BVI Charter Sailboat Sinks in a Squall

[sailvi767]

I spoke with someone on a cat about 250 yards from the boat that sank. They were hit with a 50 MPH plus gust that blew out their jib. The accident boat was knocked flat. They watched the entire sinking. It appeared the sails scooped a lot of water and were not released. The boat sank in about 1 minute. The boat was re floated about a year later. It had no real damage and what is amazing is that they were able to restart the engine after towing the boat over to Peter and draining the oil ect... They motored it over to Tortola and I think it was cleaned up and sold after a overhaul. Sounds like a long term electrical nightmare unless every wire was replaced.

[Hud3]

Thanks, sailvi767. I was wondering if someone had recovered the boat. I think I recall that it was on the bottom in about 100' of water.

[Zanshin]

I talked with the guy at Moorings who had the boat raised - the first surprising thing in the story was that at first nobody could even find the boat despite the relatively shallow waters and known location. Once located, it was determined that the main hatch was indeed open. And I, too, was told that after salvaging the boat and getting her prepped that the Yanmar diesel fired right up!
The boat was to be gutted to the hull and then refitted since not only the electrics but every bit of wood needs to be replaced.