Flipped Atlantic 57 Cat Recovered

Leopard, the Atlantic 57 catamaran that flipped 400 miles north of the Dominican Republic on the evening of November 15 while on a passage from Annapolis to St. Martin, was found on May 3 and has been recovered. The cat was spotted five months after she flipped by a fisherman 25 miles off Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and eventually brought to Beaufort by Sea Tow Crystal Coast.

Note that this is a Chris White design that was built in Bristol, RI, in 2008, and completely different in all respects from the Leopard-brand catamarans built in South Africa and ubiquitous in the Caribbean charter trade.

Leopard is the second Chris White-designed Atlantic 57 to have capsized. The 57 Anna capsized in the South Pacific in 2010. Both crew were rescued in good health from that incident.

The crew on Leopard consisted of Charles Nethersole, captain, and crewmembers Carolyn Bailey and Bert Jno Lewis. According to Nethersole and the crewmembers, Leopard was significantly under-canvased at the time that she flipped, with just a double-reefed main and partially reefed staysail. The conditions had been variable — at times they had to motorsail for lack of wind, and at times when it was gusting in the high 20s.

“There was almost no warning,” Nethersole wrote in a widely disseminated statement, “not even enough time for me to hit standby on the autopilot control right next to me. Just an almighty roar, then suddenly the boat was lifted up and went over. It seemed it was the sudden pressure drop more than the wind that did it, as there was no acceleration of the boat. It was bizarre, like nothing that ever happened to me before.”

The crew had two immersion suits and one survival suit to wear while waiting to be rescued. They spent 10 hours at night on the overturned hull before being saved by a Coast Guard C-130 search plane and M/V Aloe.

It has been speculated that Leopard may have been hit by a waterspout. The incident somewhat reminds us of the time about 12 years ago when the heavy 135-ft luxury ketch Sariyah, captained by our friend Timothy Laughridge, was suddenly knocked down in the same general area to the extent that the top of her mizzen was put into the water. It was something hard to imagine being possible.

For what it’s worth, the Atlantic 57 has a design displacement of 26,500 pounds, just 1,000 pounds less than a Gunboat 55. Both are high-performance cruising-cat designs. Given the statements of the crew, it seems that even a low-performance cruising cat might have flipped.