Groupama 3 expected to enter harbour today

by Martin Balch on 23 Feb 2008 Martin Balch filed this update on the Groupama 3 situation earlier today:

Latest is the Clan McLeod was not allowed to bring the Groupama 3 in this evening and is now scheduled to come in around 10am in the morning – expected to take about 3 hours to transit the Lower Harbour and Victoria shipping channel to the Dunedin harbour wharfs. Currently standing off Taiaroa Heads awaiting clearance to enter in the morning.

Otago Harbour entrance is a narrow entrance with the deep water shipping channel taking up almost the entire width between the artificial mole which forces the tidal currents to naturally scour the harbour entrance, and the high and imposing Taiaroa Heads on the seaward side.

Today has been a very busy day in the port with preparations to receive the overturned trimaran, and 4 large ships leaving port in the late afternoon, just as the Clan McLeod finished the long slow tow from around 80 miles off the North Otago Coast. Two more large container ships and the tanker Torea need to leave port and the cruise ship Statendam berth before the unwieldy tow will be allowed to start the long tow up the narrow shipping channel. The tow should reach the Dunedin wharves around 1pm.

While the increasing northerly winds are just what the doctor ordered for the world famous albatross colony overlooking the final scenes of this maritime drama, it will be getting increasingly uncomfortable for the 9 crew members from the Groupama 3 and regular crew aboard the converted squid fishing boat, the Clan McLeod.

The Clan McLeods owners, Alan and Malcolm McLeod themselves have a rich and adventurous sea history behind them. While young teenagers, they accompanied their family from the family pig farm in Brockville, high above Dunedin city, overland in old converted World War II army trucks to the UK where they purchased an aging fishing boat the Heather George. They then successfully accomplished the long sea journey back to New Zealand. After fishing the boat locally for some time, the Heather George was sold and I believe was renamed the Cornishman before being wrecked on the North Island Coast. They subsequently repeated the trip bringing another old British trawler, the Neptune back home before buying more modern vessels for their fishing business.

The rescue has been a copy book example of good preparation. The 406 EPIRB alarm went to the French rescue authorities as the EPIRB was registered in France. The alert was quickly passed to the New Zealand rescue authorities, RCCNZ who mustered available boats, had search aircraft on standby and no less than 4 rescue helicopters dispatched. The rescue was greatly added by the preparation the race boat crew had made for just such a disaster. The yacht was equipped with rescue hatches in the main hull and the crew were able to prepare themselves well for the rescue. They had close at hand portable GPS and handheld communication equipment to help guide the rescuers to the wreck.

On the “Groupama cam” video on their website, (http://www.cammas-groupama.com/en/) one crew can be seen holding a handheld GPS in his hand while passing the latest position via handheld GPS to the rescue helicopters – in the background can be heard the calm voice of Helicopter’s Otago owner and chief pilot Graeme Gale acknowledging the message. Helicopter Otago’s two winch equipped BK 117 helicopters carrying members of the Dunedin Marine Search and Rescue specialist Water Rescue Squad winched 9 of the 10 members to safety while the Christchurch Rescue helicopter rescued the tenth crewman.

Meanwhile, Richard “Hannibal” Hayes from Te Anau stood by at Dunedin’s Taieri airfield with his Squirrel Helicopter in case further assistance was needed. Hayes had himself earlier in the morning amazingly piloted his Robinson R44 helicopter for 20 minutes across lake Te Anau to a successful high speed landing after having his tail rotor destroyed while flying at 4,500 feet. The rescue went like clockwork with the three helicopters returning in convoy to a welcome at Taieri airport just over two hours after the initial accident.