The owner of one stricken yacht told me his insurance company is considering excluding orca damage incurred in the Strait from its policies. Engineers showed me seven awaiting repair that will cost insurers hundreds of thousands of pounds. The disabled yachts invariably limp, or are towed, into Barbate. Such incidents now occur every few days, turning the narrow stretch of water separating Europe from North Africa - one of the world's busiest shipping lanes - into a treacherous alley for yacht crews (for, curiously, the whales attack only boats with sails). So far this year, 24 boats have been badly damaged in the Strait, their rudders specifically targeted, and dozens more have been buffeted menacingly, almost twice as many as in the whole of last year.Ī killer whale swims next to a boat in the Strait of Gibraltar Spain last month Yet it is fast gaining an unwanted reputation as the graveyard for yachts ambushed by ruthlessly destructive orcas. Renowned for the shoals of enormous bluefin tuna landed by its trawlers, the windswept port of Barbate, at the gateway between the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, prides itself as the world's tuna-fishing capital. I gained exclusive access to the gated yard this week, while investigating the story behind the baffling and fast-proliferating spate of orca attacks in the Strait. Had they not done so, April says, Mustique would have sunk in 300ft of water - the fate of the Alboran Champagne, a smaller yacht which was salvaged from the seabed after being sunk by orcas and is also languishing in the repair yard in Barbate, southern Spain. When the bilge-pump could no longer cope with the water pouring through the hole, the crew plugged the leak with the storm sail until the coastguard arrived. So her French skipper followed the accepted protocol, switching off the engine, staying calm and trying to wait out the onslaught. One of the crew of four who survived the relentless two-hour attack, April Boyes, a 31-year-old sailor from Manchester, saw the orcas at such close quarters, she tells me, that she could see into their dinner plate-sized eyes and hear them snorting through their blowholes as they disabled the yacht with mighty headbutts and bites, then swam around it as if admiring their work.Īs she described the onset of the attack - six glistening black fins hurtling towards them through the waves - I imagined them resembling a volley of unleashed torpedoes.Īs killer whales can swim at up to 35mph, three times faster than their yacht's engine, it was futile to try to outrun them. Yet it was only when I saw the damage to Mustique last week, after she became the latest of many sailing boats to be battered by orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar, that I fully grasped their destructive power. Having watched Blue Planet, I thought I knew all about the colossal size and strength of killer whales, which can weigh six tons and grow to 32ft. You could put two fists through the hole ripped in the boat's hull. When I touched its core, it felt as hard as concrete, yet all that remained was a jagged stub that appeared to have been gnawed by a giant set of teeth. Designed to guide the yacht Mustique safely through the heaviest seas, it had been snapped off as easily as a soggy biscuit. The rudder was 2ft thick and made from laminated metal and fibreglass.
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