Abandoning Ship Was The Only Choice

Most of us can only imagine what the inside of a life raft looks, sounds, and feels like. Written descriptions and verbal retellings almost certainly fail to do the experience justice. But when the J/122 one-design sail racer Alliance went down less than 24 hours into the 2024 Newport to Bermuda race after striking an unknown submerged object, one crew member pulled out a camera and offered us rare real-time imagery of her and her team’s rescue at sea.

The videos posted on social media by Lydia Mullan, who’s an editor at SAIL magazine and media manager for racing star Cole Brauer, are dark and disorienting. We can see Alliance’s co-skipper, Eric Irwin, peering out of their life raft to communicate with the J/121 Ceilidh, a fellow racer who had arrived at their aid. Ceilidh rolls through the swell as they circle the raft, shining spotlights that take on an eerie quality as their beams refract off the unsettled sea. Inside the raft, the crew of Alliance huddles together amid a red glow as the raft’s orange roof flutters overhead and the whole party jostles above the waves.

Expressions inside the raft are solemn, but there’s no panic to be found. It’s evident that chitchat has been quelched and any words spoken are only those strictly necessary. The silence is equally as pervasive from Ceilidh’s perspective, where Ryan Mann deployed a camera of his own. Only wind buffeting the microphone, the rhythm of the waves, and occasional communication among the crew break the tension as they repeat their attempts to connect with the raft, which appears impossibly small from their vantage point.

Climb inside the raft and take a look for yourself.

Although the footage is a stark reminder of what a worst-case scenario looks like, the whole situation – from sinking to life raft deployment to rescue to eventual arrival in Bermuda 52 hours later – went off perfectly, all things considered. Alliance issued a Mayday, used the digital selective calling (DSC) and EPIRB to signal distress and provide pinpointable location data, and Ceilidh was able to arrive in just 30 minutes. No one was injured, although everyone was certainly cramped as the two crews sailed together to Bermuda aboard Ceilidh.

For a more detailed account about how the crisis unfolded, check out this video of Mary Martin and Eric Irwin, co-skippers of Alliance, tell their story of the rescue.