Coast Guard: Stranded sailor rescued from disabled boat in rough Long Island Sound

The Coast Guard rescued a Brooklyn man stranded on a sailboat with a broken mast in rough seas in the Long Island Sound late Friday, nearly three hours after he called for help, officials said.

The 45-year-old, whose name was not released, set sail from Montauk on his way to Huntington in the 50-foot boat but encountered 5- to 8-foot seas and nearly 35 mph winds off the North Shore near Orient, said Petty Officer 2nd Class Joseph Stoltz, the lead crew member of the rescue mission.

"It was very rough sea conditions, and with the increased wind condition, it snapped his mast," Stoltz said. "He was just sitting in the seas with no propulsion. It was causing him to take water in the cabin."

His radio system inoperable, the lone occupant of the sailboat called the Southold Police Department via cellphone at 8:01 p.m., said Petty Officer 3rd Class Frank Iannazzo-Simmons, a Coast Guard spokesman.

Police relayed the distress call to the Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound command center in New Haven, and the Station New London crew was dispatched at 8:04 p.m., he said.

Command center personnel determined an approximate location by communicating with the sailor via cellphone, Iannazzo-Simmons said.

A Jayhawk helicopter flew from Cape Cod to find the vessel and attempted to lift the sailor out of the sailboat, but sea conditions prevented that rescue attempt, Stoltz said.

Stoltz and three other crew members launched a 45-foot response boat, which took nearly two hours to reach the sailboat; and a Good Samaritan located the sailboat and helped communicate the location to the command center, Stoltz said.

Stoltz said he coordinated a "high-risk" boat-to-boat rescue. "We were at the mercy of the seas," Stoltz said. "We were not able to tow the vessel because of the sea conditions, but we thought the best thing to do was to just pull him off and get him to safety."

The sailor was rescued about 11 p.m., about 3 miles north of Orient, Long Island's northeastern tip. He was taken to Station New London and, uninjured, went to a hotel room for the night, Stoltz said.

"He was a seasoned mariner, which definitely helped him stay calm," Stoltz said. "And he was wearing all his safety gear, including his life jacket, which everyone should have on them when they go out on a vessel."

A second broadcast was put out to vessels nearby to keep an eye out for the drifting sailboat, as it continued to float in the Long Island Sound. The boat's owner contacted a commercial salvage company.