Under gloomy, gray skies, the usually rowdy maritime crowd celebrating the end of the annual Newport Beach-to-Ensenada regatta spent a moment of silence on Sunday to remember four lost sailors who vanished during the race. The awards ceremony, which took place in Ensenada, Baja California, was a subdued affair attended by many who knew the missing men.
The four crewmen — Joseph Stewart, 64, William Johnson, 57, Kevin Rudolph, 53, and Theo Mavromatis, 49 — were aboard the Aegean, a 37-foot Hunter 376 sailboat, which investigators believe collided with a much larger vessel near Mexico’s Coronado Islands, 15 miles south of San Diego, at around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday. Their deaths marked the event’s first fatalities in its 65-year history. While three bodies were recovered, Mavromatis remains lost at sea.
Around the time of the incident, the image of the Aegean vanished from an online system tracking the boats, which prompted a Coast Guard search. The 124-mile race had begun in Newport Beach on Friday afternoon.
Eric Lamb of Vessel Assist, a private marine assistance service, and his partner discovered wreckage, which spanned over three miles, by accident at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. “I’ve never run across a situation quite as bad as this as far as destruction is concerned,” Lamb said.
Among the debris, Lamb spotted a floating refrigerator unit, an inflatable dingy and a three-foot piece of fiberglass that read, “Redondo.” Shortly after, Lamb discovered a five-by-three-foot piece of the hull with “Aegean” printed across one side. The Coast Guard sent a helicopter to the scene, which spotted the three bodies that were recovered. “They were pretty scraped up, a lot of scrapes and cuts,” Lamb said, adding that one crewmember had severe head trauma.
A Mexican Navy vessel also joined the search for the fourth crewmember, Mavromatis, who was the owner and skipper of the Aegean. They searched the shores of the nearby island, hoping that the missing crew member swam to shore. “It was a real rocky area to search but we looked in case anybody swam to the island,” Lamb said.
Boats reported light weather conditions –- with winds of one or two knots -– at the time and location of the collision.
Investigators did not believe the boat was involved in any type of explosion. “There were no signs whatsoever of fire or charred pieces,” Lamb said.
Michael Patton, who was supposed to be the Aegean’s fifth crewmember for the race, decided last minute to stay on land because his mother was ill. He’d been on board with Aegean’s crew before, having charted the exact same star-crossed course with the same crew for the past four years. “They were an extremely professional crew and were all well-versed in sailing,” Patton said. “They were very familiar with the course. It was a tragedy that should not have happened.”
Patton described Mavromatis as a very professional engineer who sailed all his life, starting as a young boy in Greece.
According to Patton, Stewart, Mavromatis’ brother-in-law, was from Bradenton, Florida and had raced on the Aegean for four years. He said Johnson, of Torrance, was an asset to the crew and Rudolph, of Manhattan Beach, was relatively new to sailing but knowledgeable.
“Nobody on this crew was a schmuck, they all knew what was going on,” Patton said. “They had all had been down that course before, it was the same course we always ran. Plus, conditions-wise, it was almost identical to last year when we won. All I can say is they were a professional crew with all the right equipment and did all the right things but something when terribly wrong and it wasn’t their fault.”
While 212 other boats were racing on the water, once the race begins, every crew charts its own course, Patton said, adding that it’s rare to see another boat while racing on the open ocean. “People scatter right from the start – for miles and miles you won’t see anything,” Patton said.
It’s likely an oncoming freighter or a larger vessel collided with the Aegean, Patton said. “(A freighter) can do 20 knots, that’s a mile in three minutes,” said Patton. “Something big and fast that they couldn’t see came upon them fast, they were all still safety-tethered to the boat…they didn’t [even] have time to unclip themselves. It was gruesome.”
According to a press release, large merchant ships and commercial fishing boats from both the U.S. and Mexico operate in the area. “We’re still tracking down any vessel that may have been in their area,” said Bill Fitzgerald, the Coast Guard’s lead investigator for San Diego, in a release.
Fitzgerald added that none of the crewmembers were wearing life jackets.
Rich Roberts, the press officer for the race who has been in contact with the Coast Guard throughout the investigation suggested that the boat could have potentially been hit by an emerging submarine.
“There’s some submarine traffic in that area,” Roberts said. “It was more than likely hit by something with a lot of demolishing power. Apparently the ships going in-and-out are required to carry tracking devices that automatically record where they are at any particular time. They [the Coast Guard] are checking into that to see if they can pinpoint any specific ship.”
Others have speculated that the ship possibly ran aground, but Roberts believes that the sailboat’s wreckage does not indicate that as a possibility.
“It took 100 years to figure out what happened to the Titanic,” said Roberts. “It’s hard to say what happened, but they are putting all their resources to it – let’s see if they can.”
Patton describes the Aegean as a fine boat. “It’s comfortable and cushy, not lacking any safety equipment,” he said. “It had a big screen TV, a fridge and microwave and stove. It was a beautiful boat. It wasn’t a schmuck idiot crew -– they had the best of everything. There was nothing on the boat that was bandaged, Theo was an engineer and everything always had to be perfect. It even had a brand new motor… it just wasn’t their fault.”
