Sailboat vs. Whale

Collisions between boats and whales are never good for either party, so it's a real shame that they happen. No one knows yet what happened to the whale (probably a gray whale) after it breached and damaged singlehander Max Young's Perry 47 off Baja. But Young, a circumnavigator, was rescued from his sinking boat.

Here's a report from CNN:

And here's the backstory, via Latitude 38:

We're saddened to report that Max Young, who spent nine years circumnavigating aboard his Sacramento-based Perry 47 Reflections and who was on his way back to the Bay after spending the last couple years in the Caribbean, lost his boat Wednesday off the coast of Baja after a collision with a whale. According to the Coast Guard, Young was singlehanding about 40 miles west of Punta Abreojos Tuesday night when the whale breached, damaging the boat's prop shaft and rudder and causing her to take on water. Young activated his EPIRB, and the Coast Guard Command Center in Alameda responded by diverting an HC-130 and requesting assistance from the 623-ft bulk carrier Ocean Virgo, which was about 60 miles away.

By the time the plane crew made contact with Young, around 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, Reflections was riding low in rough seas while Young did his best to keep up with the inflow. The flight crew stayed on scene until Ocean Virgo arrived around 4 a.m. Young, who was apparently uninjured, was taken aboard the ship at sunrise and is now bound for Panama, but will be returning to Northern California soon.