Groupama 3 reported recovered and back in NZ today
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World on 21 Feb 2008
Groupama 3 has been the subject of an intense salvage operation SW
News sources in New Zealand are reporting that the giant French multihull, Groupama 3, as being recovered and is under tow back to New Zealand.
The reports say that she is due to arrive sometime this morning, under tow from the Clan MacLeod.
Groupama 3 capsized 80nm off the coast of Dunedin early Monday afternoon, NZT.
The Clan MacLeod was engaged by the Groupama 3 crew on Tuesday, leaving at 2000hrs on Tuesday night arriving at the upturned hull and debris on Wednesday morning. At that stage it was expected that the trimaran would have drifted north and out to sea to be 120 nm from the New Zealand coast.
The plan was to retrieve the broken mast on board the Clan Macleod, and tow the two pieces of hull structure.
Fortunately conditions in the area were perfect for the salvage attempt, and from television footage it would have been expected that the operation would proceed very quickly, if it was going to be possible.
It would seem that is exactly what has happened.
Next task will be to find a way of shipping the damaged multihull back to France, where it is intended to effect repairs and make another attempt of the Jules Verne Trophy.
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