SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A sail boat carrying eight crew members ran aground during a race off San Francisco Saturday, killing one person and leaving four others missing, the Coast Guard said.
Coast Guard and National Guard helicopters and water craft rescued three of the crew members and recovered the body of the fourth, Coast Guard Petty Officer Levi Read said.
A Coast Guard helicopter, a cutter and a smaller boat were searching the waters around the Farallon Islands, 30 miles west of San Francisco, early Sunday for the missing crew members.
Fifty-two sail boats were registered for the race, running from a yacht club on San Francisco Bay to the islands and back, about 60 miles round trip, Read said.
Seas were running high at 10-12 feet when the Low Speed Chase was hit by a larger wave and four crew members were washed overboard, Read said.
"They turned the boat around to go rescue those people and they got hit by another wave," sending it into rocks, he said.
Rescuers found the three crew members on or near the shore clinging to rocks, about 300 feet from where their vessel was breaking up because of the powerful waves, he said.
They were wearing life vests and cold weather gear, giving rescuers hope of finding the other four.
"There is the possibility that the other four were also in the same kind of gear," Read said.
He said the search was expected to continue through the night, as long as there was a chance there were survivors.
There was no immediate word on the condition of the three survivors, or if the four missing were the same crew members who were swept overboard.
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