Most members will be aware of the recent dismasting of Pip Hare’s Vendee Globe IMOCA yacht 700 Nautical miles south of Melbourne. She setup a jury rig and limped into Melbourne shortly after Christmas. The decision was then made to put the yacht on a ship and send back to the UK where a new mast will be fitted.
To put the yacht onto a ship, first the rather large foils and 4.5m keel had to be removed and this was done overnight with assistance from RBYC and ORCV members. RBYC provided our large rhib to assist in ferrying and berthing at each end of the journey. With the extra large foils out either side of the boat, berthing is problematic as the hull cannot be closer than two metres from the dock. And with the foils costing $A1.5 million for the pair, great care has to be taken.
The yacht was moved from Docklands down to Webb Dock where a pair of containers had been setup and monster bean bags placed on top. The yacht was craned out, lowered gently onto the bean bags and then the hard work of removing the foils and keel began. The boat was then lowered back into the water and motored back to Docklands, sans keel, making steerage and especially berthing rather difficult with RBYC’s rhib assisting. And all of this had to be done after hours, so commencing at 4pm on Monday and Medallia finally berthed back at Docklands at 5am this morning – a big night.
