At a ceremony today, Tuesday, February 22, Christopher Patterson and Patrick Rynne received US Sailing?s Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal for saving Christopher Pine during an Interscholastic Sailing Association team race in Manchester Harbor, MA last April. The two Massachussetts youths acted quickly and selflessly when Pine?s International 420 pitchpoled in a 30-knot puff and he became entangled in the boat?s rigging. Patterson dove into the 40-degree water when he realized the craft was beginning to turtle, and attempted to keep the boat from capsizing and taking Pine with it. Rynne also jumped in when he realized how serious the situation was, stripping off his life vest and flooding his drysuit so that he could submerge and disentangle Pine from the lines. It took Rynne eight different dives down to Pine to finally free him just before the boat sank. A failure in the boats flotation tanks evidently caused the sinking. High school sailing rules mandate that all sailors wear PFD's, but Rynne's quick and accurate assessment that he could not save Pine without shedding his own safety gear truly saved the day.