"Scout" wrote in
:

Enjoy this one,

Well, he does sound like he's a poor enough sailor for it...

bertei
Scout

A retired couple's dream of sailing round the world has been wrecked
by a calamitous Icelandic fisherman who crashed into their yacht twice
in one year.

The second collision occurred when Eriker Olafsson, still feeling
remorseful, tried to sail alongside to reinforce earlier apologies for
the first mishap.
Jim and Trish Hughes, who had just completed repairs to their 45ft
yacht Dragon Song when Olafsson hove into view the second time, now
say they will feel safe only when he has left British waters for good.

Olafsson's drunken antics landed him in court facing a charge of
criminal damage. Nigel Hodkinson, defending at Fareham magistrates'
court, Hants, said
that the case was proof that lightning can strike twice in one place.

On the first occasion Olafsson caused £25,000 of damage, forcing Mr
and Mrs Hughes to cancel their trip of a lifetime. He paid them in
cash for the cost of the repairs.

A year and a day later, after drinks at a party, Olafsson was sailing
down the Solent when he spotted the Dragon Song lying at its moorings.

Graham Heath, prosecuting, said: "He was overcome with a desire to
give a more formal and heartfelt apology to the yacht owner for the
trouble he caused the previous year. But instead he smashed into the
yacht again, getting caught in its swinging moorings for the second
time."

Mr and Mrs Hughes were not aboard their yacht. Witnesses saw Olafsson
"taking slugs from a bottle of wine" as he tried in vain to free his
45ft yacht from the moorings of the other. He then "steamed off with
the luxury yacht in tow".

Harbour police arrested Olafsson after he had dragged the Dragon Song
five miles from its moorings at Gosport, Hants, to near Portsmouth.
Olafsson, a 59-year-old bachelor, admitted causing criminal damage of
£18,000.

Mr Heath told the court: "This case is based around an amazing blunder
by Olafsson who managed to wreck the same yacht twice." He said the
Icelander, a retired fisherman, had been drinking heavily at a party
in Chichester, West Sussex, before setting sail up the Solent, bound
for Ireland.

Mr Hodkinson said: "The fact that Olafsson managed to make this
mistake of hitting the same yacht and getting entangled on two
separate occasions is proof that lightning really does strike twice.

"This was a hugely unusual and unlucky mistake. Olafsson has been at
sea all his life and, as a former Icelandic fisherman, has sailed in
probably some of the worst waters in the world.

"He is distinctly hazy about what happened but remembers wanting to
apologise to the yacht owner for the incident a year before, and the
next thing he knew, bang, the two boats struck again. Olafsson is a
gentleman who just panicked."

The defendant, who has already paid compensation for the damage caused
by his yacht on June 6 this year, was fined £200 and ordered to pay
£118 costs.

Speaking after the case, Mr Hughes, 55, said the collisions had
shattered his life's dream of sailing across the Atlantic for two
years in a row.

He and his wife had sold their house and put their savings into their
£150,000 yacht. Mr Hughes, a former builder and developer, said: "What
that man has done to me is absolutely incredible. I don't want him
ever to apologise to me again. Both times he caused massive damage to
the hull and mast."

He and his wife have been forced to live on a small motorboat while
Dragon Song is repaired. "I can never rest sound or leave her alone
again unless Olafsson has sailed off into the distance, never to
return," he said.

"I, for one, will never, ever sail anywhere near Iceland, just on the
off-chance that he will be there."