Yacht sinks during grounding recovery
A boat owner has learned ‘many lessons’ after his grounded yacht was sunk during a recovery operation on the west coast of Scotland.
Experienced sailor and awardwinning journalist Alex Renton says the sinking was the result of a ‘series of screw-ups that day, starting with my grounding her.’
Alex was sailing with two others and a pet dog on the 12m (39ft) yacht – an Ohlson 38 he had owned for 20 years – when he ran aground on a falling tide, 200m from James Watt Dock Marina entrance in Greenock.
Alex said: ‘We were off on a trip back to the boat’s permanent home, near Oban. We were doing just two knots when we struck the end of a reef: the guy on the foredeck didn’t even stumble. It was a beautiful, flat-calm day.’
The trio had never sailed out of that marina before; the yacht had come over in a truck from Port Edgar. Alex added: ‘I’ve since learned that three yachts have run aground there in the last two years.’
He alerted the coastguard on 24 August, and said there was no risk to life.’ Alex and crew quickly laid the yacht on its side and started getting every sheet of plywood, old oars and fenders underneath. Around 45 minutes later Helensburgh Lifeboat arrived, by which time the tide was too low for the yacht to be towed. The lifeboat volunteers assisted with shoring up the yacht with timber.
PBO reader Alex, who has sailed to the Canary Islands, Azores, Norway, Spain and around Britain, said that with his yacht lying nicely, ‘I thought everything was fine. That’s when it all went wrong.’ As the tide turned, water was found in the cabin sole, caused by a hole in the bow, underneath the heads.
Alex reported this. The lifeboat relaunched, bringing a small, petrol-fired water pump, which failed. Alex and marina staff said a bigger pump from the marina was needed, but the lifeboat crew decided to call the fire brigade.
Alex said: ‘Two fire engines eventually turned up. After much discussion, they said since we weren’t tied up they couldn’t pump us out, so they were going away.’ Alex hired a generator and pump, which worked, ‘but by now the gunwales were awash.’
While under tow, the yacht sank 100m from the hoist: ‘There was no structural failure, just a puncture.’
Alex said one of the hardest lessons he’s learned is to question at what point you take control. ‘The RNLI guys were kind and helpful. They said to me as the boat sank: “We feel your pain, but our job is saving lives, not boats.” I couldn’t help but think, yes, but if you’d gone away six hours ago and let us get on with it, it would probably have been fine. They had a defective pump, and the delays were disastrous. It’s already cost £10,000 just to lift her.
‘I have good insurance, but 24 hours under water does lots of damage. She may be written off.’
Find the RNLI account of events at https://po.st/sunkboat