Tasmanian yacht Porco Rosso crew’s heroic rescue saves overboard sailor, James Watkins

In the middle of the night, a Tasmanian sailor was thrown from his Sydney to Hobart yacht, leaving him 4km from his crew. This is his remarkable tale of survival and the decision which saved his life.

Luke Watkins, a Sydney to Hobart winner in 2018, was rescued from the water. Picture: Zak Simmonds

An experienced Sydney to Hobart-winning sailor and safety manager on Tasmanian yacht Porco Rosso was forced to deliberately unhook from his life-line when washed overboard in the early hours of Friday morning to stop himself from drowning.

Luke Watkins, a member of the Rolex Sydney-Hobart’s 2017 handicap winner Alive’s crew, went over the side when Porco Rosso crashed off the back of a wave at 3.14am on Friday morning, about 40 nautical miles off the NSW Coast.

A life-line is a tether than links the person to the boat, so they cannot be washed away even if they go over the side.

Watkins, 37, drifted 4km away from the yacht as the crew tried to turn the boat around in severe conditions to perform their miracle rescue.

It was a rare piece of good news for the 79th Hobart after two sailors died on the same night, both hit by the booms of their respective yachts, Flying Fish Arctos, of NSW, and Bowline, of South Australia.

Speaking from Porco Rosso about 15nm off the coast of NSW as they headed for Eden, skipper Paul McCartney, an eye surgeon from Hobart, said Watkins was safe and well.

“He’s tidying up the boat and bringing up buckets of bilge water – there’s no stopping him,” McCartney said.

“We’re just tidying up as we head toward Eden – I think we are going to have some company in there, there’s a few boats headed that way.”

Porco Rosso. Picture: Gill Dayton

Porco Rosso was flying along in the top-10 for line honours in this year’s race and in contention for the win on overall handicap when the accident happened.

The winds were gale-force, the seas steep and it was pitch-black.

“It was very lumpy and we were sailing beautifully but we came over a big wave that had no back to it,” McCartney said.

“We fell into a big hole and there was another wave coming at the bottom of the hole that basically swung the boat around into a ‘Chinese jibe’ and we went sideways.”

That’s when all hell broke loose.

“One of the boys was washed onto the safety rails and Luke went through,” McCartney said.

“He was under the water for so long he had to let himself go.

“His life jacket had a release button for exactly that reason – you don’t want to let yourself go but you can’t stay under the water.”

In the chaos, the crew was unaware there was a man overboard.

“At that stage I don’t think anyone knew he was over – everyone was getting the boat back under control,” McCartney said.

“When his head popped up in the water he was only a couple of boat lengths away.

“His personal AIS (Automatic Identification System) came up on our screens so we knew where he was.”

Crew from Porco Rosso who won the Launceston to Hobart 2023. Picture: Colleen Darcy

Watkins ended up being separated from Porco Rosso by an incredible 4km.

“It took that long to turn the boat around by the time you get the sails down,” McCartney said.

“We were triple-headed, so we had four sails up [three headsails and a mainsail], and we got two of them down so we could turn.

“When we turned the boat, we could see one of the lighted buoys that we had thrown over the side once he’d gone.

“It was a long way from him but it still told us we were headed back in the right direction.”

The AIS worked perfectly in finding Watkins among the waves and in the dark.

“We tracked him to about 500m and then we picked him up visually – he came and went a bit and at about 300m we got a really good visual fix,” McCartney said.

“When we got him in the back, he hopped onboard large as life looking as if he’d just had a quick swim in the Olympic pool.

“He was bloody cold, shivering, so we got him downstairs and warmed him up.

“He’s no worse for wear.”

The sense of relief onboard was “incredible”.

“Everyone was calm through the whole rescue and concentrating on what we needed to do,” McCartney said.

“I was confident of getting him back.

“The sea is dangerous and in the back of my mind it occurred to me we might not.

“But we knew we were doing the right thing and going through the correct processes to get him back onboard safely.”

Paul McCartney on board Porco Rosso. Picture: Linda Higginson

Safety was the number one priority on McCartney’s yacht, results came a second.

“We do our safety briefings before every race and Luke was the one doing the safety briefing,” he said.

“We were very confident he knew what to do and the seamanship of the crew was what made the rescue happen.

“I’m incredibly proud of the boys.

“Before we left I spoke about looking after each other and making sure we are safe.

“Racing is fun and we race hard but those are our two priorities – that the boys are safe and the boat is safe.

“So it’s job done.”

McCartney had no choice but to retire from the race.

“We lost about an hour, we were all pretty shaken, and there was some damage to the mainsail track so we couldn’t set a full main and that really was what put us out,” he said.

Originally published as Tasmanian yacht Porco Rosso crew’s heroic rescue saves overboard sailor, James Watkins