Before the start of the first race Saturday, a baby seal jumped up on the back of Per Peterson's Andrews 70 Alchemy, obviously in distress.
Will Stout, driver of the boat, explained, 'The baby seal just jumped up on the transom and then crawled into the cockpit. He had fishing net wrapped around him and was choking. It was an extreme situation.
'We immediately got on the radio trying to get the Coast Guard, lifeguards or someone to help us. We finally got hold of the Harbor Master's office who asked us to bring it to their dock so they could transfer it to Animal Control. They took it to Marine Animal Rescue in San Pedro from there.'
Impressed by Alchemy's humanitarian efforts, Principal Race Officer John Busch kept the race in postponement until they could return to the course to start the race with the rest of their fleet.
During the Sunday afternoon trophy presentations, Busch---Vice Commodore of LBYC---presented the crew with a 'Campbell Cup Humanitarian Award' for their compassionate efforts to rescue the seal.
LBYC Race Committee did a nice job of letting the Farr 40's start first and give Alchemy time to get to the race course, so they didn't miss racing. Great story, even better video and certainly front page worthy. Is Artie applying at Sea World? He looks like a natural!
Youtube - Alchemy rescue of Sea Lion at 2009 Campbell Cup
Caution - there be sailor language in video.
As of yesterday the Sea Lion was doing better and improving. It is not totally in the clear due to infection and stress. Thanks everyone for the good words and it was the only thing we really could do concidering the circumstances. We had some thoughts of trying to remove the net but then realized that successfull or not the sea lion ( a male) would have left the boat and it would have been the last time to be able to save it. It was very docile and trusted us to some extent so we decided to take it in rather than stress it out more. Besides my wife is a wild life biologist and would have killed me if we did anything other than that.
Chuck Skewes
Ullman Sails