Does your boat have a swim platform that helps to make it a safer
vessel? Or do you own a death trap like Sloco's Depress 30? Looks like
the 35s5 is designed for speed, comfort....and LIFESAVING!

MORE AMERICAN HEROES
The crew of Commotion, Ross Hunton, Astrid Hunton, Garie Blackwell
Wood, and Charlie Baumgartner, will receive the Arthur B. Hanson Rescue
Medal in recognition of their actions on July 22, 2001. US Sailing
Safety at Sea Committee member Cai Svendsen will make the presentation
Saturday, October 13 during the Columbus Day Regatta winners dinner in
Miami, FL.

Taking their turn as Race Committee for the day, Ross Hunton, and crew
went out in the 20 to 25 knot winds, and 3 to 5 foot seas for the start
at the Gulfstream Sailing Club in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Air and water
temperatures were in the low 80s.

One and a half miles offshore, the crew saw something off to the side,
which turned out to be three scuba divers who had been separated from
their boat for more than an hour. The wind and waves continued to
build; Hunton called that the dive flag tethered to the divers be
reeled in, to prevent it from entangling the propeller on his Beneteau
35S5. When Ross came head to wind and stopped, the wind and waves
quickly blew the bow down away from their target. During the next pass,
he lay the boat ahull, drifting down on the divers position. When in
range, Ross' crew deployed three lines, one to each diver to provide
connection. Each was reeled over to the swim ladder in the scooped
transom, and was amazed to see how well this worked, hauling three
exhausted two-hundred pound men, plus their scuba equipment on board.

The US Sailing Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal is given to skippers of
pleasure boats or race support vessels who effect rescues of victims
from the water. The award is made for rescues in U.S. waters, or in
races that originate or terminate in a U.S. port. The Rescue Medal has
been in existence for twelve years and is administered by US Sailing's
Safety-at-Sea Committee (SASC).


RB
35s5
NY