U.S. Coast Guard Searches Mobile Bay for 3 Regatta Boaters Lost in Storm

Zain Haidar
Published: April 29,2015


 
Rescuers are still battling to locate three boaters who went missing when a deadly storm struck the Dauphin Island Regatta in Alabama's Mobile Bay on Saturday afternoon. Three others have been confirmed dead.

17-year-old Adam Clark (left) and 71-year-old J.C. Brown (right) are still missing, along with a third boater named Robert Thomas.
(Courtesy of the Tew and Brown families )

Adam Clark, 17, and J.C. Brown, 71, remain missing, along with a man named Robert Thomas, AL.com reports. Kris Beall, 27, and Robert Delaney, 72, were found dead over the weekend. William Glenn Massey, 67, was found Tuesday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
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More than 400 people were on 100 boats during the regatta when a powerful storm began to buffet race participants Saturday, according to the Associated Press. At least eight boats sank during the storm, and the U.S. Coast Guard, along with local agencies, has been searching sunken vessels looking for the missing since.
"We spent a lot of time yesterday trying to reach out and cover back again all of the boats that were involved in the regatta to make sure we have full accountability," Mobile Coast Guard Commander Capt. Duke Walker said.
Amanda Beall, whose husband died in the storm, told reporters that Kris Beall died while he tried to save others on his boat. Survivor Rob Stewart, who taught Beall to sail, was a witness to the boater's heroic actions.
"Coach Stewart said he saw Kris standing on the keel of the boat...and he was just pushing down and pulling trying his best to get that boat flipped back over," Amanda Beall said. "And I think he just exerted everything he had into getting that boat flipped back over and getting them out of there."
The U.S. Coast Guard pinpointed a time, likely Thursday evening, when the search would transition from a rescue mission to recovery. It's unclear how long the missing would be able to survive in the Gulf, but it's been four days since their boats sank.
The Fairhope Yacht Club, which runs the regatta, told AL.com that weather hadn't been a consideration the day of the race.
"It was a freak thing that happened, the way it built in so close to us," Mobile Yacht Club member Wes Stanley said. "If you told me this was going to happen, I wouldn't have believed it."
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