[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by asailsman

Conchwood and Capt Tom, thanks for the great pics and updates. Can you enlighten us as to how far they move Legacy at a time, and how far she has to go to refloat? Details are interesting.

Here's a photo from Oct 11 courtesy of conchwood. Progress seems slow, but they are continuing the efforts.
Asailsman, it looks as though they have pulled her approximately 400 feet, based on the positioning of the yellow floats behind her (not noticable in this photo) and the placement of stakes along the path.
Conchwood will get back out when he can. I will make a trip back out in Nov, possibly a fly-over to better show progress.

[VTXrider]

CaptTom, I'm confused in your article it says they expect to take 3 weeks. What did they expect to finish in three week? Surley not the entire salvage, I say this because my friend on the salvage crew (his father and uncle own the salvage company) said he would be down there close to a year and long if you include towing it to where it will be loaded on a ship to go to Italy.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by VTXrider

CaptTom, I'm confused in your article it says they expect to take 3 weeks. What did they expect to finish in three week? Surley not the entire salvage, I say this because my friend on the salvage crew (his father and uncle own the salvage company) said he would be down there close to a year and long if you include towing it to where it will be loaded on a ship to go to Italy.

VTX,
First, welcome to YF.
The 3-week time frame came from the owner of the company when I met him at the yacht in early September. He sounded confident that his process would get Legacy out of there fairly quickly. Now, I was not going to judge him, since I am not a salvor and don't know all that goes into an operation like this one. But I did have my reservations, being that Legacy needs to go about a mile before getting off the flats.
Of course, there could also be many factors in play here that have not allowed a more timely recovery, such as weather, pumping ability, sand consistency, etc. I do want and need to report accurate information (as accurate as it may be at the moment I get it). And I would be eager to meet with the salvage team and/or the owner to get a more current status to the operation. I do plan on heading back down there this month for an update. Thanks

PS Here is a photos from Oct 27. By our estimates we think Legacy has been pulled approximately 1,000 ft so far.

[Loren Schweizer]

Thanks for the continuing updates, Tom.
Having been witness to numerous groundings (only a few of which that I was responsible for or would admit to), I agree with your reservations regarding effort & time required, especially in the case of "Legacy".

Let's see... one NM = 6080 FT...if I take off my shoes & socks, that comes to fifteen more weeks, or, roughly, around the time of the MIA Boat Show will we see "Legacy" bobbing at anchor.

I wouldn't want to bet on it, though.

[CaptTom]

Here are a few photos taken during a flyover on Nov 24. As you'll see, progress continues but still a way to go. Sand plume is "interesting". May need better booms to contain it. Willl post more in a few days.

[CaptTom]

Here's a few more from our flyover...

[brian eiland]

It has been awhile since I last read about this salvage operation, but I seem to remember that their latest method involved using some high-pressure jetting technics to create the channel to the deeper water.

I once worked for a company based out of Singapore, BaySea Cable Systems, that was involved in lots of subsea burial of gas pipelines and fiber-optic cable thruout SE Asia. We concentrated on the shallow water 'beach approaches', where it was deemed necessary to insure a good trench was available to bury those items and protect them from damage particularly by fishermen.

We were also tasked to remove some clay like sediment from a power plant water intake facility with our special water jetting equipment.

Since our jetting equipment was proprietary knowledge I will not mention those details unless, or until, I receive the okay from the owner of the company. I did bring this subject thread to their attention in case they decided to contribute.

Brian

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by brian eiland

Since our jetting equipment was proprietary knowledge I will not mention those details unless, or until, I receive the okay from the owner of the company. I did bring this subject thread to their attention in case they decided to contribute.

Brian

Brian,
That's pretty much my feeling also. I did see the equipment they are using and was told about it also, but don't need to discuss it since it may be proprietary, but also the focus of my postings is on the recovery of the yacht, not the equipment in detail. I may at some time get more into it, but that will be later, once Legacy is freed.
As an update, we were able to get the gps cooridinates of where Legacy was as of end of December. Calculating the distance from her starting point, she has been pulled approximately 1,800 feet, but still has that much, most likely more, to go. The water stays a bit shallow for a long distance. The utility boat that is doing the pulling was in about 9 feet when measured.

[K1W1]

Hi,

It's probably a little late for new ideas here but......

I wonder if anyone has ever looked at digging a hole in front of her, sinking a barge big enough to carry the boat and then drag Legacy over the barge and pump the barge out.

I admit it would be a big hole in one place but this would surely reduce the damage being done to a wider area.

[wes69hunt]

k1w1--not a bad idea, but the barge loaded with legacy would have to float in 2-3 feet of water to bring her out. that would be a tall order. keep them ideas a-comin'!

[key2manly]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Here's a few more from our flyover...

Hi there. I'm new to this forum and very impressed & saddened by the stories & pic's posted here. Saddened & impressed? Well I was on the Legacy in the 90's as Engineer and did some time as Capt. So the reason for the mixed emotions, brilliant comments & pic's. However, I can't help but to be sad to see her like this!

I do have a lot of information on her eg: Main mast height above deck 138.7' above deck. Total sail area 10,657 ft2. Displaement 387T. Now I'll clarify the hull, the draft is 11.1' with the keel up. If you can picture those classic lines of the hull continuing down to 11.1' then stopping, the bottom of the hull is flat! There is a center board keel when down has a draft of 25.3'.

I read the Captain's comments about the anchors letting go. I'm not surprised! The anchors are very pretty s/s stockless, they look great. I've been in bad weather & encountered winds to around 60k with both anchors out. The anchors set in good ground in a safe harbor & she dragged anchor big time. From then on in bad weather We would set one or more of 3 Fortress anchors (danforth)which was stored in the lazzerette (behind the engine room). I have had one Fortress anchor out with the 2 vessels anchors and had 100% of the load on the fortress near horizontal cable with the other 2 near vertical. Back then it was idetified that that issues with the vessels anchoring systems.

Well that's enough for now. I'm more than happy to disscuss any issue about "Legacy". Due to my emmense respect for him, I will not talk about Pete (the owner).


key2manly

[CaptTom]

Happy to report that the tattered and recently missing US flag on the bow of Legacy has been replaced and proudly flying in the Key West breeze. How do I know this, well, went out for an update on the recovery progress recently. Can't give all the details yet, but suffice it to say that she has made significant progress over the past several months and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Many other bits of info will be coming soon. How do I know this? Got it from "the man" himself.
Stay tuned...

[sailusvi]

You are the man Tom, thanks

[CaptainSilva]

I came across this article while surfing the web when I should have been working...

Legacy Article

[dalpilot]

These pictures were taken on a fly-by 2/15/2008, she has moved quite a ways, but as you can see she still has a long way to go.