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The two-day operation to salvage a private yacht, which sunk in St. Aubin’s Bay, has been abandoned after discovering it has already broken up on the seabed.
A statement from the Ports of Jersey released yesterday said, “…despite salvaging some items, including one complete engine, closer examination of the area indicated that the boat has now broken up on the sea bed, making it impossible to retrieve the entire vessel.”
“…the salvage vessel has returned to St Helier Harbour late (yesterday) with some of the items retrieved from the seabed. The salvage vessel and its team are due to leave the Island on Thursday afternoon.”
The 62ft motor yacht, which was on its way to Guernsey, collided with the Ruaudiére Buoy just before 18:00 on Friday 17 November – the same day the RNLI closed the St Helier station and withdrew the only all-weather lifeboat from the island.
A 20-man rescue team, including 14 divers, and a 30m heavy life barge towed over from Antwerp in Belgium, arrived in the island at the start of the week to recover the wreck.
It’s believed “unsettled conditions last weekend” may have contributed to the vessel breaking up.
The Ports of Jersey have said they have, “…remained in close contact with the environment department throughout this process and have worked with Oil Spill Response Limited in the UK to monitor potential environmental impact. The assumption now an engine has been located, is that fuel has been lost. The fact there have been no reports of surface oil, indicates that any oil has dispersed and broken down.”
Islanders are being asked to contact Jersey Coastguard on 447705 if they find any debris floating in the sea or washed up ashore.
Pictured: the buoy which was hit by the stricken yacht.
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