Crime & Safety
Watch: 3 Rescued From Disabled Sailboat Off Peninsula Coast
A rescue swimmer hoisted all three sailboat passengers up to the helicopter. No injuries were reported.
SAN MATEO COUNTY — U.S. Coast Guard crews used a helicopter to rescue three people who were stuck on a disabled sailboat in Pillar Point Harbor early Wednesday.
The owner of a 30-foot boat named Freedom called the Coast Guard Sector San Francisco command center around 11 p.m. Tuesday to report that he and two other passengers on board were feeling unsafe due to harsh sea conditions.
Pillar Point Harbor officials were going to launch a crew to check on the boaters, but decided against it around 11:20 p.m. due to harsh weather conditions.
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Shortly afterward, the Freedom boat had its steering and engine fail, according to the Coast Guard.
A 47-foot lifeboat and helicopter then responded. The helicopter arrived around 12:35 a.m. Wednesday and lowered a rescue swimmer, who hoisted all three sailboat passengers up to the helicopter and took them to land with no reported injuries.
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"It was so dark out that I couldn't see the boat, even while wearing night vision goggles, until we were right on top," Petty Officer 3rdClass Steve King, the rescue swimmer, said in a news release.
The Coast Guard said the rescue was successful in part because the people on the boat had life jackets, flare guns and cellphones.
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