Wednesday, February 20 -- News sources in New Zealand are reporting that
the giant French multihull, Groupama 3, has being recovered and is under
tow back to New Zealand. The reports say that she is due to arrive
sometime this morning, under tow from the Clan MacLeod. Groupama 3
capsized 80nm off the coast of Dunedin early Monday afternoon, NZT.
The Clan MacLeod was engaged by the Groupama 3 crew on Tuesday, leaving
at 20:00hrs on Tuesday night arriving at the upturned hull and debris on
Wednesday morning. At that stage it was expected that the trimaran would
have drifted north and out to sea to be 120 nm from the New Zealand
coast. The plan was to retrieve the broken mast on board the Clan
Macleod, and tow the two pieces of hull structure.
Fortunately conditions in the area were perfect for the salvage attempt,
and from television footage it would have been expected that the
operation would proceed very quickly, if it was going to be possible. It
would seem that is exactly what has happened. Next task will be to find
a way of shipping the damaged multihull back to France, where it is
intended to effect repairs and make another attempt of the Jules Verne
Trophy. Sail-World website,
http://www.sail-world.com/uk/index.cfm?nid=42003&rid=3