Man who crashed eBay yacht tells his story (From Sutton Guardian)

Carshalton man who crashed his £3,000 eBay yacht tells his story

10:30am Thursday 19th April 2012 in News Exclusive By Sophia Sleigh, Reporter

A man from Carshalton who bought a £3,000 yacht on eBay and crashed it into rocks on its maiden voyage has spoken for the first time.

Avionics engineer Sid Hashem, 62, and his son Mark, 37, were moving the £3,000 boat from a marina to a harbour in Guernsey.

Mr Hashem said they were moving the boat late on Saturday night so they could get it back to the UK without being restricted by the tides in the small marina on Sunday.

Despite having tested the boat before, the men were unfamiliar with the area and hit some rocks just 400 metres into their journey.

It was high tide and they were stranded in the darkness on their boat, the Ardel.

They made an emergency call to the coastguard but the lifeboat was unable to get near them.

They were eventually rescued by the local harbourmaster at about 2am but had to leave their boat near the entrance to St Peter Port.

Mr Hashem said: "I know where the rocks are but the tide was up and they were covered and of course it was dark as well.

"The wind pushed us towards the rocks - it was a little wave and it pushed us on the rocks.

"I tried to reverse the boat but the keel was hitting the rocks.

"At the moment I’m waiting for Guernsey harbourmaster to find out how much it cost to take [the yacht] off the rocks."

This was Mr Hashem’s fourth boat, all of which have been bought on eBay and he said he was not new to sailing.

Neither of the men were harmed but Mr Hashem suffered a twisted ankle.

The yacht was towed back to the harbour on Monday.

The harbourmaster, Captain Peter Gill, said: "It happened just outside St Peter Port and the yacht was attempting to move from the QE II marina to another marina inside the harbour.

"They were doing it in the middle of the night and the distance is about 700 metres. They were about 400 metres into the journey. The people on board had little or no knowledge of the area and were not local.

"They had been on the top of the tide and it deposited them on the rocks. Subsequent tides have not been as big.

"I heard that the men had bought the yacht off eBay. A similar thing happened last year with a French yacht, but before that it was several years since we had an incident."