Reuters: Most Read Articles: Coast Guard rescues two hurt from round-the-world yacht

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Coast Guard rescues two hurt from round-the-world yacht Apr 2nd 2012, 04:35 1 of 8. The ''Geraldton Western Australia'' yacht races towards the finish line off of Tauranga, New Zealand in this undated handout photo courtesy of the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race. The yacht was struck by a large wave hundreds of miles west of San Francisco during an around-the-world race on March 31, 2012. Four of out of 13 crew members were injured, the U.S. Coast Guard and race officials said. The extent of injuries was not known. Credit: Reuters/www.smileclick.co.nz/onEdition/Handout Mon Apr 2, 2012 12:35am EDT (Reuters) - The Coast Guard rescued two seriously injured crew members on Sunday from an Australian yacht taking part in an around-the-world race after it was hit by a huge wave in the Pacific. Four of 13 crew members, three of them Britons and the other an Australian, were hurt when the wave hit the Geraldton Western Australia on Saturday about 400 nautical miles off the Californian coast. The wave disabled the yacht's main steering and some of its communications equipment, Coast Guard and race officials said. It was one of 10 boats competing in the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race that started in Britain. It had been sailing to San Francisco from China and was still about two hundred miles from its San Francisco Bay destination, using emergency steering, on Sunday evening, but was expected to reach port within a day, race organizers said. Coast Guard spokesman Barry Bena said severe weather had made it impossible for a rescue helicopter to take the two most seriously hurt crew members off the yacht directly and they were being transported to a Coast Guard Cutter by small boat. He said the plan was to fly them to San Francisco by helicopter from the cutter. The Coast Guard had sought to get a swimmer on board the Geraldton on Sunday but could not, he said. "The weather was too rough and the vessel was just being tossed around too much to safely put the swimmer on the boat," Bena said. A long-range Coast Guard HC-130 plane dropped medical supplies to the vessel on Saturday. Skipper Juan Coetzer identified the four injured crew as Britons Jane Hitchens, a 50-year-old doctor from Kent, Nik Brbora, a 29-year-old software engineer from London, Mark Burkes, 47, from Worcestershire, and 62-year-old Australian Max Wilson from Queensland. In a statement on the race website, he said the yacht had been making good speed, "Then at our watch change, just before the sun came up, a monstrous foaming swell broke over our stern." Hitchens was the most seriously hurt, suffering at least one broken rib and a punctured lung, a Coast Guard official said. The yacht was expected to reach port at Oakland sometime on Monday afternoon, the Coast Guard said. Officials said the other nine yachts had completed this leg of the race. (Reporting by David Bailey; editing by David Brunnstrom) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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