and in charge of the boat, we needed to ensure that we could safely race the boat offshore and be responsible for other people’s lives. We don’t take that lightly.”

Enjoy and read the rest of Lydia’s excellent and informative article here on SAIL’s website:
https://www.sailmagazine.com/cruising/seamanship-lessons-from-the-sinking-of-alliance