Yacht Crew Uses Door to Sail Safely Home

[__Kratos__]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Six men aboard a Russian yacht used a cabin door to help steer the crippled vessel.

It sailed — limped, really — into New Zealand's Wellington Harbor on Friday after a month at sea with the makeshift rudder.

The crew of the Apostol Andrey was relieved to make land after battling high seas in the storm-tossed Southern Ocean on the disabled 50-foot yacht, skipper Nikolay Litau said.

Owned by a Moscow adventure club, the boat was going around Antarctica when it lost its rudder about 1,306 miles south of New Zealand on March 3, he said.

The crew decided to replace it with the cabin door and try to make their way toward New Zealand, the nearest land.

The crew alerted Moscow's maritime rescue coordination center and it contacted New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Center, sparking several weeks of close communication between the boat, its owners, the rescue center and the Russian Embassy in New Zealand's capital, Wellington.

"Forty days at sea was a little difficult," Litau said.

Rescue center officer Mike Roberts described the crew's journey to New Zealand as a "fine piece of seamanship."

"They are obviously highly experienced people. They were in an isolated place and coped very well in extremely difficult circumstances," he said.

On Friday the men were focused on their immediate plans — showers and lunch.

Source

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Talk about thinking outside of the box!

[henpeck69]

WOW. A month out to sea using the door like that. Got to give these guys a thumb up.

[Elfstone810]

I wonder if they'll get to sell the movie rights? Sounds like it'd be a blockbuster.

Good for them for being resourceful and beating the odds. I wish we got more upbeat stories like this in the news.

[Apocalyptic Cryptid]

such smart guys... geniouss

i would have just like stuck my hand in the water and tried to paddle back

[AztecInca]

Well thats using you head, we humans can be so inventie and innovative when faced with danger!