The coastguard labored towards the clock in tough seas to rescue a 62-year-old Frenchman caught for 16 hours inside his capsized sailboat.
Rescuers off the coast of Galicia, northern Spain, mentioned he survived as a result of he was sporting a particular go well with utilized in crusing competitions.
The boat, named Jeanne SOLO Sailor, despatched a radio beacon at 8.23pm on Monday, when it was 14 miles off the Sisargas Islands, the coastguard mentioned.
One of many three helicopters deployed to reply to the decision reached the world and noticed the sailboat turned the other way up one hour later, simply earlier than the solar went down.
One of many divers went to go looking if there have been indicators of life, and the sailor guided the rescue staff by knocking on the hull’s partitions.
The rescue staff, which included 5 divers geared up with re-floatation balloons weighing 5 tonnes every, secured the boat to forestall it from shifting as they labored in tough seas at night time.
As soon as the boat was secured, two divers with an oxygen tank dove down to examine the wreckage and located the vessel’s door was open and the sailor was alive.
The divers helped him out and he was subsequently transferred in a helicopter to a hospital to be checked.
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