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USCG Rescues Two Sailors Near Daly City

Two people were rescued on Sunday night when their sailboat became disabled off the coast of Daly City. TowBoatUS notified Coast Guard Sector San Francisco watchstanders at around 5:55 p.m. on Sunday that a 37-ft sailboat with two people aboard was drifting into the surf.

A Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew and a Coast Guard Station Golden Gate 47-foot Motor Lifeboat crew were dispatched at around 6:10 p.m.

The Dolphin aircrew arrived on scene at approximately 6:50 p.m. and deployed their rescue swimmer after surveying the area. At this time the two sailboat crew, a man and a woman, were still aboard. The rescue swimmer entered the water with the man and hoisted him into the helicopter around 7:05 p.m.

When the Motor Life Boat crew arrived on scene at around 7:30 p.m. they unsuccessfully attempted to tow the disabled sailboat out of the surf zone. The sailboat then ran aground.

The aircrew lowered the rescue swimmer a second time to rescue the woman off the grounded sailboat, where she was hoisted from the beach.

Both passengers were reported to have sustained minor injuries and were transferred to waiting emergency medical services personnel at Air Station San Francisco at approximately 7:40 p.m.

The sailboat is reported to have little to no fuel or oil aboard and there were no reports of pollution Sunday evening.

The following Coast Guard video shows both the rescue activities and a verbal report of the incident. It is a little long, but it’s interesting to hear the USCG speak about the circumstances and their response.

6 Comments

  1. Curtis Johnson 2 years ago

    How fortunate we are to have such well trained dedicated heroes with the resources to make rescues like this possible. Well done USCG and may all of you in the service have a safe and Merry Christmas. Thanks for all you do.

  2. Don lounibos 2 years ago

    If in doubt don’t go out

  3. j.d. english 2 years ago

    Nautical Decision Making 101…………FAIL

  4. I Sargin 2 years ago

    The approaching weather, which was well advertised several days in advance, likely caught them by surprise, for some mysterious reason.

  5. Rich Jepsen 2 years ago

    semper paradis. lots of unknowns in this story from before the USCG arrived. I wonder if L38 can track down the survivors and get ‘lessons learned’ from them to help other sailors.

  6. milly Biller 2 years ago

    Those guys are such amazing heroes ! We owe them so much !

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