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http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,4-2001584755,00.html
Landmark yacht is abandoned in the Atlantic
BY EDWARD GORMAN, SAILING CORRESPONDENT
ONE of the most important solo racing yachts built in Britain in recent years has been abandoned in the mid-Atlantic and there are fears that it may eventually be lost.
The Adrian Thompsondesigned Open 50, Aqua Quorum, was commissioned by Pete Goss for the 1996-97 Vendée Globe single-handed round-the-world race. It completed and Goss made his name, rescuing a French sailor whose boat was sinking.
Since then, Aqua Quorum has raced under the Kingfisher colours in the Route du Rhum when Ellen MacArthur won her class; as Pindar in last year’s single-handed transatlantic race when Emma Richards won her class; and in the 1999-2000 Vendée Globe when it was skippered by Patrice Carpentier. Most recently, Alex Bennett won his class sailing with Paul Larsen in the Transat Jacques Vabre when the boat was named One Dream-One Mission.
Bennett, who owns the boat, was delivering it back to Britain from Brazil single-handedly when the two rams that secure the swing keel broke. The 25-year-old from Brighton decided to abandon the boat and was picked up by a passing German container ship. He is due to arrive in Port of Spain tomorrow, from where he will fly home.
Shane Dickson, Bennett’s business partner, said that satellite signals had now been lost. The yacht has several watertight bulkheads and is unlikely to sink. However, it may gradually break up and disappear.
Dickson said that Bennett, who was part of Goss’s Team Philips crew that had to abandon that boat almost exactly 12 months ago, was coming to terms with the probable loss. “Alex has been through a fairly rough ride over the last few days, but he is calming down and reconciling himself to the loss of what he calls his beloved little boat,” he said.
Obi-Wan
Landmark yacht is abandoned in the Atlantic
BY EDWARD GORMAN, SAILING CORRESPONDENT
ONE of the most important solo racing yachts built in Britain in recent years has been abandoned in the mid-Atlantic and there are fears that it may eventually be lost.
The Adrian Thompsondesigned Open 50, Aqua Quorum, was commissioned by Pete Goss for the 1996-97 Vendée Globe single-handed round-the-world race. It completed and Goss made his name, rescuing a French sailor whose boat was sinking.
Since then, Aqua Quorum has raced under the Kingfisher colours in the Route du Rhum when Ellen MacArthur won her class; as Pindar in last year’s single-handed transatlantic race when Emma Richards won her class; and in the 1999-2000 Vendée Globe when it was skippered by Patrice Carpentier. Most recently, Alex Bennett won his class sailing with Paul Larsen in the Transat Jacques Vabre when the boat was named One Dream-One Mission.
Bennett, who owns the boat, was delivering it back to Britain from Brazil single-handedly when the two rams that secure the swing keel broke. The 25-year-old from Brighton decided to abandon the boat and was picked up by a passing German container ship. He is due to arrive in Port of Spain tomorrow, from where he will fly home.
Shane Dickson, Bennett’s business partner, said that satellite signals had now been lost. The yacht has several watertight bulkheads and is unlikely to sink. However, it may gradually break up and disappear.
Dickson said that Bennett, who was part of Goss’s Team Philips crew that had to abandon that boat almost exactly 12 months ago, was coming to terms with the probable loss. “Alex has been through a fairly rough ride over the last few days, but he is calming down and reconciling himself to the loss of what he calls his beloved little boat,” he said.
Obi-Wan
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