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When a yacht broke free from its mooring off Tindalls Bay in strong winds recently and washed up on the beach, a combination of maritime experience, pluck and community support saw it safely back in deeper waters the following day.
It was quite an adventure for a boat that has seen many in its lifetime. Designed by Michel Dufour and built in France in the late 1960s, the Arpege 29 Maistral has some 100,000 nautical miles under her belt, or around five circumnavigations of the globe. She has a plaque on her bow marking the fact she rounded Cape Horn in 1994.
Maistral’s owner was out of town when she ended up on the sand on February 3. However, Kevin Hill of Manly, who sold the seasoned offshore yacht to its current owner, stepped up, roping in a knowledgeable mate long in the maritime industry, Sean Patterson.
“We knew we’d have a short amount of time to get it back into the water,” Kevin said. “A concern was the longer they sit there, the more they bed in, and the tides were dropping each day.”
While they set up a series of anchors on Saturday a local man – also named Kevin – spent the afternoon digging a trench to facilitate the keel’s eventual journey back into the water.
On Sunday, when the winds had calmed down a little, a long halyard was attached from the top of Maistral’s mast to the back of a friend’s small motorboat.
“Sean knows everything there is to know about the industry,” Kevin said. “He judged that Maistral was tough enough to grab her by the top of the mast and flip her over from one side to the other. She’s an offshore boat, she can handle being knocked over flat without any water getting in.”
So Sean flipped her over, then proceeded to make his way away from the beach. The little fizz boat was pointing up into the air – zigzagging back and forth out of the bay.
“Each time he zigged and zagged it created force that slowly, slowly started to make headway with Maistral. He basically pulled her off the beach – it was like watching someone being picked up and dragged by the scruff of the neck and back into the water.”
“Then we borrowed a mooring and tied her up. She’s there, she’s happy.”
Kevin said he had kept the yacht’s owner apprised throughout. “He was very appreciative, very thankful. It’s hard to be a boatowner on a mooring and not be in town. I told him when I sold him the boat I’d help him if he ever needed it.”
In addition to the local who had singlehandedly dug the trench, others in the community also wanted to help.
“We got all sorts of offers from people coming down. Do we need a digger? Do we need an extra mooring? That’s always the way. No-one likes to see a boat up on the sand, everyone likes the idea that it can be saved.”
The same winds threatened to send another boat moored off Tindalls, an old concrete vessel, to the bottom, Kev said.
“She was taking on excessive water and sinking. The Harbourmaster came and pumped it out, while we got Maistral off.”
Adding to the weekend’s drama, at one stage a boulder which Kevin described as the size of two Minis on top of each other, rolled down the cliff.
“Fortunately, no-one was hurt,” he said. “And by the end of the weekend it was all back to normal.”
