Sending prayers and positive vibes

The SoCal 300 was the final stage of the 2018 California Offshore Race Week, a 3-race circuit that extends from San Francisco to San Diego. Beginning in Santa Barbara on May 31, the SoCal 300 took the 20-boat fleet on a 245nm course around Santa Cruz Island before turning left down the California coast to San Diego.

After a light wind start, the conditions got sporty which led to several retirements and two Coast Guard rescues, the worst of which occurred on Jim Puckett’s Farr 57 Amazing Grace.

Here’s a statement from the San Diego Yacht Club Sailing Office, sent on behalf of George Teter, father of Amazing Grace crew member injured during the SoCal 300:

Ann Walton-Teter (Santa Monica, CA) sustained a serious head injury during the early morning of June 1 while crewing on the sailing vessel Amazing Grace competing in the SoCal 300. The injury happened nearly 120 west of San Diego as the boat prepared to round a virtual waypoint for the final leg to the finish.

The accident was not witnessed by other crew as it was dark and she was tending a line for the running backstay on the stern of the boat during the maneuver. She was found immediately after the gybe by crew who assessed her injury accurately and called for urgent Coast Guard evacuation. In the interim she was given expert first aid by one of the crew, who monitored and protected her until the Coast Guard helicopter arrived.

Boat rigging and ocean conditions made an evacuation directly from the deck too risky, so she was taken into the water by a Coast Guard diver who swam her to the rescue basket. They were lifted together to the aircraft and she was flown to Scripps Memorial Hospital (La Jolla, CA).

She underwent emergency neurosurgery for the evacuation of a large epidural bleed and a subsequent surgery to address facial and cranial fractures. The surgeries have been successful in stabilizing Ann’s conditions. She remains sedated in Scripps Memorial in the Neurosurgical Treatment Unit in intensive care. We respectfully request that Ann and her family be given privacy as her healing progresses.

Here’s the video from the rescue: