Boat stolen from Halifax yacht club sinks into Hurricane Larry

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HALIFAX, NS – Graham Collins sails the furthest on his boat along the Nova Scotia coast. The Haligonian was therefore stunned when he received a call from the US Coast Guard on Friday, asking if he was navigating through the eye of Hurricane Larry.

Friday started out like any other day for Collins. The president and co-owner of Compass Distillers was working away when he got a phone call from his friend.

Officials at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Boston Rescue Coordination Center had attempted to reach Collins but were unable to reach him, so they began contacting those on his emergency contact list.

After Collins hung up the phone with his friend, the Coast Guard call arrived.


Secret Plans, Graham Collins’ boat, the last known location, was transmitted far off the coast of Nova Scotia and Cape Cod on Friday, September 10, 2021, before the personal tracking beacon battery died. – Google Maps

“They told me that my personal locator beacon had been activated and showed a position in the middle of Hurricane Larry“Collins said in an interview on Sunday.

“They asked me if that sounded reasonable and I said no, it doesn’t. He should be on the boat and the boat should be moored at the Armdale Yacht Club. ”

But Collins’ wife Jill came to a different conclusion when she went downstairs to check out the 10.6-meter sailboat named Secret Plans.

“She calls me from there and says, ‘Yes, there is no boat,’ with a lot of swearing, which is unusual for her,” he recalls.

After examining the mooring ball and bridles, Jill told her husband everything was in perfect condition, meaning the boat must have been untied, so Collins called the Coast Guard back to let them know that ” it is probably legitimate “.


Graham Collins' boat, Secret Plans, was reportedly stolen on Wednesday evening, September 8, 2021, from the Armdale Yacht Club in Halifax.  - Contributed
Graham Collins’ boat, Secret Plans, was reportedly stolen on Wednesday evening, September 8, 2021, from the Armdale Yacht Club in Halifax. – Contributed

Collins explained that the personal locator beacon must be activated manually by pulling on the antenna before holding two buttons at the same time to turn it on, so it was deliberately triggered.

The beacon was approximately 630 kilometers southeast of Halifax when it was activated.

Eventually, the Coast Guard stopped receiving a signal from the beacon because its battery was dead.

On Saturday morning, the coast guard set out in search of the sailboat but returned empty-handed. Later that day, one of the planes involved in the search spotted a flare, which matched the flares on Collins’ boat, but was unable to locate the ship.

Shortly after 10 a.m. on Sunday, the coast guard decided to suspend the search for the boat.


Graham Collins' boat, Secret Plans, was reportedly stolen from the Armdale Yacht Club on the night of Wednesday, September 8, 2021. - Contribution
Graham Collins’ boat, Secret Plans, was reportedly stolen from the Armdale Yacht Club on the night of Wednesday, September 8, 2021. – Contribution

“The conditions at the time of the search were pretty harsh,” boatswain Ryan Noel said on Sunday.

“The winds were 70 knots and the waves 40 to 50 feet, with visibility of less than a mile.”

Collins said that because his family only used the old racing boat for cruises near the coast, he did not have a life raft, but he was fully equipped with food and water, which would have allowed a person to spend at least one week at sea.

After hearing that the Coast Guard had suspended their search, Collins had very little to say about how he was feeling.

“The vibe I get is of not hoping for anything,” he said. “I would love to get the boat back, but something bad enough happened that they concluded it was better to be stopped than not to be saved.

Collins said he believed Karin Marley Simons from Antigua is the person who stole his boat and headed south.


Karin Marley Simons was one of two indicted men after the Quebec RCMP and the Canadian Coast Guard seized 556 kilograms of cocaine from a burning sailboat off the coast of Nova Scotia on August 29.  The next day, Simons escaped custody at Dartmouth General Hospital, where he had been taken for an assessment.  - RCMP document
Karin Marley Simons was one of two indicted men after the Quebec RCMP and the Canadian Coast Guard seized 556 kilograms of cocaine from a burning sailboat off the coast of Nova Scotia on August 29. The next day, Simons escaped from custody at Dartmouth General Hospital, where he had been taken for an assessment. – RCMP document

Simons was one of two men charged after the Quebec RCMP and the Canadian Coast Guard seized 556 kilograms of cocaine from a burning sailboat off the coast of Nova Scotia on August 29. The next day, Simons escaped from custody at Dartmouth General Hospital, where he had been taken for an assessment.

Simons holds a Royal Yachting Association Yachtmaster Certificate, which is a “highly respected qualification around the world, proving your experience and skills as a skipper,” according to his website.

Collins said the situation not only made him angry, but saddened him.

“I put a lot of heart and soul into rebuilding it, so removing it is painful,” he said. “There’s nothing I can really do, so it’s a feeling of helplessness. You don’t get resolution like you do if it lands on rocks on something. “

But at the end of the day, Collins said the boat is a material item.

“While I’m sad and angry that my boat is gone, I’m also sad that someone probably lost their life in the hurricane.”

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