TJV: BT - First Battle Won, Just in Time...

The BT yacht towed into Terceira harbour at the Azores, nearly fully submerged. Image copyright Offshore Challenges Sailing Team.

by Julie Royer

The BT yacht is now inside the harbour in Terceira (Azores), all but submerged but safe from the Atlantic ocean waves that have been battering her since Friday. The BT Team technical crew let out a sigh of relief upon entering the port of Praia da Vitoria this morning. After more than 60 hours without any proper sleep, Charles Darbyshire, Rhys Mellor and Pierre-Emmanuel Hérrise now have to wait for the 60-knot winds to drop before craning the monohull out of the water.

A first major phase of the salvage operation has ended this morning when the tugboat finally reached the safety of a harbour after a very slow journey of over 115 miles. Having decided to speed things up somewhat yesterday afternoon despite the increased risk of breakage, the team had no choice but to do whatever they could to escape the oncoming gale. Soon before 18:00 GMT Monday, they were only 30 miles away from Terceira but knew they'd have to wait until daylight to actually enter the protection of the harbour.


The BT yacht towed into Terceira harbour at the Azores, nearly fully submerged. Image copyright Offshore Challenges Sailing Team.

As Charlie reported at 0800 GMT Tuesday morning: "We're inside the harbour so things are better but we're waiting for daylight and a container ship to leave so we can get alongside. BT is completely underwater when upright and when she lists over you can just see the top of the BT logo on her topsides. We've come this far, we're determined to finish the job but even now it's not a done deal."

Two hours later, Charlie called in: "We've dropped the tow and we're tied up nearly alongside, we're so close to capsizing on the dock it's frightening. We just need to get a little closer to the dock to secure her properly." Eventually the team did just that but with winds of 60 knots blowing on Terceira, the team is now waiting for the conditions to improve. The immediate plan is for the crane to get the boat level above the waterline so the men can get on deck and start pumping out the water, then when the winds recede it will become safe to lift the boat out of the water and on to the hard.


The BT yacht towed into Terceira harbour at the Azores, nearly fully submerged. Image copyright Offshore Challenges Sailing Team.

A first battle has been won, but in this case as in a sailing race, they have ‘not crossed the finish line’ just yet.

BT
Transat Jacques Vabre