EMERGENCY RUDDER REPAIRS
AFTER ORCA ATTACK ON S/Y WILDLIFE
A WHALES TALE
First published in The Islander Magazine August 2023
Recently we have been reading in the press the shocking stories of Orcas attacking vessels off the Spanish coast and further afield but never imagined we would see it first hand.
But back in May last year we had an emergency call from the crew of SY Wildlife that needed replacement aluminium rudders urgently after being attacked off Gibraltor by 3 Orcas.
Here’s the story .......
The first the crew knew about the attack was a loud thud on the hull which they assumed was the hull hitting a submerged container. But as they looked over the side they saw two pieces of red debris floating off into the distance …… and then they spotted the orcas circling under the boat.
The crew weren’t immediately panicked and as per protocol provided by Orcaiberica.org they slowed the vessel, stopped the engine, turned off the auto pilot and left the rudder to track, hoping that the whales would soon enough get bored and go away. Unfortunately the whales had other ideas.
The attacked continued for several hours but eventually the crew managed to limp the boat into Gibraltar. On arrival the Harbour Master told them the nearly unbelievable news that there had been 57 attacks in the last 60 days – 3 of them on the same day as Wild life attack!
Luckily for SY Wildlife #Links Marine were able to rebuild in aluminium the two rudders using the existing rudder stock and were able to get the boat back up and running in a couple of weeks.
Photos with thanks to the crew of S/Y Wildlife
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Links Marine services SL
Certified welding and fabrication specialists
and anchor chain supplies
Calle Licorers , Nave 8D
Poligono de Marratxi
Mallorca
07141
Spain
Office +34 971229717
Mobile +34 609639687
Mobile +34 636974404
info@linksmarine.es