Gaff schooner sunk in Brixham

Gary Fox

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Just seen this, she is a ferro gaff schooner. I was one of the delivery crew who took her from Dover to Brixham a few years ago, her intended destination was Turf Lock Exmouth, she looked quite presentable and was capable of sailing back then.
I wonder what happened?
We were towed into BM with a broken injector pipe on the 6354. But the new owner seemed to have the resources to do what was needed. Very sad anyway. She is a heavy old 'beast', we tried to get her lifted at Sovereign Harbour for a scrub, and their 50 tonne hoist tripped out!
was Turf FC0B3932-FE3C-4AEF-B767-68D4CC44787B.jpegAD8AB62F-EA12-4929-965D-D26A340F09AF.jpeg
 
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Bajansailor

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I wonder if somebody did buy her for Current Price: £113.11 as mentioned in the advert?

I wonder what 'went wrong' to cause her to sink?
Maybe failure of a through hull fitting?
Have you had a lot of rain recently? Although if she filled up gradually with rain, then surely this would have been noticed?

If she had at least a couple of watertight bulkheads then they might have helped to keep her afloat a bit longer until help arrived.

Re insurance, it is very difficult to get insurance for even a well found ferro boat, never mind one that is rather tatty.
 

Gary Fox

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I wonder if somebody did buy her for Current Price: £113.11 as mentioned in the advert?

I wonder what 'went wrong' to cause her to sink?
Maybe failure of a through hull fitting?
Have you had a lot of rain recently? Although if she filled up gradually with rain, then surely this would have been noticed?

If she had at least a couple of watertight bulkheads then they might have helped to keep her afloat a bit longer until help arrived.

Re insurance, it is very difficult to get insurance for even a well found ferro boat, never mind one that is rather tatty.
Zero meaningful bulkheads, and I had constant issues keeping the neglected machinery working. Probly a through-hull;
at least we can be sure it wasn't an insurance job :)
Although joking aside, it will cost a lot to raise and destroy her, who pays? Just out of curiosity.
 

pvb

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Looks like the harbour authority was selling the boat to offset unpaid mooring fees. I wonder whether it sold? The auction notice doesn't appear to have a closing date. It could be that the harbour authority will end up paying the cost of removing the wreck.
 

trevbouy

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If you want to see the masts at least, here is a live link to a webcam. It does a stop start tour of the harbour but dwells long enough to see it clearly. There's 3 web cameras in Brixham
Seems either the harbourmaster and others were 'inspecting' it around 9am today or just surveyers. In a boat with orange hi viz and lifejackets.

Brixham Harbour Cameras
 
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