A 20-man salvage team, including 14 divers, a salvage master, a barge master and a dive master arrived in the Island on Sunday evening and are now co-ordinating the operation alongside officers from the Marine Services Team at Jersey Harbours.
A 33-metre tug with a 30-metre heavy lift barge in tow left the Belgian port city of Antwerp on Saturday and was expected to arrive at the Harbour on Monday.
The yacht, which sank in St Aubin’s Bay after striking the Ruaudiere Buoy and was later moved to deeper water off St Brelade’s Bay, still has about 2,000 litres of diesel in its tank.
Ports of Jersey have previously said that the greatest risk of a fuel leak is during the lifting of the vessel.
In a statement, Ports said the operation was due to begin on Tuesday, when the salvage vessels were expected to drop anchor at the scene. The raising of the yacht is due to start on Wednesday. It is understood the operation is expected to take between one and two days. ‘This is a complex and delicate operation, involving two teams of divers and major assets brought into the Island to assist with the recovery process. This includes a 200-tonne crane and decompression chamber on board the lift barge,’ said Ports.
‘For the duration of the operation a maritime exclusion zone will be in force, with the western approaches to all commercial and leisure traffic closed as from 8 am on Tuesday. Similarly, a drone exclusion zone will also be in place as from Tuesday morning,’ they added.
Two people were rescued by firefighters on board the service’s inshore rescue boat after the vessel went down within minutes of striking the buoy on the evening of Friday 17 November. The accident occurred just hours after the RNLI closed the St Helier lifeboat station and took the George Sullivan all-weather lifeboat to Poole following a long-running dispute with the local crew.
