A big-game sportfishing boat from Newport Beach was thrown into the air Wednesday when it was struck forcefully by a whale powering up from the depths off Cabo San Lucas, the boat’s owners reported Thursday.

None of the three crewmembers aboard were injured, but the boat, a 60-foot, 40-ton yacht called “Badger,” took extensive damage.

The whale might have been a gray whale, but neither the animal’s species nor its injuries were known, said Jason Jepson, spokesman for Team Bad Company, a professional big-game sportfishing group and operators of the boat.

“We had just gotten the boat to 22 knots,” crew member Steve Lassley wrote in a blog post about the accident. “Two people on the bridge looking for Whales. When the bow was thrown straight up into the air. 40 tons of Whale colliding with 40 tons of boat at 90 degree angles.”

 ”As the whale came up, the boat struck the whale,” Jepson said. Crew member Pete Groesbeck was standing in the boat’s salon, and Steve Lassley was seated elsewhere in the boat. A third member of the crew, not immediately identified by Jepson, was on the lookout for whales.

“It shot Pete Groesbeck in the salon about four feet,” Jepson said. “The boat was almost sunk. Everyone was OK — that’s the most important thing.”

They were able to return the boat to shore for repairs.

 Whales had been seen in the area, including some that were breaching — when a whale swims hard for the surface and propels its body out of the water before crashing back down.

The boat’s speed of 22 knots equaled about 26 mph, Jepson said.

Although that is a fairly fast speed, Jepson said it was appropriate for the conditions, and there was no way to detect a whale coming up fast from the bottom to breach.

“It was completely within not only fishing guidelines but Coast Guard guidelines for whales in the area,” he said. “Some things are out of your control. You can’t see them no matter what speed you’re going.”

Because the accident happened in Mexican waters, Jepson said he did not think there was a requirement to report it to U.S. authorities. The boat is fully insured, he said.

Team Bad Company, a marlin-fishing team, competes for prize money around the world. The three crew members were gathering bait fish in preparation for a fishing trip with owner Anthony Hsieh, of Newport Beach, who was traveling to Mexico to meet them.

Hsieh was at the scene Thursday, assessing damage, Jepson said. The team does not yet have a cost estimate for the damage, he said.

Here is an excerpt from a blog post on the incident by Steve Lassley, one of the three men aboard the boat when it was struck about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday:

Badger hit by a whale in Cabo. Tough day for the team.

 We had just finished catching all the bait for Anthony’s trip and caught several Marlin. It was 11:30 am.

We had seen Whales everywhere all morning. Many breaching. One had jumped two days prior and hit a boat upon falling back into the water. We had just gotten the boat to 22 knots. 2 people on the bridge looking for Whales. When the bow was thrown straight up into the air. 40 tons of Whale colliding with 40 tons of boat at 90 degree angles.

You can see the point of impact in the pix. After careful examination of the damage , the only conclusion is the Whale was just about to breach. It struck with such force that Pete was thrown several feet in the salon into the aft bulkhead. If I had not been with my back against my chair I would have been thrown from the bridge.

I have seen several boats that have hit Whales in the past. Usually, you ride up on the back much as a boat going up on a sandbar, roll down the side and do strut, prop and rudder damage. None of this happened. All of the damage was sustained forward , at a hard angle to the chine. I can’t begin to explain the violence of the collision. If I had to guess I would say the Whale was going to jump quartering towards us, almost straight up. You can see this in the pics. The fiberglass that is peeled back is from the hydraulic force of the water peeling it loose as we traveled home. The picture of the Port side shows the force of impact knocking the tube loose and punching a hole in the opposite side.( Note the fiberglass strands sticking out)

We were very fortunate to save the boat and not wind up in the water. It wouldn’t have been a bad thing as several boats were around us. I would have lost 30 years of unreplaceable notes and all our personal belongings though.

Unbelievable amount of fiberglass forward in this boat. I can’t belive how many laminations were in the stem. I don’t know how the boat survived the impact.

Last thing. We spent about a half hour today helping a guy with a broken boat. Lending him tools, talking him through his problem until he was running. I spent my weekend on the phone helping someone else out that was having all kinds of boat issues and was stranded in San Carlos. Talked him through all his issues. It took several hours.I saw the guy we helped today, he was pulling his boat out of the water as ours was coming out. He looked at me shakes his head and says” All those people on the bank today, your the only one that came on the radio when I needed help. Of all the people for this to happen to, sometimes there just is not any justice”

I am sick right now. Gonna try to thing about something else for a few minutes.

Steve

Read entire blog post from boat captain, with images of boat damage.

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