The life raft in which Butler native Zach Doerr and four other sailors waited for rescue after they were forced to abandon their sailboat from the U.S. Coast Guard. U. S. Coast Guard photo

Spending six hours in a life raft waiting to be rescued in the dark of a November morning somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast in high winds and big waves will not keep a sailor from Butler off the water.

Zach Doerr, the 24-year-old son of former Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Doerr, was part of the five-man crew forced to abandon the 54-foot catamaran Magic Bus after it struck an object and took on water while sailing the boat from Connecticut to Bermuda.

An experienced mariner, who began sailing as a young boy with his dad on Lake Arthur, Doerr said he has been racing sailboats for years and works as a naval architect in Newport, R.I.

“I’ve been doing this all my life. I have a good amount of offshore experience for a guy my age,” Doerr said “None of us had been through anything like this, but we’ve had our share.”

The skipper and the rest of crew also were veteran sailors, but the events that began unfolding soon after they left the dock were beyond anything they had experienced.

They set out from Stonington Harbor Nov. 3 to take the boat to Bermuda. The skipper runs charter trips on the Connecticut coast in the summer and then sails the boat to Bermuda for winter charters, Doerr said.

Before they set sail, the crew was concerned about some recent work done on the boat’s auxiliary engines, which are used in windy conditions and to maneuver the boat from docks. Hose clamps used to secure exhaust pipes “weren’t great,” he said.

Butler Township resident Zach Doerr was photographed in 2021 as part of a four-man crew that won a sailboat race at the Around Long Island Regatta. Submitted photo

“At some point the next morning, the port engine compartment was rapidly filling with water,” Doerr said.

Off the New Jersey coast, the crew checked the clamps and closed the valves that allow ocean water to cool the engines, but neither stopped the inflow of water. That led them to think a structural issue might be to blame, he said.

The leak was limited to the engine compartment so they kept sailing for 30 to 36 hours. The situation became grave around 2 a.m. Nov. 4 when the generator that powers the water pumps and radio failed and the wind tore the sail to shreds, he said.

Stranded about 260 nautical miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., the crew made a distress call to the U.S. Coast Guard base in Elizabeth City, N.C., but communication was lost during the call. Doerr said the crew believed they successfully relayed their position, but didn’t know if the danger they were in was understood before contact ended.

The sailboat after it took on water more than 200 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., in early November. Butler native Zach Doerr was among the crew forced to abandon the boat was wait for rescue in a life raft. U. S. Coast Guard photo

“Around 3 (a.m.) we launched the life raft and abandoned the vessel. After about two and a half hours a plane from the Coast Guard base found us. We got their attention with a strobe light as the sun was just starting to come up.

“Once the plane located us, they sent a helicopter, but we were out of their range. There happened to be an air craft carrier between the base and us. The helicopter refueled on the carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush,” Doerr said.

He said the crew initially tied the raft to the boat, but later cut the rope out of concern about the boat sinking and pulling the raft down with it.

Despite being cold and wet on a raging sea, the crew didn’t panic and focused on gathering drinking water, their wallets and passports and other essentials to take from the boat to the raft, he said.

While the storm tossed around the raft, the crew began to wonder, “what if the Coast Guard isn’t able to find us,” Doerr said.

It took the MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew three or four hours to reach the raft after being spotted by the plane. The helicopter didn’t leave the base until the plane located the raft, he said.

“The helicopter sent a rescue swimmer. He took us one-by-one into a basket, and we got lifted into the helicopter,” Doerr said. “It was still gusting, probably 40 knots of winds, and the waves had grown. Some of them were 15, 16, 17 feet.”

A missing sked is highlighted on the sailboat that struck an object and took on water causing Butler native Zach Doerr and group of other sailors to abandon ship while sailing from Connecticut to Bermuda in early November. Submitted photo

The crew was flown to the carrier, where their vital signs were checked before the helicopter took them to the base. Doerr said a friend from Virginia drove to the base and picked up the crew.

A couple weeks after the ordeal, he said he obtained photos of the Magic Bus taken by another boat somewhere in the vast ocean.

“It was later sighted still floating, but overturned,” Doerr said.

After the boat was removed from the ocean, a skeg, a finlike extension of the keel that protects against underwater impacts, was missing from the damaged port side hull, indicating the boat had struck a big fish, whale or floating debris, he said.

A passing boat took this photo of the sailboat a few weeks after it struck an object and took on water forcing the crew including Butler native Zach Doerr to abandon it and wait for rescue in a life raft. The sailboat overturned sometime after the mishap. Submitted photo

Noise from the wind, waves and normal boat sounds must have obscured the sound of the impact, he said.

He said he is not going to let the incident keep him off the water. He said he won his class in a race from Newport to Bermuda in 2022 and last year, and will enter the race again next summer.

“I’m not slowing down, but I am worried about my mom, who worries about me when I’m offshore,” Doerr said.