For three weeks, the blue yacht lay high, but not always dry, on the reef of St Brandon Atoll in the Indian Ocean. Team Vestas Wind ran aground there on 29 November.
The wreck has now been salvaged. It took skipper Chris Nicholson, equipment manager Neil Cox, helpers and local fishermen three days to do this. The keel fin was cut off with a welding machine, which saved 1.6 tonnes of weight (the 3.5 tonne bomb had sheared off when it ran aground). The mast was rigged down, another half a tonne. Then the yacht was righted. Apparently, the forward, largely intact section with bulkheads still provided sufficient buoyancy, and buoyancy bodies were lashed to the destroyed stern, stabilising the yacht and making it buoyant enough to be pulled across the lagoon at high tide. Only a nautical mile away, a Maersk container ship stopped and lifted the wrecked vessel on deck. It is to be brought to Malaysia via Mauritius and from there to Europe.
Whether the entire hull or parts of it can be reused will probably only be decided in the shipyard. However, the salvage of the hull in one piece appears to have increased the chances of the team getting back into the race. Cautious but hopeful, said Neil Cox:
"Just a week ago, the light at the end of the tunnel was getting smaller and smaller. But what we were able to get from the reef was substantial."
