Boats attacked by Orcas

TWO sailboats participating in ‘The Ocean Race’ were attacked by a pod of orcas on Friday, June 23.

The race ­ staged since 1973 ­ is known as one of the world’s most complex and demanding team competi­ tions in which the sailors compete against nature and the sea.

What they didn’t expect, was the additional involvement of killer whales who seemingly decided they wanted to ‘play’ with the boats.

The incident occurred at around 2.50pm while the two VO65 sailboats belonging to Team JAJO and Mirpuri Trifork Racing were racing in the Atlantic, located to the west of Gibraltar.

This part of the world has recently seen a spate of similar attacks by one or more specimens of this cetacean on the hulls or rudders of boats.

As the team members were battling the waves to reach their destination, their boats were suddenly attacked by a pod of orcas.

In a tweet posted on The Ocean Race account @theo­ ceanrace, they wrote: ‘On their approach to Gibraltar this afternoon, Team JAJO encountered a pod of orcas which led to a scary moment on board the VO65! Thankfully, the crew and the boat are unharmed. The Dutch boat skippered by Jelmer van Beek is back on its way to Genova’.

Fortunately, there were no injuries or material damage to the boats, even though the killer whales reportedly put all their efforts into hitting, pushing, ramming, and biting the rudders of the boats for around 20 minutes.

The sailors suddenly found themselves experiencing one of the most dangerous, surreal and complicated situations of their lives, according to a news source.